Templestay: Myogaksa Temple

Walking up to the temple...it's right amongst other apartments and houses

Temple entrance

Something that I've hoped to experience since arriving in Seoul is Templestay. Templestay is a program that Korean Buddhist temples provide, allowing a visitor to experience the life of a Buddhist practitioner. Mal and I signed up for the 2 day, one night program.

One of the unique things about Myogaksa temple is that it is located in the heart of downtown Seoul. It's location is unique as most temples are in the country--thus giving it a very urban feel. Upon arriving at Myogaksa temple, we were greeted and given temple clothing and a name tag. There were about 15 Koreans and maybe 10 of us foreigners.

The room where we'd sleep and also learn about Buddha's life

Mal & I in our temple clothes

First, we all went to the meditation room to meet Yeo-Yeo, our nun (female monk) that would be leading our stay. We all introduced ourselves, and our reasons for being there. Then, we sat with her as she introduced us to the main principles of Buddhism and explained to us that we "all have a Buddha mind and we can all find it, if we so choose."

Incredible painting in the meditation room

All of us in the meditation room preparing to have our first lesson on Buddhism

Next, we went to ring the bell on the roof of the temple before we took part in the evening ceremony. I believe this is the largest bell I've ever seen up close in person. When it rings, you can feel the vibration in your body. Supposedly, when it's rung, people all the way down in "living hell" get a short relief from pain and suffering. I guess it's a powerful bell...

The bell to initiate morning and night ceremonies

Then we went into another room to have our night ceremony which involved praying, prostration and chanting sutras.

Night ceremony room

Ceiling of the ceremony room, covered with hand made lotus flowers

Next, we went back into the meditation room where we were to do our 108 prostrations. Prostrations are a gesture or a method of bowing. You are supposed to only focus on your breathing during this time. You bow forward with hands together, then get on your knees, then get all the way to the ground, resting your forehead on the "earth," lift your hands up and down and then get up slowly.

This is my cushion where I was to complete my 108 prostrations. In the blue bag are 108 prayer beads. Each time I did a prostration, I would string a bead, therefore knowing I was not finished until all of my beads were strung.

The 108 prostrations represent our basic mental suffering. These sufferings arise from our six senses: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body (touch) and mind. From these senses you can have 3 reactions: likes, dislikes or neutral feeling which lead to joy, sorrow or indifference. If you multiply the 6 senses with the six reactions you get 36. Then you multiply that by 3 for time as with time there is: past, present, and future. Boom. You've got 108. If you want to learn more about this, click here. The purpose of the prostrations is to try and rid ourselves of all of the negative energy and purify ourselves. I definitely felt as though the process was meditative, however after 108, I was a bit tired. And hungry?

The food options were 100% vegetarian--which is fine by me. The rules for eating were eat everything on your plate and no talking during mealtime.

Dinner: rice, cabbage soup, veggies, potatoes, pears for dessert...delish actually

Mal and I were tired even though bed time was only 10:00pm!

The beautifully painted ceiling in our room

Wake up call: 4:30am sharp. First we rang the bell. Then we went into the meditation room to give meditation its first try. Let me say, not so easy. All of us in the room, facing Yeo Yeo, sitting legs crossed--if you're flexible enough--lotus position, back totally straight, arms resting on your legs with your hands creating a circle, and eyes staring out to the ground about 1 meter. First we did it for ten minutes. You are not supposed to make a sound, move, flinch, even swallow. Just breathe. For those first ten minutes my mind was BUZZING. I thought I was going to barf, move, freak out, laugh...but alas my mind showed through and I did it! Then we did it for 45 minutes!! (with a small break in the middle for us beginners) It's funny how when you're trying to meditate and only think about breathing, your mind wants to think about everything else. I guess that's the idea...trying to clear your mind. Hard work but I enjoyed it.

After the meditation we got to see a beautiful sunrise--we had already done a lot before 7:30am

Breakfast: very similar to dinner: rice, tofu, veggies, soup and oranges

Next we Yeo Yeo told us the story of Buddha's life with these 8 hand painted pictures

The next part of our stay included a hike up the mountain that the temple is built on. It was a beautiful morning for a hike. Yeo Yeo told us about some of the history of the city of Seoul and its mountains.

We also came upon this very large swing: first swing I've seen in Korea. Supposedly when a girl rides this swing, boys hide in the trees and come out and find her on the swing and they fall in love. <3>

The last part of our stay was the tea ceremony. It is a very formal ceremony that the monks and nuns take part in.

Mal and I looking cheery before the tea ceremony

Our tea set: for David, Mallory and I

Yeo Yeo explaining how to first clean all of our dishes with hot water before we proceed with the making and drinking of the tea

One of the temple members had donated mini cakes for our stay--they were yum

David, our tea master, did an excellent job

Me as tea master: serving the delicious Korean green tea that goes for $30-$40/bag!

Us with Yeo Yeo at the end of our stay.

Yeo Yeo is truly one of the most beautiful people I have ever met; both inside and out. She is a woman of almost 50, has a shaved head and wears no makeup. Yet she was stunning. I think, she was actually glowing. When we first met her, she told us about her happiness and how she was going to share it with us. I believe she truly did so.

Baby's First Birthday: "Tol"

In Korea, a baby's first birthday is cause for a large celebration. This is because if the baby made it to this milestone, they are considered to be very lucky. In the past, due to poor medical resources, early childhood diseases, and Korea's fluctuating weather, the death rate for children prior to one year-old was very high.
I was invited to such a celebration, for my friend Ho Young's son.
The parents and baby are dressed in hanbok (traditional clothing) that is so ridiculously cute. The highlight of the Tol is the fortune telling ritual. The baby is placed at a table in front of items such as money, a paintbrush, a stethoscope, a book, a microphone, a sword, and food. Next, the baby must choose his/her destiny. If he chooses money, he will be rich; a paintbrush, an artist; a stethoscope, a doctor; a book, a scholar; a microphone, on TV, a sword, a military agent; food, a government official.
Naturally, HoYoung was whispering to his son to pick up the money. The lil guy however went for the microphone! Watch out HoYoung, looks like he's going to be famous.

Another visitor in Seoul...

If you can believe it, I had yet another visitor in Korea! Jared came first....then my parents came...and as of recently, my boyfriend came to see me! I feel so lucky to have such great people in my life to take the time and effort to come and visit me on the other side of the world!
So my bf and I have an interesting story. We have 100 mutual friends and had heard each others' names many times before, but had never met. And although we started dating in the fall of 2010, we had never properly met until he came to visit this past January. It wasn't hard to find him at the airport being that he was the only person with blond hair. But do you know how hard it is to walk up to someone that you've never met in person yet feel like you know so well and just say "hi."? Talk about butterflies.
So we survived that and had the best 12 days together! There was a lot of asking each other questions like, "so what is your favorite color?" and "what do you like to do for fun?" There were also some thumb wars (I forgot how stupid-fun that is) and a LOT of eating Korean food. He observed some of my classes, met my friends and coworkers, and we all went to an alien norebong (karaoke room) together. Great times! Then, unfortunately, he of course had to return home. It was sad to say goodbye, but so glad we decided to make it work. See you in the spring, Josh. :)

Ballet in Korea

I FINALLY found a ballet studio in Seoul.

Ahem. I started this post about 4 months ago. As I said previously, my blogging has slightly fallen by the wayside. So I've been dancing again for the past 5 months twice a week. I found this tiny ballet studio in a university area. It's not exactly convenient to get to...seeing as it takes about 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes to get back home after the hour and 15 minute class. At first I was a bit apprehensive taking a class where all of the instruction would be in Korean. After my first class however, I realized, no matter what country you're in, ballet remains the same. Dance is dance, no matter where you are. And even though my teacher is speaking in words that I cannot understand, she dances and I follow and I learn. I've even started wearing pointe shoes again. Yeah...I forgot how much that hurts.
My teacher is amazing. She majored in ballet at her university and danced for a couple of years professionally and is now teaching at several studios. She is stunningly beautiful, graceful, elegant, equipped with an exquisite technique...and is one of the most incredible dancers I have ever seen. Needless to say, she motivates me a great deal. Finding this dance studio has been one of the best things that has happened to me since being in Korea. It only took me one class to remember that dancing is one thing that makes me utterly happy...where during that entire block of time in class, I think of NOTHING else, besides: work hard, work your hardest, keep trying, push yourself, you can do it...and oh my GOD I love this.



P.S. Here is the variation we just learned from Don Quixote. (don't have video of myself, so please enjoy Paloma Herrera doing an incredible job.)