Temple stay

I have been doing quite a lot of different stuff that I have forgotten to document (a lot of it before England, but I got so excited, I had to write about England first) So these next few posts will be very random.

Temple stay:

For those who don't know what one is (like I didn't), this is where you can go and live with the monks for a weekend! Me and a few went and stayed at Haeinsa temple. We got there a bit early and we were able to have a good look around. It is beautiful!!! There is a pond there called 'The Pond of Reflection' (Yeongji), and it is said that the Royal Queen of the Gaya Kingdom had seven sons, but could not climb the mountain to where they were practising Buddhism. So, she prayed to Buddha to let her see her seven sons through the pond of reflection, to watch over them.

There is also this statue made so you can be at one with Buddha, and I thought I fit right in:

So we go to sign in for the temple stay and we are put in our monk clothes which could be even more comfortable than pyjamas!!!

Me and Jason camouflaged

We then had a group talk where we were taught how to meditate; you sit on your cushion in a lotus or half lotus position and place one hand inside the other (palms facing up) and then connect thumbs. We also had to do this hand position when we walked anywhere. Later we walked to the main temple and had a service with the monks. Here we had to do three bows which was nothing compare to the 108 bows we had to do later! You do 108 bows to purify yourself daily (needless to say I only did it this one time). The math is that there are 6 sense organs in Buddhism: eyes, ears, tongue, nose, body and the sixth being the mind. These organs then create reactions which turn into emotions: likes turn to joy, dislikes turn to sorrow and neutral feelings turn to indifference. This then multiplied  by three for past, present and future; so there you have it 6 (sense organs) X 6 (reactions and emotions) X 3 (past, present, future) = 108!!! They played a CD so you know why you prostrate (not to be confused prostate) each time.

My favorite part of the temple stay had to be getting up at 3:00 am (no I'm not being sarcastic) because it was so quiet and beautiful and we went to watch 4 monks play this MASSIVE drum. One monk would bow to the drum and start playing and then move to one side of the drum while another monk would come and they would play together until the first monk left. I cannot possible convey the skill of these monks and how majestic they looked when they throw out their arms, robes billowing, to strike the edges of the drum.

In the eating hall you had to bow to Buddha and you weren't allowed to talk. You were also only supposed to take the amount of food that you can eat and no more which was a problem for me as people know my eyes are bigger than my belly and I tend to stuff food into my pouches and chew really slowly through my food; this occasion was no exception! Luckily at this temple stay they did not wash all the unclean plates and then make us drink the dirty dishwater because of not clearing our plates!

We also had an amazing tour and talk with the head monk, he was adorable! He told us all about the Buddhist way of thinking and also some funny anecdotes about Hae-In-Sa. The mountain used to have many fires and the temple was always in danger but to counteract the fire they started filling the rock with salt and they haven't had a fire since. This has resulted in a ritual of the monks traveling round the mountains and filling rocks with salt, which is then stolen by the old ladies who follow them and take the salt home to use in their cooking! He also told us that some of the new monks have tasks such as not talking for a year or some of them are not allowed to look at the sky for over a year! Later we got to meditate with this head monk and I accidentally fell asleep but managed to keep my posture in place (the only time I think my posture has been in place)!

We also went on a beautiful hike up to what they call a monastery which is just a little version of the temple we stayed at and it was beautiful. Hae-In-Sa is also the home to the Tripitaka Koreana which is the Buddhist teachings on the slates that they used for printing books. There were sssooo many of them and it took one monk 16 years to finish one as he had to bow in between making each character!

It was an amazing weekend! I have to say sorry because I think I have left things out and also due to the tone of the weekend, I didn't feel right taking photos.