Mihwang-sa Temple Stay

This weekend, a group of us from Gwangju and Mokpo went to a beautiful temple named Mihwang-sa at the southern most tip of Korea and participated in a temple stay.  The whole idea of a temple stay is to give people the experience and insight into the life of a Korean Buddhist monk. 

We arrived on Saturday afternoon and were greeted by the lovely volunteers who took us to our rooms and got us fitted in our attire for the weekend. 

We were then ready to meet at the Great Hero Hall (pictured above) to learn about the history of the temple and how to pray and conduct yourself around the temple and during chanting services.  Mihwang-sa Temple is a unique Korean temple because it is believed (some may say legened) to have been influenced by India in 749, the King of Khotan having guided a ship carrying statues of Buddha using his mystical powers , rather than from China.  On the ceiling of the Great Hero Hall, there were painted images of Sanskrit letters, which I thought was interesting.  During the Japanese invasion, it was burned to the ground, as were so many other buildings in Korea, and it was rebuilt in 1598. 

This woman was the monk that was assigned to guide us:

She was everything that I imagined a Monk to be.  She was very patient with us and our questions and with the translators.  Her sense of calm was contagious.

During the tea ceremony, where we drank cups and cups of green tea, we got the opportunity to ask her questions about herself and her life and Buddhism in general.  This woman has been a monk for 16 years.  She lives in the monastery, spending 10 hours a day in meditation.  During 3 months in the summer and 3 months in the winter, the monks move to a different temple in Korea where they intensively study.  Each monk has a responsibility of service, and this Monk's responsibility is to teach people who come to the temple about Buddhism.
We went to sleep in our respective rooms, behind screened doors, on mats on the floor.

At 4 a.m. the next morning, we were woken up by a Monk circling the Great Hero Hall who was hitting a wooden bell and chanting.  We looked out the window and could see the Monk, enthroned in a cloud of morning mist, stepping in time with each wooden beat, the only light coming from inside the Hall.  As we got ready for the morning chant, a Monk began to hit the giant bell outside.

We silently made our way to the Great Hero Hall, where we sat in silent meditation for about 15 minutes before the Monks began the chanting.  The motion between standing, kneeling, forehead on the ground, hands lifted up, back up to standing became more and more fluid as we continued to repeat this motion several times for 15 minutes. 

Once the chanting was complete, we were moved to another hall where we practiced meditation for 30 minutes. 

After meditation, we had breakfast.  Eating is usually done in silence, but they were very lax with us.  You could not have any left overs on your plate as this is considered very wasteful, so you must only take what you can eat and finish every last grain of rice.

After breakfast, we had to take part in service and sweep and mop our rooms.  We normally would have been responsible for more of the temple grounds, but it was raining the entire time we were at the temple.  Which was actually quite nice and felt appropriate for the setting we were in.  We had a lot of free time, which some spent reading, some spent by sleeping, and some of us went on a short hike through the mountains.

The experience was an incredibly peaceful and insightful time.  It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Gwangju.  The bright lights of downtown, the long hours at work, the easily accessible foreigner watering holes where it's easy to stay out until the sun comes up.  This weekend was a really good reminder for me of what I wanted to accomplish by coming to Korea.  As metropolitan as Korea seems to becoming, how advanced technologically they are, how economically successful they are and educationally frenzied the society seems, it's easy to forget about the quiet places outside of the cities, nestled in mountains.  This, too, is an important part of Korean society.

This weekend was also the 6th month anniversary of my arrival in Korea.  Which means that I'm halfway through my contract and have 6th more months until I'm homeward bound.  This year long contract in Korea is a series of phases, ups and downs, and I'm learning a lot about myself and the world I live in.  Things are always changing, life is lived so fast here.  You make a friend one night, and they're gone the next.  Things seem so transient.  I'm counting down the days until September.  I can't wait for cool days--sweater weather.  Septembers always feels like a time for new beginnings and that's what I hope to remember here.