Furnace Mountain Zen Center
  • Home
    • about
    • retreats & visits
    • contact
    • affiliated Centers
    • newsletter
    • confidentiality, privacy & concerns
  • online practice options
    • daily morning practice
    • intro to zen meditation
    • day-long retreats
    • weekend retreats
  • Our Teachers
    • founding & guiding teacher >
      • Zen Master Dae Gak
    • zen masters >
      • Daniela Herzog - Zen Master Mu Han Shim
      • Curt Steinmetz - Zen Master Chong Sae Do
    • active teachers >
      • Erica McLuckie - Kosen Soen Sa
      • Craig Learned - Dae Mun Soen Sa
      • Mark Davis - Myo Wol Soen Sa
      • Bob Kohl - Dae Do Soen Sa
      • Cara Geary - Jun Je Soen Sa
      • Halcyon Learned - Yong Song Soen Sa
      • Craig Carver - Chong Do Soen Sa
  • donating & supporting us....

Curt Steinmetz - Zen Master Chong Sae Do
​

Picture
When I first met my teacher, Zen Master Dae Gak, I asked him how I should practice. He looked right into my eyes and said, without hesitation, “Your practice is the question, ‘Who am I?’” A while later I asked my teacher, “how should I practice ‘Who am I?’ He said that if I practice correctly, then if someone else were to sneak into my mediation room to see what I was doing, they would see no one there.
​
Later he told me something about waterfalls. “It’s like a waterfall,” or maybe “It’s like trying to drink from a waterfall,” or something like that. Then a little later he told me, “It’s like a playing ball on rapid water.” Or something like that.
​
To be honest, I had little, if any, response to these teachings.
I really did not know what he was talking about.

Months passed. I attended many retreats with my teacher.
I always cherished the time I spent at his beautiful retreat center, Furnace Mountain Zen Center. After each retreat I felt a deep sense of peace combined with great inspiration.
​But still, every time I had a one-on-one talk with my teacher, I always felt awkward, unsure, unsettled, incompetent. Finally, after about two years of this, Zen Master Dae Gak said to me: “You know, you really should be getting this by now.” This made me mad. Without thinking I snapped, “Getting what?” Then we just looked at each other and smiled.
​
All of that took place over a quarter of a century ago. Still I love to see my teacher and to sit at Furnace Mountain.
​Still I feel awkward and incompetent. Still I practice “Who am I?”. Still I wonder “getting what?”

Curt Steinmetz received dharma transmission as a Zen Master in 2020 and is the guiding teacher at Dae Do Sah Zen Group, Rockville MD





 design by myozen © COPYRIGHT 2016 - 2026. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
    • about
    • retreats & visits
    • contact
    • affiliated Centers
    • newsletter
    • confidentiality, privacy & concerns
  • online practice options
    • daily morning practice
    • intro to zen meditation
    • day-long retreats
    • weekend retreats
  • Our Teachers
    • founding & guiding teacher >
      • Zen Master Dae Gak
    • zen masters >
      • Daniela Herzog - Zen Master Mu Han Shim
      • Curt Steinmetz - Zen Master Chong Sae Do
    • active teachers >
      • Erica McLuckie - Kosen Soen Sa
      • Craig Learned - Dae Mun Soen Sa
      • Mark Davis - Myo Wol Soen Sa
      • Bob Kohl - Dae Do Soen Sa
      • Cara Geary - Jun Je Soen Sa
      • Halcyon Learned - Yong Song Soen Sa
      • Craig Carver - Chong Do Soen Sa
  • donating & supporting us....