My first days back in Korea, a couple months later, I went straight to my monk friend, Jae-Ahn SuhNim, and told him I wanted to take refuge. He said he has a friend in a temple in the country side not far outside of Seoul who could do the ceremony, then showed me a small round scar on his forearm telling me I'd get one of those as well. It was the first I'd heard of being scarred, and questioned whether it was a very Buddhist thing to do. My answer was, "Yes, it's very good! You won't forget!" Also, as part of the deal, we would get our own Dharma names, which sounded even better better than getting burned!

My first days back in Korea, a couple months later, I went straight to my monk friend, Jae-Ahn SuhNim, and told him I wanted to take refuge. He said he has a friend in a temple in the country side not far outside of Seoul who could do the ceremony, then showed me a small round scar on his forearm telling me I'd get one of those as well. It was the first I'd heard of being scarred, and questioned whether it was a very Buddhist thing to do. My answer was, "Yes, it's very good! You won't forget!" Also, as part of the deal, we would get our own Dharma names, which sounded even better better than getting burned!