Mountains, Monks, and More Temples (5/26)

C O N T E N T S :

P A R T   I .                    P A R T   I I .              P A R T  I I I .

The foot of Mount Geumjeong

P A R T    I .

H I K I N G   A   mountain at the crack of dawn isn't exactly my preferred activity of choice after a crazy night out, but with my time at Hongbeopsa quickly coming to an end and no other such opportunities in sight, you better believe I took this chance! Not only was this our only opportunity to try the Korean national sport of hiking in ever-beautiful Busan, it was also our only time off before the impending events of Buddha's Birthday and all the responsibilities it entailed. And, despite his innumerable obligations and commitments concerning the ceremonies, the head abbot himself, Juje-Sunim (sp?) joined us on the hike! Hiking in such a beautiful country was a treat by itself, but the addition of such venerable companions made the experience an honor of another kind; all of which was before we really knew the significance of our surroundings and the access our company was to grant us... but I'm getting ahead of myself!




This day was marvelous for more reasons than just one, and the incredulity began well before we hit the mountain. When we woke, we were offered a privilege of another sort: The opportunity to join the Baby Monks for a formal silent meal!

An example of a formal meal with the Baby Monks, this one in the Main Dharma Hall at Hongbeopsa

S I N C E   A R R I V I N G ,  I'd noticed the Baby Monks dining differently than the other monks and laypeople at the temple-- they took their meals before the rest of us were offered ours, tucked away in a private room with closed doors and curtained windows, presumably under the tutelage of the head abbot. Dr. Yi explained that their meals were taken in complete silence (hard to believe for a gang of rowdy 5 yr olds!), eaten in a specific, ritualistic, choreographed order that produced zero waste, and culminated with the monks washing their dishes with their drinking water before drinking every last drop. The whole process sounded beautiful; I was so thankful for the opportunity not only to observe but also to participate, and hoped as hard as one can that I could muster the grace to make it through such an important and scripted meal for the first time despite my complete cultural ignorance.

Out of respect, I did not bring my camera or my notebook, and therefore have no pictures to share. I like it that way; it feels more special. The picture above, taken before a different formal meal, gives an idea of how things went-- the food was taken from the center of the semicircle by the abbot and was passed from person to person, each of whom took their share, placing it in an incredible nested bowl set before each of us. The uniformity of the meal gave it an even stronger communal or even familial air than our already-as-comfortable-as-Home meals in the main dining hall, and although the food was largely the same, the experience was far more special. I was not at all alone in my anxiety throughout the meal at maintaining my posture, my composure, and my compliance to the unspoken rules of the ceremony--it was comforting to remember that even though the Baby Monks made everything look easy as pie, my travel companions were just as lost as I.

I wish I could put the experience into better words, but am not surprised that I struggle to-- it was certainly unlike anything I'd ever experienced.

The meal came and went, as did every incredible experience at Hongbeopsa, inevitably, and soon we went as well, packing ourselves into a Hongbeopsa van and heading for our hike at Geumjeong mountain.

The mouth of the trail at Geumjeong

I T ' S   A  good thing that Geumjeong Mountain is such a beautiful place-- it was a great follow-up to our formal meal, and kept the incredulity going. As it turns out, Geumjeong has quite a bit more than beauty to it, including Geumjeongsanseong (금정산성), a 300+ year old fortress/castle/wall, half-seriously called "the Great Wall of Korea"; a legendary well called the "Golden Fountain" (금샘); Beomeosa temple (범어사); plus ties to two of the three kings from Korea's Three Kingdoms period and two of the most famous and influential Buddhist monk-scholars. Quite a happenin' place, no? Despite a minor hangover and a major lack of sleep, I was bubbling over with energy and excitement-- Geumjeong is like a playground for the soul!

Juje-Sunim and another head monk lead the pack

HIKING HIGH- HEELS?! Yup, they're a thing!

MOUNTAIN KITTY!!

Catching our breath on the way up

I   H A D  a great time jumping from boulder to boulder and exercising my body in a way I hadn't been able to yet in the trip-- sure, I'd gone for a run once or twice, but most of our days were so scheduled and our free-time so fleeting that I'd amassed quite a stockpile of anxious energy; the mountain, I quickly discovered, was a perfect remedy. Or so I thought. As I made my way up, I began to notice that my running and leaping wasn't working out my energy as I hoped and expected, but was instead somehow intensifying it. There was something different about this mountain... it spoke to me somehow. I felt the mountain imposing itself on my heart and mind, challenging me; I felt my soul calling back to the mountain defiantly, leaving me caught in the middle of this confusing pissing contest, feeling torn and pressured to "conquer" the mountain-- to run up it, to explore it, to know it, to understand it, and to leave it, better.

This urge had a strange aggression and narrowness to it, with a foreignness which concerned me-- why did I feel challenged by a mountain, and why did I want to challenge it back? I don't consider myself an aggressive person, so these feelings caught me off guard simply by existing, their intensity further pressing me for introspection. Suddenly, I realized that it was not the mountain that was the source of the challenge or even the object to be conquered, but instead that those things were one and the same; that that thing was me. I decided not to trick myself into thinking my actions had anything to do with the mountain or could have any effects upon it and instead decided to challenge myself, to push myself, and to best myself. And that's exactly what I did. It incredible.

Me, at the top of the Godangbong peak (고당봉)

The view from the top of the world

M Y   S P I R I T S  were soaring after my little mind trip and my mad sprint up the mountain. Even though I made it to the top quite some time before the others did, I spent so much time enjoying the summit that I didn't have time to check out the Golden Well-- oh well! We really only had time to see one of the two main attractions (the people who visited the well didn't make it to the summit), and I know I made the right decision. I must admit that I got a bit lost in the pursuit, though-- I didn't pay much attention to the Geumjeongsanseong gate on the way to the peak.

The Geumjeongsanseong North Gate with Godangbong peak (the rocky outcropping) in the distance.

A shot of the North Gate from within... and a random group of traveling students posing for a photo in front of it

H E R E ' S   A   V I D E O  from the hike!

O U R   T I M E  on the mountain was limited by a very important appointment that was to follow our hike. We hurried down the mountain, through this beautiful, ornate gate near the foot of the trail, and into the private study of an incredibly important Buddhist scholar, Venerable Muvi-Sunim.

A glimpse of the gate to Muvi's study.

In the presence of Venerable Muvi Sunim!!

Group shot on the steps to Muvi Sunim's study.

I T ' S   F U N N Y  to me that I can't find anything about Muvi Sunim through web searches-- I keep trying to build up the significance of this meeting but can't find sources to back up said significance on the web. This absence actually highlights the chronic language-barrier issues between Korean and American culture that I look forward to writing about later, but for now, it's just an ironic challenge.

I don't think that Muvi Sunim speaks English. He didn't say a word of it during our visit (which was fine, because Dr. Yi and her TWO DOCTORATES did a phenomenal job of interpreting and translating). Why would he need it? English isn't a language I'd consider to be integral to an understanding of Buddhist philosophy, so its practice would be orthogonal to Muvi Sunim's interests. Further, it helps explain why he's conspicuously missing from my Google searches-- he doesn't cater to our audience.

In many ways, our meeting was more of an observation of Dr. Yi and Juji Sunim's meeting with Muvi Sunim-- both of the former people, and I cannot emphasize this enough, are very important people in their respective spheres of influence, but seeing their vivid respect for and awe of Muvi Sunim certainly signaled to me the gravity of the situation and how lucky I was to be there. They knew who Muvi Sunim was, they respected him, they were part of the same communities, and they spoke the same language-- we were certainly welcomed guests, but weren't much company, I'm afraid.

It's interesting to think about the meaning of Juji Sunim's accompaniment. Did he come along just/mainly to see Muvi Sunim? Could we have met with Muvi Sunim without Juji's connection? I don't think that Dr. Yi had met him before; I'm sure she was pulling some connections to make the meeting happen. I got the impression that Muvi Sunim, in his age and with his health, doesn't hold audience very often, especially not for big groups of pretty ignorant foreigners. I suppose what I mean is that I was blown away by this meeting, due largely to the fact that I do not and may not ever know what exactly we discussed or what it entailed.

Towards the end of our meeting, after offering us fresh watermelon and giving us all very nice copies of the Lotus Sutra (in Korean, no less-- he challenged us to translate it ourselves/learn Korean to study it. WHAT AN AWESOME PERSON!!), Muvi Sunim asked if we had any questions. I asked how best to continue my study of Buddhism, to which he suggested (via Dr. Yi's translation) that I study the sutras, meditate, and essentially just stick with the practice. "Open your eyes wide and look at as many things as possible and it will help you grow," he said. His response made me really happy. I wish I'd been in a better place to really appreciate his wisdom and insight, but I am speechlessly thankful nonetheless.

P A R T   I I .

Nummy noodles

T H E   G L O W  was still going long after we left Muvi Sunim's company, throughout our delicious lunch out (pictured above-- Juji Sunim's favorite!), and on our trip back to Hongbeopsa.

We were still quite beholden to our busy schedule for the day-- we were to meet briefly with our host siblings, with whom we would be spending the night as a homestay experience, before traveling with them to visit a temple named Tongdosa (통도사).

Waiting to be Sorted

O N   T H E  lawn of Hongbeopsa, under the decorations for Buddha's Birthday, the lot of us travelers lined up across from a group of high school-aged members of the temple and drew lots to decide who'd be staying with whom. The tension and excitement were delightful! 

Yurae and I

My host brother, pictured above, is named Yurae. Yurae and I chatted for a while, sharing about ourselves and getting to know each other. I was really thankful that his English was so strong, because I sure didn't know enough Korean to communicate. I really depended a lot on him, as his parents were about as bilingual as I am (which is not enough to really communicate well)--he made the homestay work!

I'll write more about the homestay experience in my next post-- we still had more adventure ahead of us! We loaded onto a bus with our new host friends and chatted our way to Tongdosa temple.
 

P A R T   I I I .

T O N G D O S A   I S  easily my favorite temple in Korea and left a significant impact, not unlike my experience at Geumjeong earlier in the day. The temple was larger and older than the others we'd visited, and had a number of things unique to it, including an awesome layout, a museum of Buddhist art, and one of the only Monk Colleges in the region!

Tongdosa Temple

The temple itself took quite some time to get to because of its gorgeous entryways, like the one pictured above. Dr. Yi explained that this was an intentional design to enforce the separation between the Buddhist community at one end and the world at large on the other, and also to allow visitors time and space to transition from one state of being-- whatever that may be out in the "real world"-- to a more peaceful, reflective, and balanced state in preparation to visit the temple.

Entering Tongdosa

Our first stop was the museum of Buddhist art, which had an incredibly impressive collection of textiles, paintings, texts, and other ancient artifacts. I followed the rules and refrained from taking pictures, although I regret having nothing to share from the experience. Like my silent meal with the Baby Monks, though, I think it is better that way. Mostly.

First sight inside the temple grounds. Breathtaking.

Tongdosa's shrine

Tongdosa doesn't have a Buddha altar-- instead, it has some actual historic artifacts that are said to have belonged to the Buddha himself. The shrine pictured above holds several such artifacts arranged around it which visitors pay homage to as they do their prayer walk.

Incredible red twisty pines surrounded the main shrine-- this picture does a horrible injustice to the colors :(

The dragon's fountain

Legend has it that a dragon occupied the grounds before the temple's construction. The first monks struck a deal with the dragon that they would build it a well where people could visit it in return for its protection of the temple grounds. Now, visitors make wishes to the dragon by throwing coins onto the pedestal pictured below.

Wishing well in the dragon's fountain

Our tour of Tongdosa was unspeakably impressive. After circling the grounds, we visited the main dharma hall for the evening chanting. The hall itself was something special, with wood was so ancient and so worn yet carefully maintained that the entire room had an unfalsifiable look of authenticity about it--it was a truly special beauty. Yet even better than the room itself was the fact that it was filled with perhaps hundreds of monks--all members of the monk college-- who recited together the sutras for the evening. Hearing a handful of monks chant at Hongbeopsa was incredible, but this was something else entirely, and I still can't quite believe I got the privilege of witnessing it.

The Four Instruments

Playing the Four Instruments

 Yup, still incredulous. 

Update: Here's a video of the drumming at Tongdosa from my friend and travelmate Kevin W.!