Korean Job Discussion Forums

[pheeeel]

I got a week long break coming up at the end of July. My boss told me about some camp for foreigners were you live at a temple and live like a monk for a week.
Anybody know anything about this? I know that you wake up at 3 am and bow like 108 times a day. I'm fine with that, but I want to know if you actually get anything out of it on a spiritual or intellectual level. There are sermons and teachings too of course. If anyone out there has actually done this, I'd be curious to hear your review.

[peppermint]

Your boss is probably talking about something like TempleStay.

I did a three day thing there a few years ago, and it was quite good though there was a mix up in booking and there wasn't a translator with me.

I learned a few things, and it was definitely more interesting than another weekend at the bar but I'm not sure what you mean by:

[captain kirk]

www.musangsa.org

www.seoulzen.org

I went on 7 day retreats (enter Sunday, leave the next Sunday) five times I think it was(?) during my hagwon vacation period, and at Hwagesa (just outside Seoul). Then went on the full three month period, but during the Winter (at Musangsa north of Daejon).

I'd recommend going to the Musangsa temple (see above link) because it's deep in the mountains. Lunch break is the longest break in the day. During that hour you can get around in the woods hiking after lunch. Hwagesa, on the other hand, limits you to the grounds, simply because there are laypeople from Seoul out hiking near the temple. At Musangsa it's in the middle of nowhere, you won't meet anybody who isn't associated with the temple.

I'd totally recommend it. It may seem like a confining thing to do with one's vacation but it's more liberating, actually. And I think you do get some good karma which helps out in the (what can be) hagwon wars.

[Sophocles]

I went for a weekend to a Temple in the south. It was really nice and all but I didn't get to learn about Buddhism like I thought I would. There was a question and answer period with the head monk, but I would have liked something like a sermon or just explanations about what they do and why they do it. There's so much to know about it, that my own reading has only scratched the surface - I had hoped a temple stay would have filled in some of the blanks... but it didn't. But that was just one temple in the 345789328479 they have here.

[mrsquirrel]

How can you have the energy to go hiking if you can't eat after 12pm or do they not do that here?

[captain kirk]

[pheeeel]