Beth Salerno

Staying the Night at a Buddhist Temple

January 20, 2008 Author: Beth Salerno

We are awoken at 4 am by the rhythmic striking of a wooden block (moktak), while a novice monk chants and then rattles our doors.  It is dark and cold as we hurriedly dress and head up the hill to morning prayer.  The stars are still visible, with Venus shining blue where Mars had shone reddish the evening before.  A seventh century carving of Buddha is lit high up on a cliff, facing out toward the still-far off dawn.

Sitting cross legged on the floor, we listen as the maroon and yellow-robed monks chant Buddhist sutras.  About 30 high school children surround us in the prayer room.  They are poking each other to stay upright and awake.  At 5 am we turn to sitting meditation, focusing on our breathing.  We try to ignore the novice monk walking the room with a bamboo stick, tapping those who slouch or who have been distracted by the cold.  Then it is walking meditation, which begins in agony as muscles that have cramped and feet that have fallen asleep try to carry us uphill.  At 6 am we file down to Buddhist breakfast (paru gongyang), a Sunday celebration of food and those who produce and prepare it.  We are taught to focus solely on our food, to eat quickly and thoughtfully, and to clean our bowls carefully, wasting neither a grain of rice nor a sesame seed.  That focus is a bit broken as we race to finish before the head monk does, since his timing determines when they come to check our bowls.

These are a few scenes from our one night stay with the Buddhist monks of Golgul Temple in Gyeongju South Korea, near the western coast.   Many Buddhist communities welcome overnight visitors as a source of income and an opportunity to expose more people to the tenets of Buddhist practice.  This particular temple focuses on the preservation and transmission of sunmudo, a martial art originally developed among Buddhists in Korea.  It was used by “fighting monks” who were central in the defense of the nation from Japanese invasion in the 16^th century. 

Our stay began with an explanation of what would occur.  Then we moved into our housing, dorm room like accommodations with Korean-style bedding in the middle of the temple grounds.  Tod has his own room on the men’s floor and a former Saint Anselm College student and I shared one on the women’s floor.  Then we wandered, checking out Golgulsa’s famous ”caves,” which are deep ledges on a weathered cliff side, where monks could sit and meditate for hours at a time. Buddhist shrines have been set up all over the cliffside.  Even with stairs, a handrail, and a rope, it was tough going - one could easily imagine the difficult time monks had in the 7^th century, climbing up in the dark.  After breakfast on Sunday we climbed it in the dark and watched the sun rise over the distant mountains under the benevolent eyes of that 7th century Buddha.

Our schedule said we were to spend part of the evening chanting and then participating in sunmudo training.  We had no idea how strenuous this would be. Buddhists bow before Buddha 3 times upon entering or leaving a room, multiple times during chanting, 108 times once a day in prayer and 3000 times in times of need.  Properly practicing Buddhists must have leg muscles of steel!  A bow in the Seoul style consists of the following:  Stand with feet together and hands palm to palm in front of your chest.  Squat and bring your knees to the floor.  Bring your hands to the floor, so you are kneeling and then bring your head to the floor.  Balancing on your elbows, bring your hands up and rotate them as if you were throwing something over your shoulders.  Return your hands to the floor, move your weight back onto your feet, put your hands palm to palm again, and stand.  After 30 bows we were moving slowly enough to skip every other one.  At 60 bows I lost count.  When we were finished, I was grateful.  Then we began stretching for sunmudo training!

Luckily training for us consisted of breathing exercises used to center the mind, and some basic sunmudo moves emphasizing balance and strength.  By the end, even bed on a thin mattress in a dorm room sounded absolutely heavenly.

We ate three meals at the temple.  All were vegetarian, emphasizing the Buddhist belief in the sacredness of life.  They were also remarkably plain, as Korean Buddhists do not use garlic, onions or most spices.  Dinner and lunch were served cafeteria style and focused on really tasty bean sprouts, various greens, and soybean-paste soup.  We were warned not to take any more food than we could eat; our trays would not be accepted with any leftovers on them.   This was a marked contrast to traditional Korean eating patterns.  We wondered if it helped to mark how different Buddhist life was from the more modern, abundant world outside the temple.

We finished our visit with some side excursions to other Buddhist sites in the area.  Gameunsa’s stone pagodas were built in 682 AD by King Sinmun.  His father, King Munmu, had unified the Korean peninsula for the first time.  Munmu was buried in “the world’s only sea tomb” amid these off shore rocks, where he hoped to turn into a sea dragon to protect his people forever. We also saw Girimsa, a much larger, somehow more peacefully laid out temple.  Perhaps the focus on prayer rather than martial arts affected the feel of the temple, or perhaps it was simply we enjoyed its flatness, rather than hiking up a 20% grade before every meal.

One day and night barely introduced us to a religion that has been in Korea since the fourth century A.D.  But it was a fascinating start. 

For images from other Buddhist temples and gravesites I have visited during my stay here, please click on one of the pictures in this blog.  From there, click on the words “Buddhism set” on the right hand side of the flickr photo page.  The Buddhism set has 45 images from at least 10 temples.

Entry Filed under: Tod's visit, religion, History