Tuesday, April 2, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Zen, the ancient Eastern practice of self-discipline and meditation to achieve spiritual enlightenment, is finding a place in Western tradition.
"Within the United States, there is a real boomlet of interest in any spiritual tradition that has a training side," said Bob Moore, a master dharma teacher who came to Las Vegas recently to lead a retreat for the Mojave Desert Zen Center.
"The meditative traditions have a pragmatic appeal. It is concrete methodology to get in touch with our original and true nature."
During the more than 30 years he has been seriously involved in Zen practice, Moore has "seen groups grow from four or five to 30 or 40 people."
His teacher is Seung Sahn, the first Korean Zen master to come West (in 1972) and the founder of the Korean Kwan Um School of Zen. The school consists of more than 100 temples throughout the United States and the world.
"Zen is the historical conjunction of two traditions -- the meditative practices of India and the Chinese native folk religion of Taoism," Moore said.
Within 100 years after the tradition began in China, about 500 A.D., it was established in mountain monastaries in Korea.
That makes the Korean approach to Zen closer to the Chinese models in terms of teaching and structure of monastaries than to Japanese Zen, which wasn't prominent until 1000, Moore said.
Moore founded the New Haven Zen Center in Connecticut and moved to California in 1979 to become a professor of music at University of Southern California.
He is also the guiding teacher for six West Coast Zen centers of the Korean Kwan Um School.
One of them is the Mojave Desert Zen Center at 919 E. Charleston Blvd. It holds weekly practice meetings from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 9:15-11 a.m. Sundays. Call 293-4222 for more information.
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