My head hurts and I just got back from a 24 hour Buddhist temple stay. Actually we were not there 24 hours. First we had trouble getting out of Seoul. I don't know who the directions came from, but they were hard to follow, even though we stopped several times to ask. Street signs in Korea are also hard to follow. I don't know how the driver and navigator managed. We two in the back seat watched Ice Age 2 on the minivan's DVD system.
Then we found a primitive and touristy market with a temple sign. So we parked, grabbed our gear and headed up the mountain. On the way up, we passed an old woman selling cooked bugs. Silk worms actually, by the cup. Robert bought a cup. He had one and Tommy had one and I nibbled one. It wasn't bad, but the idea of eating a bug... He threw the rest away. That was lunch.
It was a steep mountain, and I had packed a large duffel bag of warm clothes anticipating a cold stone temple. When we got to the top, huffing and puffing, we learned a valuable lesson. Make sure you have the right temple. We dragged it all back down. Just down the main road was the temple in our directions. Again we loaded up our stuff and trudged up the mountain, only to find the it wasn't right either. We had directions to the wrong place. So we called the place we intended to go and luckily we weren't far away. When we got there, thankfully we could drive right up to where we wanted to go. It was not a stone temple, but more like summer camp with small wooden buildings, but with heated floors. SO I didn't need to wear all those warm clothes. But carrying them up and down 2 mountains did keep me warm.
First we were given gray clothes to wear: a shirt, a vest and pants. Then assigned a room to change. The room had a gray quilt on the floor and a stack of pillows and bedding in one corner. We dressed and met in the common area at the tea table: a low table covered in teacups, teapots, and various teas. We sat on flat square cushions. At 4 pm we went to the Buddha hall to learn how to enter, bow, chant and kneel. At 6 we met in the dining hall for supper. Again we sat on low cushions at low tables and ate with chopsticks. There were signs in several places admonishing us to eat in silence, but no one else did. We were joined by 2 other Americans (ladies teaching English at Korean schools) and a Korean couple. The monks ate at a separate table.
After supper, we went to the Buddha hall to chant and bow and kneel. Then we went to the meditation center where we were instructed how to meditate. On the inside it looked like stone, but turned out to be wallpaper. Then we walked back to our rooms where we had time to ourselves before 'lights out' at 9:30. We were informed that someone would bang on a hollow wooden instrument at 3:40 the next morning for early prayers and the 108 prostrations. Well, my leg hurt from walking up and down mountains and kept me awake. Also I kept hearing the sound of a wooden block and thinking it was time to get up. It went on interminably. Finally I couldn't wait to get up. Then when the call came, my roommate had a hard time getting up. I waited for her and as a consequence we were 30 seconds late for the session at 4am. We got there and the door was locked. We waited and listened to the chanting for a few minutes, but it was too cold to stay, so we went back to bed. We also missed the following meditation. But they knocked on our door for breakfast at 6am. No one said anything about our missing the early session. I wasn't looking forward to 108 prostrations and an hour of chanting on our knees. So I wasn't disappointed.
Breakfast consisted of peanut-flavored rice, seaweed, kimchi, onions(?), and turnips. After breakfast we had a walk around the grounds with one of the monks, but he didn't say much. We had tea with another monk. Most of them were younger than me. But I was the oldest of our group. To make the tea, water is heated in an electric pot. Tea leaves are put into a small teapot. The monk fills the teapot with water and pours it immediately into a bowl. The bowl has a small spout and is used to dispense tea into the cups. After the bowl is passed, he fills the teapot again and refills the bowl. He got at least 4 bowls of tea from one set of leaves. He told us that in the spring, they pick and dry chrysathemum petals (did he mean forsythia?) and make tea.
Next came a calligraphy session. We were given a large thin sheet of paper over a written parchment, and a brush and inkwell. No instruction. So we traced our papers and cleaned out the ink wells. At 11am was another chanting session in the Buddha hall. At 11:30 was lunch. Then we folded up our bedding and changed our clothes. We packed and left. I was never so happy to sit in a seat. I am surprised to be so ambulatory after sitting on the floor so long.
On the way home we watched Shrek. But this time I got a headache and nausea. We had a little trouble finding the way back. But I was so happy to go home, I could have kissed the ground when I finally got back to the base. Chris brought me home and I slept until supper time. Ahhhhh!
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