"Where in the World"

Temple Stay

With just less than a week to go until Korea and the rest of the Buddhist community celebrate Buddha’s birthday (24th May) we decided to mark the occasion by visiting one of the Buddhist Temple that welcome visitors of any religious background.

The Lotus Lantern International Meditation Center in Ganghwa is a place where foreign monks and nuns are practicing Seon (Jap: Zen) and lay Buddhists from Korea and abroad can experience Korean Buddhism. The center was founded in 1997, due to the vow of the late Venerable Wonmyeong Sunim, who was a disciple of Seon Master Seongcheol.

At the time of its founding, it served only as a Seon practicing ground for foreign monks, but gradually transformed itself into a temple for practice, dharma propagation, and Buddhist cultural experience.The center is an open place for practice where people exhausted by city life can breathe fresh air in the midst of the forest and rest their minds through Seon practice and prayer. These programs are intended to help people understand Buddhism in a short period of time. 

When we first arrived at the centre we were told to put on our trainee monks clothes, which were all grey and included a pair of baggy pants, a t-shirt and a waistcoat. We had arrived early as the information had told us to arrive by 2pm although nothing really got under way till later. This gave us a perfect photo opportunity where we showed off our lotus and yoga posses.

Orientation began at 4pm, which consisted of a short tour of the grounds and the small temple. We were given a brief introduction into Buddhism and some of it's practices. I am a little vague about this because our monk was Russian and unfortunately his Korean was better than his English. 

Dinner was at six o'clock and consisted of rice (what a suprise), yummy potatoes, mushroom and onions and of course kimchi. Buddhists are vegetarian as they believe all animals have a soul and so there was no steak for dinner. Plus we had to wash up in silence although we didn't quite manage it.

After dinner we entered the temple to pray and chant. The chanting was all in Korean and although I couldn't understand a word of it I found it very soothing. The bow according to the Korean Buddhist tradition was to kneel down, touch your forehead to the floor and rest your hands, palms up, on the ground.

The bowing in parts were difficult and after a while it began to hurt. In the space of a few minutes we had completed half a dozen bows and I was beginning to feel it in my toes. A few others seemed to have the same problem as I heard them crash into the wall from loosing their balance. The first part of the bow is a half bow, followed by kneeling down and pressing your forehead to the ground. The final part is turning your palms skyward.

When the moktak (a wooden percussion instrument used to signal the next movement) sounded we rose back onto our knees and then attempted to get up without letting your hands touch the floor. Try it it's quite hard.

Video (Bowing) - http://www.mediamax.com/katrinaleanne/Hosted/Bowing.MPG

Around 8pm we made our way to the mediation room where our second monk introduced himself. He was from Switzerland and spoke a lot better English. He told us the brief history of Buddhism and about Buddha's life. This was really interesting as it helped me understand more about the religion.

Quick history:

Prince Siddharta Gautama was born some 2,500 years ago as a prince in what is now called Lumbini in Nepal. At his birth, many special signs appeared. His father asked a sage living in his kingdom for advice on his son. The sage predicted that Gautama would become either a great King or a great spiritual teacher.

The King wanted his son to be his successor and tried to keep him far away from all matters of life that could incline him to a spiritual life. Gautama usually spent his life in his father's palace, surrounded by all the possible luxuries of the time. He proved to be a special child, being quite intelligent as well as an excellent sportsman. He married to a beautiful woman he loved, and they had a son.

When Gautama was 29 years old, he discovered there was much suffering in the world around him. Traditionally it is explained that he suddenly recognised the problems of sickness, old age and death when visiting the city. Being shocked by the suffering of all living beings, he decided to search for way to end it. He left his wife and child, the palace and even his royal clothes, and started out on a spiritual quest.

Gautama studied under various teachers and followed their practices until he mastered them all. The most extreme was ascetic practices until in the end, Gautama nearly died of starvation. He then sat down in a place now called Bodhgaya (North India) under a Bodhi-tree and decided not to get up until he discovered the truth. Just a short time later, he became a fully enlightened Buddha. This means that he actualised all positive potentials of a sentient being and rid himself of all negative qualities. With this, he realized the true nature of existence and suffering (emptiness), and how suffering can be ended - http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/buddha.html

  
'Chelsea flower show here we come'

Finally we packed up our bags, cleaned our rooms and had a last round of tea in the garden, before we thanked our hosts and headed out of the village to main road to hopefully catch a passing bus. We had a really good weekend. It was nice to experience something like this in its natural and traditional settings. If anything it was a chance to escape from the noise of the traffic and flashing neon lights.

For contact information and itenerary for Lotus Lantern International Meditation Centre click here and for directions click here

• Posted by k_millington on 18/05/2007.
• k_millington's site