This past Wednesday, my culture class visited a Buddhist temple romanized as "Geumseonsa". We met on campus and then headed to the subway for a somewhat long ride to the northern edge of Seoul. Upon arrival, we had a bus ride up the hillside and then a hike up the side of the mountain on a road/stone incline. Check out this house on the walk up:
While the weather had cleared up for us, it was still fairly hot and humid. I was sweating bullets by the time we reached the main gate, but the smell of fresh air was nice.
[The Temple]
The temple had a variety of buildings, the tour guide led us to only a few but we got to walk around most of the other ones. We were shown how to properly bow to the Buddha in one of the halls containing the main Buddha statue. (I apologize as I'm not very well read regarding Buddhism). We also saw another hall where the monks also gather to pray, meditate, and worship. The center entrance is reserved for the monks of the temple while non-monks enter through the sides.
Near the entrance to the temple are some very large instruments. These all have significance when played; see the picture below:
[Chatting with the monk]
We had tea set up for us in one of the buildings and a monk greeted us and let us ask whatever questions we wanted. They said every time someone asks how to become enlightened...we were no stranger to that question either. The monk said you will just "know". Through our teacher who did a lot of translating from Korean, it sounded like once you are enlightened, you see reality as it is - not through your physical eyes, not through any type of filter, just as it exists.
Others asked about life at the temple and how monks interact with the "real world". The response to that question was one of needing to balance wisdom with practice. The way I took it was needing to balance gaining wisdom from life in the temple to practicing a good life with others. The monk said it was a constant...not struggle but maybe challenge for the monks.
We took a few pictures afterwards with the monk and then said our thank yous and goodbyes before heading down the mountain. It was quite a relaxing and serene experience. This may have been because of the streams and small waterfalls and nature all around us but I definitely felt somewhat at peace up at the temple.
[Post-temple]
After returning to Seoul I met up with my friend at the "팔색 삼겹살" restaurant in Sinchon. Their special is 8 different types of pork belly. In addition to all the pork, we got a big seafood soup/stew.
Maybe some of you have met my friend before here (TTMIK).
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