Monks Are Tough

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I'm sitting here thinking about this past week and how to sum it up. The thought that keeps popping into my head over and over again is that monks are tough! At the beginning of the week Lindsey and I did whats called a temple stay. We took a bus out to the woods, hiked to a Buddhist temple and stayed with the monks there. I now know why you see pictures of sleek looking monks that seem calm and content in their lives. I had envisioned a lot of meditation and yoga to center and calm our souls. What I got was a serious workout. The Golgul Temple we stayed at specializes in Sunmudo, a form of Zen martial arts that was secretely handed down through the centuries through Buddhist families. Every morning they get up at 4 am for a sunrise Sitting-zen and walking meditation. There was no "sunrise" when we got up, just freezing cold and bitter wind. In Korea they sleep on a long thin cushion that's placed directly on the floor. Normally its REALLY warm because they heat their homes by some type of heating system that's placed directly in the floor. But, our room had been vacant and although the floor was somewhat warm by early morning I was cold. So not only had I just hiked through a canyon-like wind tunnel to get to the temple and had my ass handed to me the night before in the Sunmudo training, I was now curled up in a ball with my one blanket trying to not freeze. In that weird not really awake, not really asleep state I decided that I truely was weaker than my monk counterparts and because of that it was ok for me to get another blanket to sleep under. Literally as I was grabbing the blanket off the shelf I heard the junior monk banging a gong signaling the arrival of 4 am. It was such a sick joke that the universe played on me all I could do was laugh out loud. We had a wonderful temple stay; though we vowed that next time we wouldn't do it in the dead of winter! We became instant friends with our two other roommates and I learned so much about the amazing spirit of monks. I'm sad to be living Gyeongju. In an hour I'll be on a train to Seoul and a new set of adventures.

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Photos

Tired Girl
While my roomies were busy showering I passed out. Lights, blow driers, no worries!

Morning Meditation
Lindsey shot this picture of me in my morning meditation spot.

The Temple Girls
The building in the background housed us and the monks.

Comments

[Julia]

you rock my world, Sabrina!
I've been secretly, (or not so secretly) calling you Saber for years in my mind, (which usually turns into say-ber-ni-na when I say it out loud. As I think about that nick name now, it has a new connection to a visual of a saber tooth tiger on a rocky mountain side, eyes bright and alert to what's around, body quiet and meditative, yet ready to spring into action in the blink of an eye. This is how I picture you at this moment. ...Yes...I'm actually picturing my friend as an extinct feline... that's weird. hee hee. Who cares, right? Not me. What I think is just fantastic about this is how I feel like I could NEVER do what you are doing. And yet, you being there puts a little nugget of possibility into my narrow view of what people, (including myself) are actually capable of doing. Your experiences inspire me to tap into the part of me that could be an extinct wild cat too! How exciting is that!? Perhaps there's a woolly mammoth in there as well, who knows! :) Love you! PS LOVE the puffy.

[Dixie]

cute monk building
You'd have to exercise alot to be able to sleep on that. WOW! This is sooo interesting. What did you eat?