Golgulsa: Temple Stay

One of the last stops on our orientation tour of Korea was the Golgulsa Temple. The monks at this temple practice Sunmudo, a Buddhist martial art. The idea is to attain enlightenment through harmonizing the body, mind, and breath. They also allow outsiders to come to the temple for what they call a 'temple stay'. Some people stay for months at a time, we were only there for one day.

During a temple stay you eat and live pretty much like the monks do...we came to find out that their lives are not very comfortable. We arrived after lunch and were given a vest and some sweet pants to change into. We were also assigned a room with just enough space for three people to sleep on the floor.

We were given a brief introduction and then immediately started the hike up to the main temple. The temple was built into a cave on the side of a cliff. A huge Buddha statue is carved into the face of the cliff and there are also a bunch of smaller caves that have various statues and carvings. We spent an hour or two climbing along the cliff checking out all the different caves.

Joe, Joe, and I took the opportunity to snap some photos for our next album cover.

There was a monk in the main temple performing bows the whole time we were up there.

Meanwhile, Joe and I decided to get a head start on our Sunmudo training.

Next was dinner...which was disappointing. No meat, lots of rice, lettuce, and assorted vegetables. They also made a huge deal about not wasting food so you had to eat everything you put on your plate. Some of our group didn't finish everything and got some really mean looks.

Next, we went down to the gym for our evening Sunmudo training. There are static aspects as well as dynamic aspects to Sunmudo. We first learned how to perform a proper bow. These are full prostrate bows where you get completely on the floor, and then stand all the way back up. There were some other static moves, mostly designed to teach proper breathing and focus.

Next were the dynamic moves. There were some intro moves, and then a side kick, and a front kick. We then put everything together into a string of moves. This last part needed lots of space so we went 6 at a time. I was up front for the earlier stuff so this was my chance to see how everybody else was doing. I decided that some of the ladies in our group are not to be messed with. The last event was a Sunmudo demonstration by the monks. They performed some ridiculously impressive moves, both static and dynamic.

When we first heard of the temple stay, many of us were disappointed because that was the night that South Korea played Uruguay and we wanted to watch the game (soccer). Surprisingly, the monks told us we could get ready and come back at 11pm to watch the game. They also decided to move our morning chanting service from 4:30am to 5:30am. I thought it was really nice of them to compromise so much for people visiting their temple. When we showed up at 11pm, the monks had on their Red Devil jerseys and a box full of thundersticks. Something tells me they were going to watch the game anyway.

I'm not sure what was a better way to watch a football match...in the streets of Seoul or with a bunch of monks in a temple. And they really got into the game. One of them ran around giving hugs after the first goal.

The game ended up being a loss for Korea and knocked them out of the World Cup for 2010. We took a group picture...the two guys on either end of the front row are monks. They blended in pretty well.

We headed to bed since we were supposed to wake up at 5am...four hours of sleep. Unfortunately, my room didn't wake up until about 7:30. Oops. We missed some chanting, sitting meditation, and breakfast. The punishment for missing any of these duties is 1000 bows...we skipped out on those too.

Next was Tea and Conversation where we were served tea and had some time to ask one of the monks questions. Some of our group asked really good questions. Maybe its because I don't buy into the Buddhist thing, but all of the answers seemed really shallow and uninspiring.

The next activity was 108 Bows, fully prostrate on the floor and back up again. The whole thing took about 45 minutes. Each of the bows are given a meaning, and are meant to draw attention to certain issues. Some have to do with family and friends, others have to do with war or the disabled.

I had a tough time deciding whether or not to actually do the bows. After all, we're definitely not supposed to bow to other gods (Daniel 3, etc.). However, Buddhists don't really 'worship' Buddha. The bows are meant to be a way of focusing on your 'inner-self' and not really a form of worship. So I decided to do the 108 Bows as part of the experience of the temple stay. I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do or not, but I got some good exercise out of it. After this we had another disappointing lunch and it was time to head back to Seoul. Dinner that night was at TGIF, where I had a sampler platter with 3 different forms of animals: shrimp, chicken, and ribs. Mmmm. Take that monks.

For the complete photo album of everything in this post go here: 

Golgulsa: Temple Stay

Feel free to ask questions if theres anything you want to know more about.