Conclusion of the Temple Stay

I am soon woken up with the ringing of a wooden Buddhist bell, rung by one of the monks as he walked the balcony waking us temple-stayers. We grumble out of bed and walk out in the cold outside. It was 4:00 am and still dark out. We walk up the hill on the trail that leads to where we eat our meals and past the monks quarters and up a steep hill. We soon arrive at a small temple, half dug out of the hill, but painted in brightly colored patterns with fuchsia lotus lanterns coving the entire ceiling. I could appreciate its beauty even in my sleep deprived state. We performed three bows on a mat and then sat crossed legged and heard a group of monks, and to my enjoyment, the 5 young monks, chant their Buddhist hymns. The chanting was powerful and calm at the sametime. I was almost lulled asleep by it. Every now and then we would stand up and perform more bows. After about an hour of chanting and bowing we meditated for half an hour. We were told to clear our mind and think of nothing. The English speaking monk instructed us to empty our heads of every thought and just concentrating on your breathing. It’s surprising how hard this really is; to think of virtually nothing and silence the thoughts that keep circulating in my mind. I would stifle one thought only to have my mind pick up another. That and my knees were screaming at me for sitting cross legged for so long. I don’t know how monks do this for hours. I am still trying to figure out the benefit of clearing one’s head to reach enlightenment and a state of calm, when I feel like I enjoy the thoughts in my head, and I feel no need to silence them.

At the end of our meditating session, we performed three more bows, and left the temple. We were led higher up the trail to the top of the hill, and the trail bent around in a circle with a large stone pagoda in the center. The monks had followed us from behind, and they begin chanting and clinging the wooden bell, walking around the pagoda in a big circle. We followed the monks, walking peacefully in a wide circle. After a long while later, we were excused from the circle and free to roam the grounds or go back to sleep until breakfast three hours later. The idea of roaming the grounds where ever we wanted was far too exciting for me to go back to sleep. A friend and I roamed the grounds in the wee hours of the morning, and the early rising sun provided some stunning views.

These grounds had plenty to explore. I started out exploring the shrines that were scattered literally into the stone mountain at the highest peak of the grounds. Steps craved right in to the stone zigg-zigged from one shrine to another connecting each one in a confusing but beautiful trail of steps and stone arch ways. One shrine was a picture of a female diety; another was a carved out overhang filled with dozens of stone Buddha statues lined up on steps while others had reclining Buddhas or pictures. Each shrine has its own array of candles on elaborate candle holders and bronze incense pots. The shrine at the very top had a 10 foot carving of Buddha into the rock and it was protected by a glass dome covering. The neatest shrine to me was this mysterious one I called the Bat Cave. About mid way up into the hill, it really was a cave that went about 30 feet into the mountain and had about a hundred bronze Buddha statues set into their own carved space that wrapped around the vicinity of the cave. The main shrine had a larger stone statue with lights on either side of it. The ceiling was covered in fushia lotus lanterns with white scrolls hanging from them which had dreams and wishes written on them. The whole cave was cool and dark, lit only by the golden tealights inside and the sunlight that dimly came in through the entrance. It smelled of burned out incense and moist stone. Yes, stone does have a scent. I did my own bows on the floor in front of the main Buddha statue and took of bunch of pictures, even though photos wouldn’t do it justice.

After looking around the Bat Cave, my friend and I saw the temple that had artwork of the monks in fighting poses and battle scenes, which baffled me because I know Buddhism is non-violent. They were striking nonetheless and inside of the temple was equally so. The dawn went by quickly and we had breakfast and then tea back at the Sunmudo center with a monk. Here we got to ask questions and the monk that answered them was really hip. He was a sharp dude and really funny, totally breaking all my notions of how I previously thought monks acted; calm and sinister, with a slow way of talking filled with Buddhist lingo that can be hard to interpret to the non-Buddhist ears. He decided to become a Buddhist monk in his late teenage years and came to Sunmudo because of his interest in spirituality and past training in Taekwondo. He has been all over Korean and other parts of Asia giving Sunmudo demonstrations. The temple stayers sipped tea and asked questions. I was able to get a quick picture with him and then our group toured other parts of Gyeongsan and then came back to the temple for lunch.

       This time we had a ceremonial style lunch where we were all given a set of brown bowls and taught how to place the bowls, napkin, and chopsticks in formation in front of us on the floor. Each bowl was for a certain kind of food, rice in the large bowl, soup in the next then the side dish and then kimchee. Everything we did had an order, and we were suppose to eat in silence; no talking or making noise with our eating utensils and we had to finish everything that was put in our bowls. The cleaning part was the most difficult. We had to save a piece of white kimchee, rinse off the spices in the soup, scrub out every bowl with it to pick up the leftover food like a sponge, and then eat the kimchi. Then water was poured into the large bowl where we had to pour it in to the other bowls, clean it, and then drink the water. Yummy. A monk said that it is the most ecological way that humans can eat. I agree. Everything is consumed and clean up takes hardly any water. (I did still hope that the bowls I had eaten out of were cleaned the non-Buddhist way with soap and hot water!) After lunch said our goodbyes to the monks and departed the Golgul Temple.

The meet up group then paid a visit to Korea’s largest Buddhist temple about an hour away from the one we stayed at, nestled in the mountains at National Park Mt. Kaya, called Haeinsa Temple. Houseing over 500 monks, it is the largest practicing Buddhist Temple in Korea. It took a mile hike to get to the entrance of this one and it was well worth it. Unlike Gulguksa, this temple’s shrines and structures were close together. One building followed the next and each was bordered with gates and tight court yards. To me it resembled palaces I have seen more than Buddhist temple grounds. The buildings rose up the mountainside; each layout of shrines towering over the level before it. Walking up the dozens of stairs to the next level was like walking straight up a ladder. It gave Haeinsa an extremely grand and almost intimidating feeling. Stone figures of dragons, lions, and Asian carp were on every edge and corner. The art that covered nearly every wall was so intricate and colorful it took a few minutes of looking at it to actually take it all in. The middle of the grounds featured a huge library full of old Buddhist scriptures and tablets. Time for me here was minimal so I tried to take in as much of it as possible and with the last few minutes to go I ran the mile back to the bus. Stow away made it just in time. On the way back to Seoul I thought about all these ancient and unreal places I had seen in one weekend. I had trained with Sunmudo monks, explored a vast temple ground in the wee hours of the morning, meditated in a beautiful temple, and had a peculiar midnight’s dream all in a weekend trip that was never supposed to happen. . .