The school's international head temple is located at the Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, Rhode Island, which was founded in 1972 shortly after Seung Sahn first came to the United States.

Seung Sahn first arrived in the United States in 1972, where he lived in Providence, Rhode Island and worked at a Korean-owned laundromat, repairing washing machines to financially support himself.

[3] In 1974, prior to the official creation of the school, Seung Sahn founded Dharma Zen Center in Los Angeles, a place where laypeople could practice without leaving their urban lives, and regardless of their background.

According to Lionel Obadia, "Revital Dan, currently heading the TAZC, followed Seung Sahn back to Korea and trained in the monastic style of retreat.

The activities of the Kwan Um School have received widespread media coverage and the number of attendees is increasing.

According to the book Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest edited by Patricia O'Connell Killen and Mark Silk,Mu Soeng, a longtime monk, describes the Kwan Um School as a unique amalgam of elements of Pure Land and Zen, chanting the name of the bodhisattva of compassion, and vigorous prostrations that are characteristic of Korean folk Buddhist practice.

The Kwan Um School emphasizes socially engaged 'together action' by groups of followers living in a common house, koan or mantra practice tools, and a pastor-parishioner relationship between monks and laypersons characteristic of the Chogye order in Korea.

During the early days he did not place a strong emphasis on seated meditation, which is the core of most Japanese traditions of Zen, but rather on Koans.

It was through the urging of some of his first students, some of whom had practiced in Japanese schools previously, that Seung Sahn came to place a stronger emphasis on sitting meditation.

"[1] In The Faces of Buddhism in America edited by Charles S. Prebish, Mu Soeng states that, "A case has been made that the culture of Kwan um Zen School is hardly anything more than an expression of Seung Sahn's personality as it has been shaped by the Confucian-Buddhist amalgam in Korea during the last thousand years.

[17]During the summer and winter months, The Kwan Um School of Zen offers a Kyol Che (meaning "tight dharma")—a 21- to 90-day intensive silent meditation retreat.

Participation in one of these intensive retreats offers individuals the chance to free themselves from intellectual attachments and develop compassion.

An Abbot serves a Zen center in an administrative capacity and does not necessarily provide spiritual direction, though several are Soen Sa Nims.

No one questions that Soen Sa Nim is a strong and inspiring teacher and missionary, wholly committed to spreading the Dharma, who has helped many people by his teachings and by his creation of institutions in which they can practice Zen.

[23]James Ishmael Ford had this to say on the relationships: For a while the future direction of Seung Sahn's institution was in doubt, and, as happened in the similarly affected Japanese-derived centers, quite a number of people left.

[2]The Kwan Um School of Zen has since developed an ethics policy that has guidelines for teacher/student relationships and consequences for unethical behavior.