Religion Zen Based in Paris Zen Center Titles Zen master Spouse Grazyna Perl School Kwan Um School of Zen Name Wubong Wubong | Nationality American Died April 17, 2013, France Dharma names Universal Peak Website zen.kwanumeurope.org/ Predecessor Seungsahn | |
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Born June 22, 1950
Poland ( 1950-06-22 ) | ||
Wu Bong, born Jacob Perl, was a Zen master in the Kwan Um School of Zen. Perl was the head teacher of the European Kwan Um School of Zen. The first student of Seungsahn in the United States, he had previously practiced Zen in the Sōtō tradition at the San Francisco Zen Center under Shunryū Suzuki. He also spent one year studying the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism at the Tibetan Nyingmapa Meditation Center in Berkeley, California under Tarthang Tulku.
Born in Poland, he and Seungsahn established the first Zen center ever to exist in his home country in 1978. In 1983 Perl was made a Ji Do Poep Sa Nim in the Kwan Um School—granting him some teaching responsibilities—and in 1993 he received dharma transmission from Seungsahn, making him an independent Zen master. Perl's wife, Grazyna Perl (Bonyo), is also a Zen master in the Kwan Um School of Zen. The pair moved to Paris in 1995 and established the Paris Zen Center.
In 2009, Wubong became a bhikṣu. He died while leading a zen retreat in Paris on April 17, 2013.
