hongbeop temple

This weekend Andrew and I went to a "temple stay" in Busan.  Meaning we went to a Buddhist temple, stayed the night and pretended to be Buddhists for a day.  We learned a lot about the culture and lifestyle of both Monks and Koreans.  First I will share my photos and then I'll share the strict schedule we followed that another photographer captured.

My whole flickr album can be seen here.  But here are my favorites.  Lots of the lily pads.

the largest Buddha i've seen.  we actually meditated inside of it

this is were we slept.  a had a korean room mate and we slept on the floor. i really liked the natural lighting

 

Part II

We were about an hour late but we only really missed the introductions of the other foreigners that were there.  Iris works for the volunteer group that was hosting the temple stay so she actually came and got us after we couldn't figure out how to get there on our own.  It took us about 3 hours to get there Saturday afternoon.

this was our Monk and the Modern Buddhist temple we were at

Andrew and I were had to introduce ourselves after getting there late.

This was our traditional dinner circle.  It was quite strict and we had to eat in silence. We also had to eat while tasting each individual bite slowly.

after dinner we had a ceremony.  this is us practicing for the real one that started at 8

we made 6 offerings to all the buddhas.  tea.light.rice. fruit. insents. and one more

then we did 108 bows, consecutively. It went by quickly but the next day we were in a lot of pain

After the ceremony we learned how to meditate (this is inside the big buddha i showed you above)

after that we had to get up at 3:30 to start our day. this is at 4:00 am.  we were walking around the temple looking for buddha

we found him and are thanking him, except for andrew.  he is still sleeping

the morning ceremony.  not many of us are sitting up straight for this one

then some more meditating

and then walking while mediating.  our Monk reminded us of the snow queen

picking unwanted grass at 6:30

and then painting at 8

and a farewell at 11

It was a lot of fun but we were exhausted and had a hard time staying awake after  1 hour of sleep.  Thank you to Iris and her group that had us.  And their photographer for all these great photos.