Words Have No Wings: Yongmunsa Temple Stay

Last weekend I checked another goal off my list of Things to Do in Korea: participated in an overnight program at a Buddhist temple. I went to Yongmun temple in Gyeonggi province, east of Seoul on Yongmun Mountain.

Getting there was rough – I had to be at the temple at 2:00 on Saturday afternoon, and I was too cheap to shell out for the expensive express train tickets. That meant waking up at 5am to catch the 6:30 Mugunghwa train (Korean for "slow as molasses and stops at every damn station") from Daegu. I was in Seoul by 10:45, and from Seoul station it was over two hours on the subway (I had to go to the very last station on one of the commuter lines). Then there was a fifteen minute bus ride to the mountain resort area, and then a 20 minute walk up the mountain, and I finally arrived at Yongmun temple a few minutes after two.

It was a really beautiful area – the trek was worth it. The temple is quite a ways up the mountain, surrounded by really thick gorgeous lush trees, and judging by the background noise, several streams as well. It was so nice and cool, even in the middle of the day. The temple itself is over 1,000 years old but of course the buildings have all been rebuilt several times. The area is famous for gingko trees, and Yongmun temple is especially famous as the home of the “largest tree in the East”: a gingko tree that’s over 130 feet tall and 1,100 years old!!! I can’t even fathom a thousand-year-old living thing.

The program was in Korean but everyone was really welcoming, and the hostess and a few of the other participants spoke English. We changed into our temple clothes, just loose grey pants and a grey or white t-shirt, and started off with a lecture on the history of the temple and a tour of some of its buildings. We took a brief walk through the woods to a little clearing, where we did some stretches and learned some tai chi (I think that’s what it was) from a really incredible old guy who put the rest of us to shame. Before dinner we also had a lecture and lessons on chanting and bowing (I think I was the only one who really needed this). Then we could ring this huge bell. It’s rung regularly throughout the day at certain times, and we were each allowed to ring it once with the help of one of the monks (apparently this is a really special thing, because it’s supposed to be rung the correct number of times at the correct time of day, so by allowing us to do this they were throwing off their schedule!).

Dinner was vegetarian of course – rice and lots of vegetable side dishes, eaten in silence (we’re supposed to talk as little as possible around the temple, because even walking and eating can be a meditation. But we didn’t get in trouble if we wanted to talk, and I made friends with a young Korean woman who spoke really good English and helped me a lot).

After dinner we had a tea ceremony and a chat about tea. I don’t know what kind it was, but it was really good! Then we had a lecture about meditation, and then it was finally time for bed. I’m not sure how everyone else slept, but we had four people in a room, including my new friend, and our own bathroom. I was dead tired after getting up so early and having a full schedule all day, so I slept on the floor really well.

The big bell started going off at 4am for the morning chanting and 108 bows. The ‘bows’ are actually more like prostration - getting down completely on the floor and back up again, without using your hands! It wasn’t as difficult as it sounds, and I found that it actually went pretty quickly if I didn’t count it.

My memory of this morning is pretty foggy because I was so tired and it was so long, but our schedule included cleaning our sleeping areas, breakfast (almost identical to the dinner) and a nice chunk of free time, during which I both passed out on the floor of the meditation room for awhile and made arrangement with a wonderful family to drive me back to Seoul, saving me the bus and two-hour commuter train ride. Before lunch we walked a ways back down the mountain, sweeping the road, and then near the stream we made the little piles of rocks that Koreans use to make wishes. I don’t know what they’re called but I’ve seen them around temples and in the woods all over Korea. We walked back up to the temple barefoot in the little ditch running alongside of the road. ‘Ditch’ sounds dirty but it wasn’t – it was man-made and paved with big stones on the bottom, and the stream water was so nice and cool and clean enough to drink.

The last thing before lunch was supposed to be some meditation, but the monk who was supposed to be help us just lectured the entire time so we couldn’t actually meditate! I was a little disappointed because I had been looking forward to trying it, but this monk was really funny and interesting anyway, and my friend translated a lot of what he said. All of the lectures were difficult – I couldn’t understand them and so was bored, plus we were supposed to sit still with our legs crossed so I was also uncomfortable. On Sunday night and Monday I was in so much pain - sitting like that and bowing so much is just as hard as real exercise!

All in all, though I wish the program had been in English of course, it just motivated me to maybe try another one. It was cool to be ‘at home’ at a temple – I’ve visited dozens of them by now, but usually I just tiptoe around awkwardly sneaking pictures and wondering what the hell is going on. Feeling so comfortable with the place and the people there, and having a hand in taking care of it and the daily routine, was awesome.