Anyways, this past weekend Nate and I made our way out to the Geumsana Temple in Gimje, Jella-buk do, not that the location of it means anything to all of you on the other side of the world, but just in case you were wondering. The weekend started off pretty hectic. You see, I was suppose to be on a train to Seoul by 7:30 am in order to catch the bus by 9:00am. But unfortunately, my cell phone alarm decided to be stubborn and not go off so I woke up at 8:10 am rather than the planned 6:00 am. I panicked, packed my bag as fast as a could, and then hopped in the first cab I saw to seoul knowing I was about to drop like 40,000 won on the trip. However, the only cab that was available happened to be a VIP cab which means it cost double...so after a 2 hour long trip through traffic I arrived at the bus terminal at 10:05 am with 84,000 won less in my wallet. Quite the expensive cab ride considering the entire weekend at this temple only cost 89,000 won. But hey, I am not one to bail on planned trips last minute just because my cell phone alarm didn't go off.
I was obviously the last person to arrive and the entire trip really was pissed at me for having to wait for so long. But I could care less, I had just spent almost $100 dollars on a cab ride and I had at least made it onto the bus. So off we went to the temple on a bus ride that ended up being about 4 hours long. Upon arriving at the temple we quickly were given our sweet monk robes and our hosts showed us the Buddhist house that we would be sleeping on the floor in.
So we all went to a room and sat in the standard Buddhist position, as pictured above, and learned how to bow, walk, and basically do everything in the proper Buddhist way. We got really lucky with a monk who actually had a sense of humor and liked to joke around a lot. Apparently, that is really rare and most monks take their monk life too seriously and are super strict. So we started off by making some sweet lotus lanterns and then after doing a few different Buddhist exercises we made our way to what was the most quiet dinner i have ever been to.
Eating in a temple is very interesting because they dont throw away one molecule of food. If you take more than you can eat...well...lets just say you stay in the dining hall until you finish it. Anyways, check out the cafeteria while we were eating...feel free to blast the sound on your computer...if you are lucky you might hear crickets outside.
So we later had some question time with our Master Monk and then after having some tea and rice cake we made our way to bed around 10:00 pm. 5 hours later, I woke up earlier than I think I ever have in my entire life, 3:00 am. Apparently its the norm to wake up at absolutely ridiculous hours in order to bow 108 times in front of the Buddha statue. And these aren't just any normal bows...these are crazy Buddhist bows that seem more like some type of exercise routine. They aren't exactly what you want to be doing at 3:00am. Let's just say that monk life is not for me. Here is a video clip the 3:00 am bowing session...
After some morning meditation we made our way back to our sleeping quarters to have one of the most interesting breakfast experiences I have ever had. At breakfast we have four different bowls...
Bowl #1 holds rice
Bowl #2 has soup
Bowl #3 has side dishes
Bowl #4 has cleaning water
After eating every single morsel of food, they pour rice water into bowl #1...you then use a small slice of radish to scrape the sides of the rice bowl clean. After that you pour the rice water and radish into bowl #2 to clean it as well, then the same with bowl #3. After all 3 bowls are clean you need to drink the dirty cleaning water and eat the slice of radish that you used as a sponge...basically, you eat everything including the natural cleaning ingredients...As I mentioned before, monk life is very interesting and I don't think that it is the life for me. I don't think I could ever get used to having a breakfast such as that one every day of my life....oh, and by the way, they never eat meat.
Our last activity of the day was making Buddhist bead necklaces that had 108 special wooden beads. But of course, like all Buddhist activities, it wasn't simply just putting beads onto a necklace. You had to do one of the full out Buddhist bows each time you put one bead on the necklace. So after finishing 108 more bows I finally had a completed Buddhist bear necklace.
We had a few more activities we were suppose to do, but due to rainy conditions they cancelled them and we had some time to relax and check out the gift shop. We finally boarded the bus around noon on Sunday and then watched The Blind Side on the way home...great movie by the way!
Anyways...so am I happy that I did the temple stay? Absolutely. It is a once in a life time experience and I learned a lot about a lifestyle that I never really new existed. While some things seemed gross or unusual to me, it is something that I will remember forever. Will I ever do another temple stay? No, probably not. Lets just say it is one of those things you are happy to get off the bucket list and then never do again...anyways, until next time, Ahn Nyeong Gey Se-yo!!
Oh and check out below...I was the monk water boy. And yeah, its a pretty serious job.
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