Wu Bong

Who is Wu Bong?

Wu Bong, born Jacob Perl, was a Soen Sa Nim in the Kwan Um School of Zen. Perl was the head teacher of the European Kwan Um School of Zen. As the first student of Dae Soen Sa Nim in the United States, he had previously practiced Zen Buddhism in the Sōtō tradition at the San Francisco Zen Center under Shunryu Suzuki. He also spent one year studying Tibetan Buddhism at the Tibetan Nyingmapa Meditation Center in Berkeley, California under Tarthang Tulku. Born in Poland, he and Dae Soen Sa Nim 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 Dae Soen Sa Nim, making him an independent Zen master. Perl's wife, Grazyna Perl, is also a Zen master in the Kwan Um School of Zen. The pair moved to Paris, France in 1995 and established the Paris Zen Center. In 2009 Zen Master Wu Bong became a monk. He died while leading a zen retreat in Paris on April 17, 2013.