Monday, February 12, 2007

Zen Buddha

A lot of people share a growing interest in Buddhism – as a religion, a lifestyle or even home deco. I recently started reading “Being zen” and, after spending last week-end homesick, I decided to go on a templestay.

Meet Cheong Ah Sumin 청아 스님, one of the two monks at Jakwangsa temple.

The temple is located in the mountains around Daejeong – a two-hour bus ride from Seoul.

After a 15-minute cab ride from the bus station, I was greeted by a lady wearing what appear to be the most comfortable clothes on earth. She showed me the way to a typically Asian looking door (thin white paper and wooden sticks).

As I walked in, I was greeted by Cedric, a really cool Australian guy who’s in charge of the foreigners on templestays. He also speaks French.

There were 3 other people there – a Korean girl from Daejeong, Mark, a Canadian living in Seoul, and Kelly, a Korean girl living in Seoul. It was probably the first time in my life I was so quiet. I just didn’t feel like talking. And it was ok.


Here's a quick peek of the temple.


We all went for a walk for about an hour around the mountains. The temple is surrounded by what looks like slums or abandoned villages; small alleys filled with all kinds of trash – from refrigerators sitting between two trees, to crates of beer bottles, couches, rusted bicycles, shoes, tiles, flat tires and so on.

The low houses had metal bars or broken windows and often smashed in roofs. They all had half-destroyed metal fences of stakes and some abandoned car sitting in the doorway.

I was told farmers live there, but I couldn’t seem to find any field where someone could grow crops. Only hens trapped in tiny cages, a duck flapping its wing on a front yard, and countless dogs barking at us.

Nonetheless, the surrounding mountains were pretty nice and it felt wonderful to breathe in fresh air far away from the big metropolis.



Back at the temple Cedric gave us a tour. The temple has 3 stories; ceremonies and meditation take place on the second one.

That’s where three enormous golden statues of Buddha are sitting up front, surrounded by three hundred something lit candles, a flat screen TV, a piano and Buddhist paintings. There are three portable radiators because the place isn’t heated and it gets chilly in winter.



As y’all probably already know, upon entering a temple one must take off his/her shoes and bow to the statues. Same when leaving, except that you put your shoes back on!

The 4 noble truths in Buddhism go as follows:
1. Life is suffering
2. Suffering is caused by craving and aversion
3. We can overcome suffering and attain true happiness
4. To end suffering one must follow the 8-fold path

Basically we must detach ourselves from the material world and stop craving for never-ending material needs. We suffer because we always feel like something is missing and/so we’re not happy. If we stop desiring, we’ll be much happier.

The 8-fold path is:
-- Right understanding
-- Right intention
-- Right speech
-- Right action
-- Right livelihood
-- Right effort
-- Right mindfulness
-- Right concentration

Buddhists believe that if one follows those, personal suffering will come to an end.

After the tour we went to a ceremony. It was nice. A woman was hitting the gong and singing. Well, not really singing as much as making sounds. But I enjoyed it. It’s called chanting.



There's a really cool guy who's hitting the giant gong outside every time there's a special occasion - ceremony, waking up, meals, etc. The gongs are in a seperate place, in the outdoor. They are huge and I'm thinking all this stuff (including the giant gold statues) must be worth quite a lot of money...



We bowed to the statues. You should know that Buddha is NOT a God in this religion. He simply symbolizes the possible achievement of attaining enlightenment.

Then we meditated.

At 6pm we had dinner and it was quite good. Everyone ate in the same room, sitting on the floor. Buddhists are vegetarians so we had tofu, delicious mushrooms and other vegetables, kimchi, curry, lots of salad and a really good seaweed/tofu soup.

We had to wait for everyone to be seated before we bowed and started eating. We mustn’t leave food in our plates because waste is not tolerated. And I understand.

We finished dinner with a barley infusion and a really good dessert. I can’t remember the Korean name, but it’s like fried dough with nuts and sugar inside. Yummy!

We all washed the dishes together and the Korean girl from Daejeong told me her life-story. Cedric and I spoke French. It was nice. It had been a while since I had washed dishes with other people. I really think it’s a great moment to bond. Dishwashers are so anti-social!

After dinner I went for a walk alone. I saw another temple.

At 8pm we had a Dharma talk with the monk I mentioned earlier. This was really special.

We sat on the floor and drank lotus flowers tea. He even gave me a bag because I obviously loved it.

This Dharma talk is basically your chance to ask a monk anything you wonder about. And he supposedly gives you enlightened answers.

So we all introduced ourselves and asked questions. The Canadian guy wanted to know what’s real and what really matters.

The Korean girl from Seoul asked about finding your true self. She said she sees two very opposite personalities within her soul and she doesn’t know which one is hers. The monk insisted that she observes herself and then she’ll know. He said what others think doesn’t matter because they don’t know you “inside”.

The Korean girl from Daejeong asked about Buddhism in general. And I asked about mediation and the meaning of life.

The monk was funny and he loved using metaphors. He would make big long pauses before he spoke. He pointed at the teapot and stirred it. The water inside was moving. He said that’s like humans.

Tea is your soul. You move all day long and you soul picks up many different things – some are dirty, some are good. When you meditate, you stand still and it allows your soul to settle down. Then you observe yourself, your thoughts, and you “see” clearly.

As for my very general wondering about life, he laughed.
“What are we doing here?” I asked
“We are making tea.”

He smiled and turned to somebody else. I guess it meant that only the present moment matters.
I learned about the Buddhist precepts.

a) not to take the life of any living thing
b) not to take anything not freely given
c) abstain from sexual misconduct and sensual overindulgence
d) refrain from untrue speech
e) avoid intoxication (loosing mindfulness)

Cedric asked about cloning, which led to a very strange conversation. Overall, we talked for over 2 hours and my legs were killing me.

When I inquired about kids dying at an early age, I think he didn’t really know. I started from the premise that we are reincarnated until we reach enlightenment. Basically your karma must be flawless and then you can break your cycle of reincarnation and stop suffering.

But then, I wondered, what can a child accomplish or how can he improve his karma if he was born with AIDS and dies at an early age. Or if he was a child soldier and got shot. Or whatever.

The monk looked at me, paused a minute, and said “this just shouldn’t happen. Nothing is perfect and so isn’t life. Sometimes there are flaws and that’s on of them.”

I slept on the floor with Kelly. We read for a bit (she also had the “Being Zen” book! I was into Malcom X…) and went to bed, knowing we’d have to get up at 5am. I didn’t go for a shower because they were outside and the idea of my wet body walking through the dark night at minus 5 didn’t enthuse me too much.

When I heard the gong I wasn’t really tired. It started with the sound of a wooden stick bouncing off an empty wooden ball. Like a woodpecker.

I totally hit my head on the doorway but it was ok. Waking up at 5am is definitely not my cup of tea, but it was nice to see the moon and the stars. I could hear the birds singing and a couple of hens too.

We went to the temple and meditated. Then we had breakfast – rice, kimchi, tofu and the same stuff from the previous night. I noticed the giant tigers on the temple. Temples are beautiful - they are quite colorful, with lotus flowers painted on the ceiling. The shapes are very interesting too.

For about 2 hours we could do anything we wanted so I went for another walk. Then I meditated again and finally met the other guys to set up the place for English classes. Yes, English teachers volunteer every Sunday for 4 hours to teach to Korean kids at the temple.

Between 10 and 12 there was the noon ceremony at the main Buddha hall. Chanting and meditation of course, but mainly we did the 108 bows.

108 bows is simple. You are standing up in front of your cushion. Put your hands together. Bow. Then get on your knees, put your hands on the ground and touch the cushion with your forehead. Get up and do it again. 108 times.

For some reason my feet hurt the most. It took about 20 minutes. Afterwards Kelly and I had a good laugh when going down the stairs and realizing how painful our thighs felt!

The lady asked if we wanted to meditate or watch a video. This weird-looking dude and his wife immediately said “VIDEO!!” so I had to sit, crossed-legs on the floor, for an hour, watching a monk talk in Korean. I didn’t understand a single word and was quite bored. But I figured it was the polite thing to do to stay.

After the projection we were told it’d be lunch in about 15 minutes. As I was about to get up, this Korean woman slid her cushion up to me and started speaking to me. Ah. I needed the peace, but she needed to talk I guess. So I listened to her life story and her compliments about me.

We went for lunch, same thing as the night before. After washing dishes I went for a walk. It was such a bright day.

I sat on a pile of abandoned wooden planks between old junk and a deserted building and I read for a while. Even though it was cold outside, the sunlight kept me warm and I stared at the mountains for a moment. “Nothing but blue skies, do I see”…

I went back to meditate in the temple, and then Cedric, Mark and I took a bus back to Daejeong. We caught the 4 o’clock one to Seoul and I pretty much slept the whole time. I was really tired from a wild Friday night party with Woo Kyung and her friends at a karaoke bar. I had slept about 4 hours that night.

Back in Seoul there was hell of traffic. The subway was crowded. Back to reality I guess. I got home, ate dinner and went straight to bed for a good 12-hour sleep.

Now it’s Monday and I would need the day off to cool off and have a little personal introspective but I gotta go to work. Gotta give my students their final test. Gotta. Gotta.

I’m definitely going back to that temple. Meanwhile I’ll beware of my karma and try to practice wisdom and compassion.



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