Cultural Stuff in Korea

Okay so I know I've just been having a blast, but I've been diving into the cultural aspect of things as well (while still having a blast).

Temple Stay:

I spent the night at a Buddhist Temple with a couple of friends and monks.  We arrived at Beopjusa Temple on Saturday around 2pm, where they told us to just relax and walk around the woods and temple area.  We had to do this until 5pm. Very exciting up until now (not really).  Though I did see some new cool things.

You may have seen a picture of that giant golden statue of Buddha, well this was underneath.  Just hundreds of golden buddha statues, each slightly different.

At 5:30 pm we ate dinner.  I was actually surprised at how well the monks are able to cook.  Very impressive.  The rules at dinner were the following: no making any sounds (including slurping food, chewing loudly, scraping your plate or bowl, and talking), and you must eat every last bit of food that you take.

After dinner, we waited until 6:25 for the monks to begin their chanting ceremony.  At 6:25 on the dot, the three monks begin to play these giant drums to let the other monks know that it's time to gather in the main temple.

The monk to the far right is playing at this moment. He's standing in front of the big drum.  He plays for a few minutes and then the next monk will begin to play on the drum simultaneously, allowing the previous monk to step down without a gap in the drumming.  It was pretty cool, and there are actually a lot of people (locals and tourists) who gather to watch this every evening.

We only watched this for a few minutes before moving into the temple with the other monks, where we basically just copied their motions.  It involved a lot of bowing, and kneeling in painful position that I am not used to.  But when they started chanting...man...easily the most bone chilling moment of my life.  You're standing in front of 3 huge golden Buddha statues, and one monk begins to slowly hit a drum.  Then one begins to chant in his deep monk voice.  The others then follow suit, and begin their bowing.  The entire ceremony was really awesome.  I couldn't wait to do it again at 3am the next morning.

Yup. We had to wake up at 3am to the drumming, only to go do this chanting again.  It was way better early in the morning. I don't know why, but it's a pretty interesting way to start a day.  After this we had free time from 4am to 5:30am. Everyone just went back to bed... except for the monks who do this everyday.  Then we had breakfast, and then we got to do our prostrations.

A prostration is when you stand straight up with your hands together in a way that you would put them as if you're about to pray.  Then you submit yourself to something. For example: "I prostrate as a vow to refrain from arrogance."  You would say this, get on your knees, put your face to the ground, palms in the air, back to your knees, hands back together, and then back on your feet.  This is one. It wasn't too bad at first, but that last part starts getting really hard on your knees.  I was feeling it after 108.  

If you're curious why there are 108...this is why.

Why 108 bows? The 108 prostrations represent our basic mental sufferings. These sufferings arise through the meeting of the six sense organs. The eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind and the six sense objects; namely corresponding color, sound, smell, taste, touch and concept.

It is the combination of these organs and sense objects that result in reactions of likes, dislikes or neutral feelings which in turn lead to joy, sorrow or indifference. Take these 6 combinations of sense organs and sense objects and multiply by the three reactions (likes, dislikes, neutral feeling, which turn to joy, sorrow or indifference) to equal 36; then multiply this by three for the past, present and future, giving us 108.

Doing 108 bows helps to sublimate and purify. By completely concentrating body and mind in unison, we rid ourselves of the scattering of energy that sensations and reactions cause us. Our basic nature is pure, infinite and capable of anything, but we keep losing our basic nature through our reactions to these sensory processes. We become incapacitated rather than infinitly capable, and we continue on the cycle of birth and death. But we can break the cycle of 108 sufferings by contantly repeating 108 prostrations, because it is then that the body and mind are pure and integrated as one. Such determination to return to our basic nature will eventually lead us to attain enlightment.

After this we had to go on a two hour walk through the woods.  Talking to other people was prohibited.  We were only allowed to talk to nature.  I looked at nature and thought about a lot of things.  It really was an interesting experience.  I wouldn't do it again, but that's only because I have bad knees.  It was definitely an eye opening experience and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who is slightly interested.  Truly eye opening. 

Oh and they give you pre-monk clothes to wear :)

The monks did their chanting in this temple.  We weren't allowed to bring cameras inside. 

And these were our sleeping quarters. 

Chungbuk Cultural Trip:

We got two days off of work to go have fun, while still getting paid. Awesome!

Our province took our cultural trip to the northernmost province in South Korea called Gangwon-do. 

We made kimchi!!! 

We made rice cakes!!! 

(I didn't take any pictures of this haha)

And we dressed in Korean traditional clothing called Hanbok!!!

And we learned how to fight!! (Just kidding...but I did this anyway)

And after this we went to a water park called Blue Canyon, which is right by Phoenix Park.  Phoenix Park is the location for the 2018 Winter Olympics.  It's kind of a big deal to Koreans.  It was all fun.  

Korean culture is pretty cool.