Upon arrival, we were greeted by Demetra who ended up being our personal tour guide throughout our entire stay! She took us to our rooms so that we could get settled and changed in to our special clothing during our stay. The rooms where the guests stay are called "Sunim's Space" and are exactly as the Korean monastics live - and a truly authentic experience of temple life. They have just the basic necessities anyone would need, a bed, desk, chair, closet, and shelves. The building we stayed in had rooms named according to the ten principal disciples of Gautama Buddha. My room represents the Anuruddha "Clairvoyance" principal disciple. I was told later by the Abbott the story of Anuruddha and that he once slept in front of the Buddha, so he was rebuked by the Buddha sharply. He swore an oath that he would never sleep again. Although he lost his sight as a result, he got another pair of eyes that could see the truth.
As we took our walking tour of the temple grounds, we were given a bit of the history of Hwaunsa built at the foot of Myeokjo Mountain in 1938. There are two wooden statues of the seated Buddha enshrined in Hwaunsa that used to be part of the five that were created in 1638 - the Amitabha reigns over the Pure Land from the West and the Medicine "Healing" Buddha from the East.
The temple is directed by the Hwaunsa's Abbess, Venerable Bhikkhuni Seonil, PhD who was fully ordained by the age of 20 and granted the status of Guru (Achariya) in 2014 by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. She spent twenty years abroad in India and Sri Lanka, studying and conducting research on the Buddha's teaching in their original texts of Pali and Sanskrit. We were told that we would have the unique opportunity to personally speak with the Abbott and have tea with her in the evening. I'm feeling just a bit privileged to be able to do this!
The Grand Meditation Hall was built by the request of the former Venerable Ji Myeong to help others attain Enlightenment making their lives calm and peaceful.
The Healing Center with a newly built lotus pond in front.
Venerable Bhikkhuni Seonil's home and her personal garden.
The garden and temple grounds.
Kimchi fermenting in the barrels waiting to be served. This was some of the best kimchi I have had since being in Korea!
After dinner, which consists of all organic and locally grown temple food, we attended the learning center.
Our schedule first was to learn the etiquette and culture of Buddhism such as the Hapjong greeting (the bow), Banbae (half bow), Full prostration (kneeling to pray), 108 prostrations, Chasu focus, and proper tea etiquette such as how to hold the cup and offering the tea. This becomes very important as we are now ready to be introduced to Bhikkhuni Seonil (pronounced 'Sun' 'ill') . At first I was super nervous to meet her, but she had this incredible way of making you feel comfortable the moment you meet her and I immediately felt at ease when we sat down to have tea. After teaching us proper breathing techniques, asking a bit about our personal stories, and teaching us about the principal disciples, the Abbott shared with us not only the book that she just finished writing, but also some very personal stories that I will not share with you at this time due to the personal nature of what we discussed. I will tell you though that our 1/2 hour visit turned in to 2 hours and we were actually a bit past our "lights out" time by the time we said our goodbyes. We learned so much from her during our visit and by the end of our talks we were considering ourselves "sisters" (the four of us). Shannon and I were the "sisters" from Texas! She was absolutely full of energy and just a delight to meet!
Tea time with the Venerable Bhukkinis Seonil, PhD.
Our second day started at 4:00 am with the sound of the Moktak (the bell) to be up and ready for the morning prayer service beginning at 4:45 am. Here there would be the prayers, the chanting, and the ceremonial sounds of the drum.
The pathway leading to the Main Buddha Hall
After breakfast using our golden utensils to eat, we made our way to the trail to take a meditative walk up the mountain. My long stick came in handy as the early morning spiders had done much work weaving their webs on this trail. A bit sticky from the web residue but just a pretty relaxing walk up the mountain to say the least. We finally found the perfect spot to practice Seon - pronounced 'Son) is the Korean variant of Chan (Chinese) and Zen (Japanese) meaning "meditation".
Returning back to the temple grounds, it was time to do a bit of communal work in the garden along with the nuns. This garden was very well cared for and had a wonderful variety of vegetables. Even the Hwaunsa "dogs" were delighted to be in the garden enjoying a bit of breakfast themselves. Ha!
Making our salt mandala. This was super relaxing as a bit therapeutic listening to the children of the temple singing while we concentrated on this cultural activity.
Our Lotus Flower making craft to take away with us. Yes, Shannon's was so much better than mine!
Before leaving, we had one last opportunity to say goodbye to Abbess Seonil. I have to say that this experience was more awesome than I could have ever expected. I find that I have a better understanding of the Buddhism culture and my thirst for knowledge and learning new things is what I am here all the way in Asia to do! Now, it's Sunday afternoon and time for me to head to Chung Dong First Methodist Church to pray under my own personal Christian beliefs. What a great weekend!
