Healing from History

Summary

Is it possible to be harmed by things that happened before we were born? And if so, how do we understand and heal them? 

Koreans use the term han to describe a rage and grief that carries from one generation to the next, and especially since Korea’s violent twentieth century. My guest, Jungwon Kim, has spent years studying not only han, but how ritual and community organizing can heal it. She’s been to the sites of mass atrocities in Korea, and brought Korean Americans together to change narratives and policies. She was deeply influenced by the Engaged Buddhism of Vietnamese teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh, and uses his example in her work.  

Jungwon Kim, a writer, facilitator, and cultural organizer whose work explores transgenerational grief. She has practiced in the Plum Village Zen tradition for 17 years and is the co-founder of two BIPOC sanghas in Brooklyn. www.jungwonkim.earth Substack: substack.com/@jungwon217 Instagram: @jungwon217 

Ryan Lee Wong is author of the novel Which Side Are You On, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel. He’s trained in Buddhism for over a decade, and lived for two years at a Zen temple in upstate New York. He co-facilitates Roots and Refuge, an annual Asian American Buddhist writing retreat. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of a fifth-generation Chinese American father and a Korean immigrant mother, and has organized several exhibitions on the 1970s Asian American Movement.

Find Ryan on Substack: https://ryanleewong.substack.com/ Instagram: @ryanlwong or his website: https://www.ryanleewong.com/  

Radical Buddhism is a production of Axis Mundi Media and made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which seeks to deepen public knowledge of religion. Andrew Gill is the producer, with original music by Scott Okamoto and cover art by Eric Zwierzynski. The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies is our fiscal sponsor.

Jungwon Kim’s website: watch more of the “Unbind Your Heart” ritual, and read her writing on K-Pop Demon Hunters and more. She also posts her research on instagram. 

Korea Peace Now!: an organization dedicated to ending the Korean War through advocacy and education.

Blue Cliff Monastery: where Jungwon went often with her children, founded by Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh that regularly offers retreats on Engaged Buddhism. 

The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings: a short primer on the tragedies of the Korean War and what led to it, bringing a critical historian’s eye to all sides of the conflict.