myogaksa (묘각사) templestay

this saturday, jacki and i participated in a templestay program at myogaksa buddhist temple. there's programs like this all over korea, and they're popular with koreans and foreigners a like. there were 16 people in our program, 7 were foreigners, 9 were korean, and everyone spoke english. the program was done entirely in english, with a few things said in korean that were gladly translated by the other participants.

we arrived at the temple at 2:30pm on saturday. the temple is located at the base of naksan mountain and is only about a 30 minute subway right from mine and jacki's neighborhood. it's pretty neat because this temple is right amongst the city.

walking up to myogaksa temple

myogaksa temple entrance

during our stay we:

• introduced ourselves, and met the others in our program
• learned about buddhism and it's principles
• participated in a bell ringing ceremony
• participated in a ceremony in the main chanting room
• learned and performed the 108 bows
• ate dinner: dinner is all vegetarian, eaten in silence, and you must eat everything that's on your plate
• learned about and practiced meditation
• yo-yo compared buddhism to various movies (kung-fu panda, lord of the rings, avatar)
• bedtime: lights out by 10:30
• wake up: 4:30am to prepare ourselves for the bell ringing ceremony at 5am
• practiced 45 minutes of meditation, which is incredibly challenging
• learned the history of buddha, and yo-yo gave us a quiz
• breakfast: all vegetarian, eaten in silence, must eat everything that's on your plate
• a hike up naksan mountain, and walking meditation
• closing tea ceremony where yo-yo taught us the proper etiquette and also how to make tea 

this is the room where we slept and learned about buddha's life..

 jacki and me in our temple clothes..

this was the room where our nun, yo-yo, taught us about buddhism, meditation and where we had our tea ceremony..meditation was by far the most challenging part of this program. you'd think sitting still in silence wouldn't be so difficult, right? not the case. you sit up straight, legs crossed, hand in hand with your thumbs creating a circle (if you break the circle the zen master will know you're sleeping, and can hit you on the shoulder with a  bamboo stick). you're supposed to have your eyes open, but not all the way, and focus 1 meter in front of you on the floor. you're supposed to concentrate on your breath and nothing else..the room is completely silent.

this great painting was in the meditation room

we rang this bell at 5pm and at 5am..this bell is very powerful, and it's supposed to reach all the way down to hell and pause those down there who might be feeling pain and free them of it for a moment..

this was my mat for the 108 bows..and the making of my own 108 prayer beads..yo-yo taught us how to breath properly and go through the bowing process. it was rather exhausting..

we made prayer beads..

my dinner: rice, soup, kimchi, mushrooms, broccoli, 2 types of korean style pancakes, fried potatoes and asian pears..

our sleeping mats...no one really slept well. it's tough to go to bed early when you're not used to it..

after the morning bell ceremony we saw a beautiful sunrise..

my breakfast: rice, 2 types of kimchi, soup, mushrooms, fried tofu, orange and apple slices..

temple shoes that everyone had to wear..

ceiling detail in the room that we slept

lotus flowers on one of the temple doors..

yo-yo, during our naksan hike. she is probably the happiest person i've ever met. she was a wonderful leader, had such great stories, and really made the program great.

on top of the mountain there is a huge swing (the largest in korea). it's said that "beautiful girls" would swing on it, and then "handsome men" would look on from the forest, and come out to meet the girls and fall in love.

yo-yo and our new friend yeong tae (david), he did a lot of translated for us.

this buddha at the temple faces directly east so that the sun rises on it every morning.

yo-yo explaining the tea ceremony to us..

david, our groups tea master, made us delicious green tea. david is 25, speaks korean, english and japanese, he hopes to get a job with a japanese trading company.

david and jacki

jacki made our second round of tea..the tea is very expensive and the temple buys it from another nun who grows it outside the city. it's about $40/bag..

 tea ceremony..

this is a group of friends that made a "university" (club) that promotes enjoying life, and not just devoting their life to their studies, and what everyone says they should be doing. they were all very fun, and it's nice to see some koreans, especially at the university/job-seeking age that have a different idea of success and happiness than getting the best job in a major company.

a temple member donated cakes for our stay..

my name tag, between "myogaksa templesay" and "mallory gru" is my name in the korean alphabet--the character that looks like a backwards "S" is the character for both L and R, that's why there's so many..

overall this was a great experience. do i want to live in a temple and become a buddhist nun? no. but this was a great way to learn about the religion and life of someone who devotes themselves to it. we also met a lot of different people who were all participating in this for different reasons. there were the university kids just trying to do something fun together, there were students trying to escape the stresses of graduating and trying to find a job, there was a US military soldier who had a weekend free, some girls from the netherlands here on vacation, and army therapist stationed up at the DMZ, and then jacki and me. yo-yo and her assistant yo-ma-soong-nim made our experience very enjoyable. they were both so knowledgeable and full of life, and just genuinely happy, and if there's one thing that they stressed over and over about you and your life is that only you can control your happiness and only you can control your choices and your path in life..