As soon as I put my bag down and changed into the temple uniform, we got started. The first activity on the list was to meet with the monk in one of hte halls and have a sort of orientation. During this time, we practiced the proper way to greet the monk each time we saw him (hands in praying position, and a deep bow), briefly introduced ourselves, and were told that it was to be a mostly silent weekend. For this reason, we weren't even supposed to wear slippers that could drag on the floor, but instead wear sneakers that would help us remain silent even while walking outside. Inside the building, you always needed to wear socks. They even told us the proper way to take off your shoes so you wouldn't get the floor dirty.
Next was the temple tour. We saw the main Buddha hall (unfortunately, we were too big of a group to practice bowing or meditation in this small space), the monk's place of residence, and the medicine Buddha hall where you can offer up prayers of healing. They also showed us where the monks perform their musical ceremonies - a small, wall-less structure that has a bell, drum, and fish-shaped musical instrument. There was one other bell on the property, but it was extremely old and actually Chinese, so it wasn't in use.
(The carpenter carved the form of a naked woman holding up the corners of the roof after being scorned by the townswoman he fell in love with. He wanted to marry her after he finsihed building the temple, but before it was complete she ran off with another man - and all of the carpenters money! So the story goes at least. Some people think he forgave her and carved her form so she could be closer to God. Others view it as a punishment. She has to bear the weight of the heavy temple roof.)
The Musical Instruments
The last thing they showed us was a tree, which was considered a national treasure. The legend of the 800 year old tree goes as follows: At one point, about 600 years ago, the Korean government didn't like Buddhism. They were trying to put pressure on the religion, and squash it out. This particular tree produced nuts. So each year, the government kept demanding that the people gather more and more nuts from a tree. After a few years, the government's requests became ridiculous, and it was impossible for the tree to produce enough nuts for the people to collect. Over the years, the monks' and townspeople's stress continued to escalate with the government's demands. Eventually, one of the monk's despair was too great, and he decided to spend three days praying about the tree. He didn't pray for the tree to produce the required amount of nuts, however. Instead, he prayed that the tree would no longer produce nuts. This way the government could no longer overwork the people by demanding large amounts of nuts. When the three days or prayer was complete, there was a big storm. Lightening struck the tree, and from that point on, it no longer produced any nuts.
After the monk explained this mystical story, the temple guide (who was always by the monk's side) awkwardly spoke up. This wasn't the right tree. Oops. The legendary tree was actually located in a different part of the temple grounds. This tree was just big and old. (I personally think she should have just let us believe what he said. We wouldn't have know the difference, and the poor monk wouldn't have been embarrassed. Who can blame him? This isn't his normal temple, so he doesn't know the ins and outs of it all that well.)
Once the temple tour was finished, we met back in the biggest hall, set out our mats and small tables, and began copying the sutras. This was pretty cool, and I got to take home the scroll that I made! They gave us a scroll with Chinese, Korean, and finally English that explained the teaching of the Buddha. They then gave us a jar of ink, a paint brush, and another long scroll that we traced the symbols and words onto.
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