Emily Rose Buck's etribes LifeSite

Buddha's Birthday and an enlightening Temple stay.

Whatever you do, wherever you go in Korea, you will find some of the ancient Buddhist heritage which has dominated and influenced every aspect of Korean life for the past 1,700 years. When I first came to Korea I heard about 'Temple stays' and have wanted to do one ever since. However our time here has been so action packed since that it is one of those things that we kept saying next month, next month. However with just four weekends left in Korea we really sort out our priorities and decide what we were going to do With it being Buddhas birthday the next week we decided that this weekend would be perfect. So a few weeks back Jenna, Kat, Brian, Matt, Kristen and I all booked our selves into the lotus lantern temple for the weekend.

We were up bright and breezy and then took the long bus journey out of Incheon, out of Seoul to an island called 'Kuk Je Seeon Won'. By the time we got there we were starving, so tried to find somewhere to eat. Some school girls with good English said that we could get something to eat at the market but that there were no kimbap houses there :( They also joked with us that there was a hamburger place round the corner, not nice considering how hungry we were, they all screamed with laughter when all of our little eyes lit up! In the end Brian and Matt had Kimchee-jige (spicy soup) and I ended up buying some rather horrible snacks from a local shop. After all this faffing about we actually had to rush to get to the place by 2 pm.

We found a taxi place and hung around for ages while the driver finished his game of cards, Then the 6 of us squeezed into ONE taxi (that is right SIX...and the driver makes seven). It was a very interesting ride, we even passed a police care who didn't seem to batter and eyelid. When we got to the temple, we opened the door and basically exploded bags n all into the drive way. Despite us being 5 minutes 'late' no one else was there yet. We got showed to our rooms by a Russian Monk, who had lived there for four years and informed us, in his very hard to understand accent, that we had free time until 4. We put on some traditional gray 'trainee monks temple robes', which was basically some baggy elasticated wasted trousers, that were Velcro round the ankle, a plain gray T.shirt or long sleeved top, and a button up baggy waistcoat. Socks were to be worn at all times and as you can probably picture we all looked very attractive, but I must say; it really was very comfortable attire!!!

The place was simple and clean, but as you can imagine, very minimalistic. Sleeping on the floor, only allowed to drink water or Korean tea and no luxuries. Obviously Monks don't watch television, except for a Dharma video or documentary. I found out that this was because should only have attachment to their own minds, and watching T.V. might excite envy, possibly even the intention to steal, in the mind of another person. It also looks bad if they own things like this, as they mainly live on charity, and growing their own foods etc. They try to be a source of inspiration to others, to not have any luxurious belongings. They also don't have any gold or silver jewelry and only use money given to them by donations (they don't need banks or credit cards).

The temple was in the middle of nowhere, which was nice, surrounded by flooded rice paddies. We spent our couple of hours, making tea, nosing through the books on Buddhism and exploring and taking pictures of the grounds. I was delighted to find two of their dogs! The gardens were wild but pretty, with lots of wild daisies. There was also a lovely pond full with huge coy-carp. By four o'clock two Canadian guys arrived and a Korean couple. The ten of us were called by the 'gong' and joined the Russian Monk in one of the temples for a lesson on how to bow/pray properly. It was actually pretty difficult, and hard getting onto your feet for the hundredth time with no hands! Inside the temple was beautiful, the ceiling beautifully decorated, three statues at the front, interesting pictures on the wall and lots of candles and flowers.

Lotus flowers were everywhere as a symbol of purity, spiritual growth and enlightenment. I read in the back of my chanting book that the lotus flower can grow in any conditions including a muddy swamp and that they grow towards the warmth and light of the sun, just as humans naturally grow. The simple but beautiful life of a lotus flower can be compared to that of a Buddha and they give happiness to those who see them. The three Buddha statues were positioned on a lotus base and there were lotus flower lanterns covering the ceilings. We all got given a kneeling cushion and a book with all the prayers/chants that we would be doing and their translations. The monk was incredibly hard to comprehend, and was really very nervous so to be honest I couldn't really understand much of his talk and it seemed to go on for hours. I was wobbling around allover the place, trying not to make it too obvious I was uncomfortable, after standing so long. I was very grateful when the evening meal bell rung at six o'clock.

Most monks are vegetarian, so I was literally expecting Kimchee and rice, but was pleasantly surprised when I got there and there were lots of tasty side dishes, such as mushrooms, aubergine and pumpkin. We all ate well then were to wash our dishes in silence.

We were then joined by three more Korean male visitors and then we all went back to the temple for more bowing and chanting. The chanting actually sounded really nice, very peaceful and relaxing. We all gathered in the garden for some traditional tea, I was surprised that washing the cups was just a case of pouring hot water into them (how hygienic I must say) and to make the tea he had to use 4 small tea pots with different temperatures of water in them. Or cups had no handles and were the size of egg cups but the tea was refreshing.

After that we met with a Swiss Monk. He informed us that the lotus lantern temple was mainly inhabited by foreign monks, but that he had actually lived there for 10 years! His English was very good and I found him very interesting and informative. He interested me by saying that Buddhism isn't actually a religion, and that there are no fairy tail stories about miracles or things that are difficult to believe and that they don't 'worship' any higher beings. They simply dedicate their lives to finding good in themselves and living their life as good, nice people. As you know I have a factual mind and need science, I don't follow any religion, however I respect religion and think that it often helps guide people into being good people and gives people faith. The idea and reality of Buddhism is the sort of thing that I think I understand the most.

We were taught about Mahayana Buddhism or Northern Buddhism as it is sometimes called, which is only found in Korea, China, Japan, Tibet and Mongolia. There are different types of Buddhism in other countries too. It has about 365 million followers (6% of the worlds population) and is the fourth largest religion, after Christianity, Islam and Hinduism (However some people argue that it is bigger than Hinduism)

He went into all about the History of Buddhism and I found out that Buddhism was founded around the fifth century BC in India by a prince called Siddharth Gautama (the Buddha himself- the spiritual father) and about how he was raised on the Indian boarder. Basically he was protected from the sadness and realities of the outside world, so one day he decided to go outside the palace walls to see what the real world was like. He saw four images that changed his life, the first was a leper with no ears or nose suffering and begging on the street side, the second was an old man all hunched over and trying to walk down the street with aid of a walking stick, the third was a corpse and a coffin procession and the final image was a Monk meditating under a tree, with hardly any possessions. These images shocked him; so that night he decided to leave his wife, new born baby and life of luxury in the palace and go and find enlightenment. He starved himself and became really thin (only eating 2 grains of rice a day) He decided to sit under a tree until he found enlightenment. By this time he was 35 years old and it took him four days to realise that starving himself was too far fetched, he thought back to his life in the palace and knew that this was too luxurious so decided to live somewhere in between. He spent 45 years dedicating his life to the teachings of his incites. Buddhism no longer exists in India but according to information and claims by Indians, Korea is the country that preserves the original, or at least the closest to the original Buddhism. With its attempts to resolve what it sees.

We were then given an incite into how to meditate and how to clear the mind. It was more difficult than it sounds, we sat cross legged on the floor and were to breath through our noses and count to ten, concentrating on nothing but the counting. We then had forty minutes of meditation. I struggled to keep my mind concentrating solely on the counting, I would think about what I had been doing that day or what I would be doing tomorrow and noticing every movement or shuffle that those around me made, and then trying to control myself from getting the giggles. I was constantly having to start my counting again. At one point I actually counted to 37 with out even noticing. Another problem that I had was a sharp twinge in my back and that my legs were aching from being crossed for so long. I was pretty useless at it to be honest and decided there and then that I couldn't possibly become a Dharma woman!

Retreating back to the room I was greedy to learn more about this fascinating way of life. As I said before there were lots of books. So this time I eagerly read all about Buddhism being a dharmic, non-theistic religion and philosophy. Finding out that it means 'Enlightened One' or 'Awakened One'. It also has three main virtues and they are: 1. Infinite Wisdom, 2. Perfect purity and 3. Universal Compassion. Buddhist practice and study the mind, the place where we actually were was called 'Seon' which means 'meditative absorption' or 'silently thinking'

We all were to be in bed with lights out at 9.30 and my room was actually dark, for the first time in 9 months I couldn't see a thing. I could hear snoring from other rooms and poor Brian and Matt couldn't sleep a wink because of it. However I fell to sleep surprisingly quickly considering that this was the earliest I had been to bed in years.

I was strangely woken up by a phone call at 3.40am, a Korean man with the wrong number, however just as I had put the phone down I heard the morning gong, calling us to prayer. By four o'clock we all, but Jenna, gathered in the temple and began our bows. We accidentally left Jenna behind, in the sleepy panic we were all in, she was not impressed, when she arrived mid bows. At six o'clock we were called again for breakfast. My stomach turned when I saw it was exactly the same as we had had for dinner. I had a few spoons full of rice but couldn't face any of the side dishes at that time in the morning. At 7am we went for more meditation, this time it was actually easier as my back twinge was less painful after a good nights sleep. The remainder of the day we practiced, Chinese, Korean and English Calligraphy in the teaching room and also did some weeding and gardening in the grounds. We had lunch then it was time to put our normal clothes back on and clean our rooms. Just before we left we joined the head monk for some tea and then said our farewells. The long journey back was the least fun part. We stopped off to get our weekly food shop on the way home too, and I spent the evening reflecting on what I had learnt (although I was extremely tired for suck an early awakening).

Thursday 24^th May – Buddha's Birthday!

The whole of Korea have a holiday to commemorate Buddha's birthday. Last night Brian, Matt, Kristen, Kat, Jenna, Alyssa (Aghhh) and I all went out in order to have a few drinks for the sake of Buddha, and the night ended up with us all in a Nore Bong, singing our little hearts out and dancing on the back of the sofas until 4am.

We all woke up early that morning, delighted to have a day off school, we had had plans to go to the park, wonder around town and perhaps have a picnic or at least lunch outside in the sun. The weather had been gorgeous for ages......BUT just like in England, as soon as we have a day off the heavens open and prevents us for happily doing our plans. Instead we all headed to Bupyong in the torrential rain, then Brian and I met up with Adam and Sophia (some Canadian friends) and we all spent the afternoon eating Jim-Duk, which was incredibly spicy, but certainly warmed us through, and was nice as were were all soaked to the skin.

• Posted by emily1183 on 31/05/2007.
• emily1183's site