Temple Stay

 

This weekend I went on my very first Temple stay to the Lotus Lantern Temple. I had plans to go with a coworker and two friends from Uni. We were to head out on Saturday for Incheon, an island just off the west coast near Seoul. Renee, who I met when I first went to Luck, the community farm in Wisconsin that I hold so dear to my heart, lives just south of the city, so we met up on Friday night and she stayed at my place to cut down on travel the night before. We had plans to meet my coworker Val in our neighborhood and then Nathan, a friend who I met through Lizzie, a couple of train stops away where we would catch a bus to the Temple.

The thing is that Renee woke up early morning Saturday too sick to go along. She was tremendously ill, unable to even keep water down. She couldn’t make it home, so I left her at my house miserably tucked into my bed with tea and broth and ramen and gatoraid and bread nearby for when she felt better. I shouldn’t have left her poor soul. It was a decision which I probably should have thought through a bit harder. She had to end up calling her boss to drive 2 hours to pick her up from my house she was so sick.

Since I had invited two other friends I felt the obligation to go on with the plans. So I met up with the other two and we headed towards the Temple.

When we arrived we were handed grey outfits to wear and shown to our rooms. We were told to meet outside about twenty minutes later for tea. I had heard all sorts of horror stories about people’s experience with Temple stays. Things like if you fall asleep during meditation you will get hit with a stick, or if you are late to chant prayers you have to do 100 extra prostration’s, or if you talk during dinner you are not allowed to finish your meal. Well, I think that we visited a reform Temple, because things were quite laid back. Don’t get me wrong, we still had to wake up at 3:30  in the morning (which I surprisingly woke up naturally for) and chant and meditate, and the meals were mostly silent, but there seemed to be more of an emphasis on the foreigner feeling comfortable than there was on adhering to a strict disciplined regiment.

It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend. It felt so good to get out of the city and into the country side. It was my first time doing so since I moved here two months ago. There were certain subtleties that made me miss the farm in Luck a lot.  One of the only major drawbacks was that it was freezing cold. The weather certainly took a turn this past weekend as the last leaves fell from the trees and the first frost came. We were bundled up tight in all of our layers as we ran from the temple to the meditation hall to the dinning area and whatnot. Luckily it was not cold while we slept because in Korea the heat comes up through the floors and since all we had between us and the headed floor was a thin mat, I was nice and warm! The trip home was a bit epic as we had to wait in the cold for an hour and a half for our bus in the nearby village, only to find that the bus was packed and we had to stand for the 1 and a half hour trip back to Seoul.

All in all the trip was really good. I defiantly want to try another one. Oh, for a complete look at all the photos that I took click HERE for a link to my facebook page.