Happy Korean Lunar New Year to One and All! it is now officially the year of the rabbit.
We celebrated the New Year by spending a night and two days doing what is called a Temple Stay. Myogaksa is the Buddhist temple we stayed at, it is in the centre of Seoul built on a mountain. Myogaksa is only 100 years old, which is really young in temple terms, but it radiates energy, peace and compassion.
Our leader is this wonderful quirky nun called Yeo Yeo. She is so inspiring and she led us through the initial stages of what it means to be a Buddhist and the life of a monk or nun in a temple. She also spoke about the 108 prostrations that every Buddhist should do every day. The prostrations are made up as follows (however I am open to correction), we have 6 senses (the five that we know plus thought) now those 6 sense can betray us and lead us astray in terms of leading a pure and compassionate life, and because we are not alone in this world we take our 6 senses and we multiply them by the 6 in another person that we may encounter in a day, so that gives us 36. Then, Buddha also speaks of time as being cyclical and continuous with their being no separation between past present and future (a linear (foolish) approach), so each time we restrict ourselves by the 3 tenses we are also limiting our capacity to open ourselves up to our inner Buddha mind. So 36x3 is 108. And there are your 108 prostrations...which convert to 108 bows that must be performed everyday. The bow has to include both your knees, your forehead and your palms touching the floor, a humble and low position to remind you that you are no more than the lowest person in the world. Make no mistake, the bows are strenuous and a killer on your knees and quad muscles.
When you arrive you are given orange trousers and a top to put on, this is your garb for the duration of the stay. We looked like we could have been on the set of prison break, while also looking kinda zen and cool. it was strange, but super comfy. Our first task was to learn about the basic tenents of Buddhism and the 3 minds one has to let go of before you can access your inner Buddha. Which was fascinating, the first layer is your Greedy mind, then your angry mind and finally your foolish mind. We have such an abundance of all three that it is a daunting task trying to let go of all of that...but one can only every try. So we have begun to acknowledge those 3 states of unhappiness. After this talk, we had the opportunity to go to the bell and help the nun gong the bell. The bell is rung twice every day, it is about 12 times at 5am (I say about because I tried to count this morning, but I was too caught up in the view and the sensation of it all that I lost count, my bad) and 7 times at 4:30pm It is a giant ancient bell that has a deep resonating sound that pulsates right to your bones. Like a heavy base speaker, only less aggressive on your senses, this just penetrated right into your body and then reverberated around your skin until the next gong. It was magnificant, and if I had to go after that I would not have felt cheated in any way. The nun chants while she is moving the giant wooden gong towards the bell, 3 at a time we got to place our hands on the wooden gong and swing it with her.
From the bell ringing we silently made our way into the actual temple, chanting room, for their evening service. No talking is allowed, so we duly copied everything the nun did and we have our first taste of doing multiple bows. It is heavy going, but so elevating at the same time. The temple is magical and painted in the Korean Buddhist style. The colours are the Korean national colours: blue, green (mainly), yellow, white, red and black. With a healthy dose of gold. The ceiling and walls were covered in lotus flowers, dragons and Buddha's. The Buddha statue was gold and mesmerising. Sadly that was the only time we were allowed in the temple.
From there we went back into the meditation room and began our own 108 prostrations, with a twist. Each time we lifted our heads from the floor (but not actually the floor, we had lovely mats) we strung a juniper wood bead onto thread. At first my pile of beads seemed to not dwindle at all, but my legs were stinging and I thought my knees were going to give out altogether. But then you get into it and you just relax into it and in no time (45 min) my beads were finished and I had done my first (and not my last) prostrations and I also had my own meditation beads to boot! They smell delicious and are soft to the touch, I never want to take them off. In a slightly stiff manner we all went to eat dinner, which was all vegetarian (my heart was so happy) and scrumptious.
Now came the tricky part. Our first meditation. We were asked to sit in lotus position, which is so difficult, but thankfully I was able to sustain it for 2 out of 3 meditation sessions before my ankles protested too much and I though I was never going to be able to unfurl them ever again. This session lasted 10 min only, but it felt like an hour and throughout that period it was almost impossible to stop the thoughts from entering my mind. We were supposed to concentrate on our breathing and count every breath...so hard. It takes a training monk or nun 2 years to master the counting to 100 without having any other thoughts. Only then will your zen master give you a single word to recite over and over, often the word is 'nothing', because this is the state you want to achieve with your mind - a state of nothing where you can view your mind and actions as if from a distance. Sheesh. It is difficult. We did 2 more meditation sessions this morning, that nothing state is very far off for me.
Sleep time was tricky for me as all the women were in a single room on Korean style floor mattresses. One person snored loudly and I was finished for the rest of the night. I didnt get much sleep what with my own sinus pain and the other individuals loud nasal emissions. So 4:30 rolled around and I was only too eager to get off the floor and back into action. We were not allowed to talk at all when we woke up until after out meditation session. So all morning activities were done in silence, which was bliss. We assissted with the bell once again and then headed on down for our meditation. from there, with the sky still very much without a sun, we went up to learn about the life of the Buddha we all know, who really is only one of the Buddha's. They have a series of 8 paintings depicting the main elements of his life, so Yho Yho taught us about his life and teachings and then we were quizzed. Wonderfully my mom had taught me most of it just through our long chats lazing on her bed or from various films we watched, so I aced the quizz. woot! For our efforts we were each given another smaller set of meditation beads that go on our wrist, so we can have them on us always. Once our tummy grumblings became too loud Yho Yho released us into the dining hall where we ate tons of food to get ourselves ready for our hike up the mountain. So beautiful and punctuated with the history of Korea and how Seoul was built according to Feng Shui between 3 mountains. Korea has such a deep heritage, it is quite astounding.
Our hike included a brief swing on the highest swing in Seoul - hilarious and so much fun, we reckon we will go back to that swing.
Once back at the temple we had our final activity, which was a traditional Korean tea ceremony. Which is surprisingly complex and steeped in Korean Buddhist heritage, it was amazing being a part of that.
Sadly we had to derobe and gather in the main courtyard to say farewell...however we were given the opportunity to meet their zen master! who came out and greeted us and said that we were a special group as we had ushered in the new year with Myogaksa.
The whole experience was magical.
I miss you all and wish you would come visit me, I would take you straight to Myogaksa.
love you
