Jung Myung Sa

Buddhist Temple

Good Buddhism with Good People for a Better World

Seon Yoga

We offer Seon Yoga which emphasizes the principles of Buddhist meditation to the bodily practice of yoga.

Class Information

  • Time:
    • Every Wednesday,  7pm to 8:30pm.
    • Every Saturday, 11am to 12:30pm.
    • Every Sunday, 3pm to 4:30pm
  • Fee: None
  • Teacher: Doshin Sumin
    • The Seon Yoga class is open to anyone unless they have a serious medical condition. 
    • Please bring your mat and towel, and be seated five minutes before the class. 
    • If you have questions, contact: jungmyugnsa@gmail.com or  1-718-358-9545

What is Seon Yoga? 

Simply, Seon Yoga is a combination of Buddhist meditation and yoga, making yoga practice more spiritual, and Buddhist meditation more approachable.

Yoga = Asana (posture)?

As many people already know, yoga is an ancient old spiritual practice that has its origin in India. As a generic term for a system of spiritual practice, yoga has various meanings and components including asana (posture). In the West, yoga has become popular since it brings about various beneficial results for practitioners. 

Interestingly, yoga has been regarded by most people as a kind of physical exercise, solely emphasizing the physical practice of asana (posture). However, Asana is just one component of yoga that is also an intermediary means for meditation practice.

Yoga can be practiced as a physical exercise alone. Yet, spiritual and meditative aspects of yoga can bring about even more benefits, such as self-knowledge of mind and body. For this reason, we offer Seon (禪) yoga which highlights the approach of Buddhist meditation.

禪 = Seon (Korean), Zen (Japanese), Chan (Chinese)

There are so many different names, approaches, and methods of Buddhist meditation. Seon (禪:Zen) or Cham-Seon(參禪) is a generic term for a kind of meditation practice in East Asia Buddhism, including Korea, China, and Japan.

Nonetheless, the principles of all meditation methods are the same and identical: 1) Developments of concentration and 2) seeing/understanding through mindfulness.

Mindfulness  – Concentration  – Understanding

In each Seon Yoga class, participants are first asked to be mindful of their breathing while doing each yoga asana (posture). This mindfulness of breathing will lead to concentration on breathing. Next, they are asked to closely see and rightly observe their body, and then further observe and understand their feelings in their body, and finally their minds. Accordingly, participants can better understand how their mind and body work together.  As a result Soon Yoga helps people better lead their daily living.

Why Seon禪?

As a Korean Buddhist temple in New York, we are proud of the long history of Korean Buddhism, and Seon Yoga has been a practice that many Korean Buddhist monks have done during long hours of seating meditation in retreats.

We believe that Seon Yoga can benefit many people not only for maintaining their body, but also nourishing their mind. This is all possible through the self-knowledge that is developed by the foundation of Buddhist mediation.

We gladly invite you to join our Seon Yoga class.  

Feel free to contact if you have any question: jungmyungsa@gmail.com

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