Zen Master Dae Gak - FMZC's founder & guiding teacher
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"Find your original job and do it impeccably. 
Never give up.
While failure is possible, there is nothing that cannot be transmuted.
Our mistakes are our teachers and our alchemy is in our heart’s blood.
Our breath is our point of entry to truth. 
It is with us always, as us, as all of creation.
Find the breath in everything."
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-Zen Master Dae Gak
Zen Master Dae Gak is the Founder, Abbot and Guiding Teacher of Furnace Mountain. He has practiced Zen for over fifty years, and received Inka (permission to teach) in 1986, and final Dharma transmission as a Zen Master from the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1994. Before becoming a student of Zen Master Seung Sahn, he studied extensively with other teachers in Japanese lineages.

He founded the Lexington Zen Center in 1980, together with Mara Genthner, and began building the retreat center at Furnace Mountain in 1986.
For almost 50 years, Zen Master Dae Gak has taught in America and internationally. In 1997-1998 he led the annual three month retreat (Kyol Che) at Shin Won Sah in Korea, and for many years he led the annual Christian Zen retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane, where Thomas Merton lived. He leads our monthly retreat program at Furnace Mountain and also travels regularly to teach students in affiliated centers across America and in Europe.
Since his recognition as a teacher Zen Master Dae Gak has directed his life toward supporting people in their efforts to realize their original nature of fearless immediacy and unbounded compassion, following the clear teaching of the Zen Ancestors and his own realization that the practice of spiritual inquiry cannot be fixed, organized or institutionalized.
"All beings cry out ... 
Listen 
All mistakes point
the Way ... 
Listen 
Everything is Truth ... 
Listen 
Put aside self interest and help others."
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-Zen Master Dae Gak
Zen Master Dae Gak's latest book, "Upright with Poise and Grace" can be ordered directly from Furnace Mountain.