Dae Bong Sunim was born in 1950 in Philadelphia, USA. He studied psychology in University, and later worked for five years as a psychological counselor in a hospital and as a welder in a Naval shipyard.

He first met Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1977 at a lecture at the New Haven Zen Center. That time someone asked the Master, “What is crazy and what is not crazy?” The Zen Master replied “If you are very attached to something, you are very crazy. If you are a little attached to something, you are a little crazy. If you are not attached to anything, you are not crazy.”

Dae Bong SN thought that answer was better than anything he had learned in University or while working, and realized he had found his teacher. After that he began living and practicing full time with Zen Master Seung Sahn at different Zen Centers around the world.

Dae Bong SN has been the abbot of Zen Centers in Paris, France and Berkeley and Cambridge in America. He has practiced and taught in America, Europe and Asia, and since 1999 has been the resident Zen Master of Gye Ryong San International Zen Center- Mu Sang Sa in Korea. He became a monk in 1984. He received Inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1992 and Dharma Transmission in 1999.