Templestay 4

After my fitful night of semi-sleep, I was ready for day 2.  My room was right next to the bathrooms, so I was excited to sneak over and beat the morning rush.  Things didn't work out as planned, however.  I had two sets of sliding ricepaper doors, and one set of big, wooden, hinged doors to open.  The sliding doors were no problem.  I unlocked them and slid them open.  The hinged doors weren't so easy. 

I unlocked them and pushed. 

And pushed. 

And pushed. 

But they wouldn't budge.  I could hear other people walking past my door to the restroom, and was totally embarrassed to be rattling my doors, completely trapped inside my small square room.  Eventually, magically, I have no idea how, I got them to open and joined the crowd in the bathroom.  (I'm going to blame at least part of the difficulty on the fact that it was four o'clock in the morning.)

At 4:30am, we met in the chanting hall and were lead in the morning bows as the monks sang their devotions to Buddha.  I guess Korean monks prefer singing over traditional chanting.  The temple tourguide led us through this activity, as with all of the other bowing activities, because our monk had recently undergone leg surgery and couldn't perform the bows easily.

At 5am, we switched halls and did 108 prostrations.  I was still able to feel my quad muscles a full 24 hours after the fact.  108 is a lot of times to get up and down on a mat in a matter of twenty minutes.  The prostrations are meant to be symbolic.  A way to lower yourself and raise up the Buddha.  A way to show your humility, and also, quite honestly, is often used as a form of punishment.  A DVD spouted off the reason for each prostration as we completed them.  There were three types of reasons.  I'd say the first sixty or so went something like, "I prostrate in repentance for (something I did wrong."  Then came, "I prostrate in gratitude for (something I have come to realize or appreciate.)"  Lastly came, "I prostrate to commit myself to (live a better life in one way or another.)"  Doing this exercise was probably the most enlightening thing in terms of understanding Buddhism better.  I was surprised by how connected to nature many of the prostrations were.  And also how compassion-centered they were.  In college I had read a book about Japanese Buddhism, which led me to imagine a much stricter, colder, and suffering-centered idea of Buddhism.  This felt much different from the mindset I had read about.

I had worked up a slight sweat by the end of our prostrations, and was happy to have another twenty minute breathing meditation to settle down.  Given that it was still before 6am, it's probably good that they had us get some exercise in before tyring to meditate.  If we hadn't, I'm sure I would have heard lots of snoring.

And we're down...

Now we're up...

And now we're back down again!

Templestay 3

I have heard it rumored that templestays are weekends of silence and hunger.  That was not the case during my experience.  The dinner they served was vegetarian and delicious!  I think I really lucked out by choosing this temple.

I could have definitely used a little exercise to walk off such a big meal, but it was time to ring the bell.  Each of us got paired up and got to experience ringing the giant Korean bell in the ritualistic way of the monks.  It's quite heavy!  I'm pretty sure that my partner and I didn't ring it as loudly as the other pairs.

The last item on the agenda for the day was to practice Seon Meditation.  Thankfully the monk was realistic and understood that we were beginners.  Our goal  was just to keep our minds still for twenty minutes.  He would make a noise indicating that start and stop time of the twenty minutes, so we didn't have to be distracted trying to keep track of time.  He also understood that it's hard for us newbies to sit completely still for a prolonged amount of time.  He let us fold up part of our mats and sit in a modified lotus pose to make it easier.  Honestly, the twenty minutes went by much faster than expected... except for right at the end when my entire right leg fell asleep.  I wasn't alone in this predicament.  After about ten minutes I heard lots of shuffling about as people re-situated themselves.  I also heard quite a few stomachs digesting the food we had just downed.  Sitting in complete silence after a meal with 40 other individuals is a bit awkward.  He had us sit facing the wall so that we wouldn't be distracted by one another, and instructed us to count our breaths from one to ten, and then to start over.  If we accidentally lost track of our number, or found that we were on number eleven or twelves, we would realize that our mind had wandered and could start back over from one.  We wrapped this activity up around 8pm, or so, and headed to the showers.  It would be an early bedtime, as the next day started at 4am, sharp!

The two dogs at the temple weren't overly friendly. 
But man, did they like to bark in the middle of the night!

I wish I could say that I slept soundly in such a peaceful environment, but that just wasn't the case.  First of all, there was a dog barking loudly from about 1am, to who knows what time.  Second, despite sleeping on the floor at my host family's house for a month, I'm still not accustomed to such arrangements.  And third, the rice pillow felt like a rock under my head.  I woke up a couple of times, and then once more at 3:59am, just in time to sit up before the monk started striking the morning wake up bell.

Templestay Part 2

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.

Templestay

In an effort to cross of one more adventure from my Korean bucket list, I participated in a templestay this past weekend.  The Buddhist temple I decided to stay at is located on Gwanwado Island, a 3.5 hour commute via public transportation from where I live.  Correction.  In reality, it was more like a 5.5 hour commute via public transportation.  I was a little late.  The plan was to get there around 2, stay the night, and then check out at noon the next day.  Everything was pushed back by about an hour or so, but it didn't matter much. 

I'll say right off the bat that it was a good experience, but not quite what I had been expecting.  What I had heard from friends, and read online, lead me to believe that this would be a somewhat strict, silent, and contemplative introduction into Korean Buddhism and the lifestyle of the monks.  I chose to go to this specific one because there would be a Russian monk present who could speak some English.  That way I would be able to understand more of what was going on, and get more out of the experience.  There were five of us who showed up independently (myself, and four friends from San Francisco), and about 40 foreign English teachers who came via group tour.  They brought a bit of a spring break vibe to the event - not something I had anticipated.  Regardless, it was fun - and as it turned out, I actually knew one of the people from the group tour.  It was nice to see a familiar face.

So, my day started off with me leaving my apartment around 9:30am, hopping on the subway for a little over an hour, and then eventually catching a bus.  (Waiting for the bus to arrive was what delayed my plans so drastically.)  Once I figured out which bus stop to get off at, I had a make-shift map to navigate around town.  The map led me up a hill and through the East Gate of the temple.  Once through the temple wall, I continued to walk all the way up to the very tippy-top of the hill where the temple office was located and found the person I had been in contact with while planning the trip.  

  

The East Temple Gate

The activities hadn't begun yet, so the only repercussion of me showing up late was that my rooming situation had to be adjusted.  Initially, I was supposed to stay with all of the girls in the group tour. We were all to share a large room and sleep on a bunch of mats on the floor - sardine style, which isn't uncommon here.  Given that everyone was already settled in there, I was actually given my own private room.  My delinquency paid off!  ;)

My Sleeping Mat

It's hard to tell, but my room was more or less a small square, with three sets of doors.  It had a electricity, a light, floor heating, a sleeping mat, blanket, and rice pillow.  

Out to Dinner

Here are a few of the pics from our fancy night out!  This restaurant, called O'Hills, is owned by a Korean actor, and is the ritziest restaurant in town.  I'm a bit underdressed for the elegance of the restaurant, but it didn't matter much.  The nutrition director (in charge of school lunches) invited me, Gina, and one of the administrators out for dinner.  The nutrition director, JinJin is a super upbeat, active, happy woman, who wants to learn English better so she can travel more easily in foreign countries.  She invited me over for dinners at her house, and the four of us set up a tentative date to an amusement park in Seoul.  :)

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The reastaurant is buffet-style. 
Famous for its steak and seafood.

 

She caught us mid-laugh.



Gina and I under the chandelier.

Me, JinJin, and the adminstrator (SeongJeon).



Parking in Korea

I went out to a lovely dinner tonight with a few of my coworkers.  It was a ton of a fun, excellent food, and a really positive environment.  People and times like that make me love being in Korea.  :)  I'll post more about the dinner when Gina (one of the teachers) sends me some of the pictures she took.  For now, though, I have a quick cultural tidbit about how our night wrapped up.

After dinner was finished, and we made our way down to the basement parking, we were confronted with a very Korean problem.  Well, I guess I don't know if this is common anywhere else in the world, but it seems to happen quite often here.  As you can hopefully see in my not-so-clear video, there was a car completely blocking us in.  While this would induce a great amount of frustration in America, it's just not that big of a deal here.  Why?  Well, one of two things always saves the day.  Either 1) they leave the car in neutral, so the trapped party can simply push it out of the way, or 2) they leave their phone number on the dashboard so that you can call and ask them to move their car.  In our case, the driver left his phone number.  However, in our case, he also forgot his phone in the car.  As our luck would have it, though, just as Gina started to call him - before his phone even had a chance to ring - he walked through the door!  Just a minute earlier he had realized that he forgot his phone and was coming down to get it.  Such perfect timing!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been raining here all day, which reminded me of another story from maybe a month or so ago.  This is how the story originally went when I sent the email to my family.  It's a good one!  :)

"I walk out of school today and it's raining.  Not a hard rain.  But it's definitely raining.  I, of course, am unprepared, so I just stand under the front awning looking at the rain for a minute.  Then I decide that I might as well roll up my pants and get it over with. 

Then I see one of my students.  This particular young man, who I call Tony (I've given each student an English name because I can't pronounce, let alone remember all of their actual names), is one of my multicultural students (from China maybe?).  Earlier in the day, I had made him stand up for the entire class period because he couldn't stay awake or participate.  When he saw me standing there contemplating the rainy walk home, he looked at me and said, "Teacher.  Umbrella?"  I said, "아니요, 없어요." (Aniyo, eobseoyo. = No, I don't have one.)

At this moment, I was shocked and completely heart-warmed.  He walked over to me and offered me his umbrella.  I declined his sweet offer, but he persisted.  He handed me his umbrella and smiled.  I took it for half a second, before coming to my senses and realizing that his mom would be unhappy if he were to come home soaking wet because he gave away his umbrella.  I felt too guilty to take it.  So I gave it back.  He responded by opening it for me, handing it back wth a smile, and then riding away on his bicycle."

I bought him an Iron Man - themed Snickers bar that night, to give to him the next day when I returned his umbrella.  His kind, unexpected gesture made my entire day.  :)

Thankfully, I brought my own umbrella today.