Korean Ryan Goes to Church

NOTE: This was originally written for my email list on 9/12/2004 (thus the date). I edited it when I reposted it today (10/12/2004). In the post, it's mentioned that I'll get pictures next time. I have them. They should be posted no later than 10/17/2004.

Not church, reallly. A buddhist temple.

The first thing that struck me was the area that the temple was in. If Daejon has a slum, it's this place. First time that I've seen real poverty since I've been in Korea.

That said, the surroundings made the temple stand out even more. The temple was three stories of maticulously painted wood. The detail and color were incredible (pictures eventually, I promise). And the temple sat at the foot of a nice mountain. The view from the third floor was spectacular in one direction and a bit disheartening in the other. Life's like that.

The ceremonies were held in a huge hall on the second floor. The front of the hall had three enormous gold buddhas surrounded by about 500 small ones. Each of the small buddhas had a name tag with one of the people who had spent the night in the temple over the last year. My name will be on one eventually, as I plan to spend the night there in the coming weeks--I just didn't have time to this weekend.

This was a special ceremony for foreigners, so it was mostly inEnglish. The beginning and all the songs were in Korean though. And part of the ceremony was in a language that I didn't recognize. I didn't have a chance to ask what that language was.

As many of you know, I'm not terribly partial to organized religion, but that I have a soft spot for Buddhism. Keeping that in mind, I was really uncomfortable with all the bowing and chanting at the start of the ceremony, but the actual dharma talk was incredible. It gave me a lot to think about.

The talk was by a French Monk who was currently living in Mongolia. She pretty much just got up and winged it--talked about whatever came into her head. But it was really cool because most of what she talked about touched me personally. She talked a lot about things I struggle with in my life. I was really glad to hear it. Life's like that too.

After the dharma talk, everyone went downstairs and had a free lunch. Bibimbap (ummm, spicy vegetables and rice), some seaweed soup, and an orange. It was really good and happily all vegan. They also served tea, but my friend and I had to leave before that because she had plans to go hiking later in the day (she never did actually go).

At any rate, it was an interesting experience and I plan to go backsometime--if for no other reason than to talk to the monks (who werequite interesting) and get some good vegan food.

Ryan