Dharma Teachers
Dharma Teachers
Do Tzong
Yonym Bang was born in 1975 in Daejon, South Korea.
After emigrating to Germany, she started practicing with the Kwan Um School of Zen’s Munich Zen group in 2007, and with the guidance of Hyon Gak Sunim since 2009.
In 2016 she received the Dharma name Do Tzong from Zen Master Dae Bong at Musangsa Temple.
She is a cybersecurity expert and serves as the Head Dharma teacher of the Zen Center Regensburg.
She vows to attend Kyol Che at Musangsa every year.
Yo Rae
Born in Chile, I began my journey in the creative arts by studying Multimedia Communications and working professionally as a VFX artist. In my youth, I was also the founder and lead member of a metal band that gained significant recognition across Latin America. The band released three albums and toured extensively before I made the life-changing decision to leave it behind and move to a retreat center on the Chilean coast.
At the retreat center, I encountered Zen practice and discovered a new path—one rooted in silence, service, and inner discipline. There, I also began learning the art of cooking, preparing meals as part of the community rhythm.
My first Zen teacher was Claude Anshin Thomas, a Vietnam veteran and former close disciple of Thich Nhat Hanh, later ordained in the Japanese Sōtō Zen tradition by Bernie Glassman. I then trained with Jikusan, a Chilean teacher who lived for over 30 years in Bukkokuji Temple, Japan. Under his guidance, I studied the role of the tenzo—the head cook—as a central expression of Zen practice. In 2013, I was ordained as a Sōtō Zen monk by Jikusan.
In 2016, I moved to Austria with my wife and settled in Graz, where I work as a chef at the renowned vegetarian restaurant Mangolds. In 2019, I met my current teacher, Hyon Gak Sunim, with whom I lived and practiced for a year. Under his guidance, I received the Ten Precepts of a Dharma Teacher in the tradition of Zen Master Seung Sahn Sunim.
Hong Ye (Kåei)
Hong Ye ( Trond Jostein Kåei Pettersen) was born in Stavanger Norway and is the father of 3 adult boys and married to Jane Merete. He is working as a software engineer and has a passion for landscape photography and outdoor life. Trond first encountered ZEN through martial arts (Shotokan karate ) at the age of 14 where his instructor emphasized the zen way to the martial arts.
These years was an important part of youth life planting the seed for the practice and dedication that was to come later. From birth and perhaps catalysed by growing up in an emotional struggling family, Trond was marked by an inner uneasiness and dissatisfaction. Growing up he was described on several occasions as a seeker of something by people close in the family.
As a young adult at the university Trond was suffering with depression, and when meeting a young woman who expressed a strong believe in Christ, he leaped into Christianity inspired by the light that appeared from her strong faith. They married and got 3 boys. He entered the church for many years. But alongside church services and prayer, he was still attracted to meditation practices and discovered the Carmelite monk Wilfrid Stinissen through his book “A book about Christian deep meditation” . Encountering these old Christian meditation practices emphasizing wordlessness and silence, would be a path returning to zen.
Even after years with church services, faith and prayer, the uneasiness, dissatisfaction and seeking was still there, and as he was beginning to realize the long and slowly decaying of the faith, he openly expressed his leaving of the faith and church to his family.
At the same time seeds from the early years of moving zen in the martial arts came to life and a with strong “hunger” for practice Trond searched for a Zen Master and after some time found and connected with a Zen Master in the lineage of Japanese Soto Zen, Såzen Osho. A year later Trond had taken the 5 precepts and had been given the name Kåei. He had initiated and founded a zen community in Haugesund where he on weekly basis was hosting meditation sessions and holding regularly introduction courses to Zen and was hosting and assisting Såzen in multiple days sesshins.
A strong practice was settling, and uneasiness and seeking was slowly fading … but he experienced a rigidness, a strong emphasizing on form and tradition in the practice, rather than a practice and teacher that more optimally addressed modern people living in a modern society today.
Spring 2017 he by coincident came across the youtube video “A Day in a modern monk’s life” and was deeply impressed by what was expressed there. October 2017 Oslo Zen house hosted a 3-day retreat with this modern monk, Zen Master Hyon Gak Sunim, and Trond signed on and went to Oslo. Experiencing a completely different approach in teaching zen and a more straight to the point practice in silence without too much form, he immediately understood that this was a significant encounter that would have an impact.
For 7 years he would annually attended master Hyon Gak Sunim retreats in Oslo Zen house, and from 2019 regularly travelled to Zen Centre Regensburg attending next level retreats where he experienced boundless silence and intimacy with moment, completely erasing any inner uneasiness and dissatisfaction. In 2019 and in 2023 he also invited master Hyon Gak Sunim to Haugesund to lead retreats in Haugesund Zen Senter.
He was still serving and training with master Såzen Osho, assisting in many multiple daysesshins through the years, helping with organisational work in the Soto Zen organisation in Norway, and leading and teaching in Haugesund Zen Centre community.
In 2023 after long time consideration Trond decided to convert to the Zen of the great master Seung Sahn and the international meditation community in Regensburg, directed and led by Master Hyon Gak Sunim. He took the 10 precepts and was given the name Hong Ye, which is a translated of Kåei. Trond left the soto zen lineage and established a new zen community in Stavanger founded on the lineage from Zen Master Hyon Gak Sunim.
Boep Hwa
Boep Hwa (Silke Merck), born in Mainz, is the mother of five adult children. She is trained in flute, trombone, and trumpet. In 2019, a life-threatening illness brought her to the gates of death, and this led to a profound inner turning point in her life. Returning from the hospital, she immediately Googled „What is the meaning of life?“ The answer that appeared on her screen changed her life forever: „Find a meditation teacher.“ She tried several Internet teachers, until one day the YouTube algorithm served up for her the Zen Center Regensburg daily livestream. Joining the daily practice, she immediately found „there’s something there“.The powerful presence and teaching, which could be felt even through the screen, touched her deeply and led her step by step into the world of Zen.
Several visits to the Zen Center deepened her connection to herself. By Autumn 2021, she had moved into the Zen Center as a full-time resident.
Since then, Boep Hwa has devoted herself intensively to Zen practice. This has not only enabled her to heal personally, developing clear change in her physical condition, but also opened the door to a new direction in life. She was deeply impacted by the forceful insights of Hyon Gak Sunim and the loving embrace of the entire Sangha.
Boep Hwa has completed many intensive multi-day retreats at the Zen Center Regensburg, and in January 2023, she Took Refuge with the Five Precepts. In January 2025, she took the Ten Precepts and became a Dharma Teacher-in-Training.
Since May 2022, Boep Hwa has been the Assistant to Hyon Gak Sunim. She has accompanied him on teaching trips to the UK, Norway, and to centers throughout Germany. She likes to draw, paint, play her flute, and one day wishes to have her own garden. (And a doggie.)