Korean Job Discussion Forums

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

Has anyone here ever done a temple stay for more than a night or two? I was talking to a student recently who had done 3 temple stays of 1 - 3 months a time. It was free. Except he gave them a BIG bag of rice (like one of those 150,000 won bags) and his parents made a donation to the temple.

They sound like an interesting way to 'find yourself' and a hell of a lot more alternative than doing the same thing in India where everyone and their dog goes. My student went to a tiny little temple with only *3* monks. And he claims they had to wake up at 2am for their breakfast.. I almost wanta call bullshit on that because the Dalai Lama waits until 4am.. but maybe Korean monks are better than him Wink

Anyway I was thinking that if I ever wanted to 'drop out' from the world and go do some crazy buddhist meditation thing, then Korea would be a lot more obscure than India or most other buddhist countries.

So have any of you done it? I particularly look forward to hearing from people who haven't spent an extended temple stay in Korea but know everything about it. (I'm kidding)

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

No one? Anyone interested in doing one?

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

Not interested in doing one, however I do have a Sri Lanka friend who might be able to hook you up. He lives in a temple near Anam station. I can give you his information if you like. He's studying to be a monk - He's invited me several times.

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

Cheers man. I wasn't actually interested in doing one myself right now. I was interested in whether other people had looked into it, or were interested in doing one. I think you could do a REAL retreat here compared to popular asian countries where you could have a great experience with a dozen other hippies. Here you could do a real retreat I reckon.

Surprised no one on here has done one.

sunnydaysahead · Joined: 16 May 2007

I did a 5-6 day temple stay at Jakwangsa temple over Chuseok. It was great. I think you just have to ask each temple individually. Most of them would probably be okay with it. I liked the longer stay myself because doing the two-day stay (which I did earlier this year) was nice, but not enough time to actually get into the rhythm of the temple life (I spent the entire second day of my 2-day stay just walking around dazed because you have to get up so early in the morning).

isthisreally · Joined: 01 Sep 2007

I wouldn't necessarily agree that Korea is more obscure than India. In India everyone goes to certain places and their are much more temples. Of course this wouldn't really be for Buddhism but for Hinduism (there is some Buddhism there). My point being that if you just go off the tourist path a little, you would be totally anonymous and missing just as much as any place in Korea. Also if you are with a bunch of other hippies, it doesn't really it wouldn't make the experience any less real. Depending on the place, there probably isn't a whole lot of talking going on anyway.

And choosing Korea would also largely depend on your preferences to the flavor of Buddhism offered. Are you really into Korean Buddhism? You have no idea how much you might begin to hate it if you have to practice it everyday.

The_Eyeball_Kid · Joined: 20 Jun 2007

I'd like to put this into the forum:

Temple stays are for tossers.

xtchr · Joined: 23 Nov 2004

I honestly couldn't think of anything worse.

But I could do it if I had to; i.e; My body is a temple, I'm woken very early every day by construction work nearby, and if I drop pot lids in the kitchen I can simulate the annoying sound of gongs, plus I already have a bad haircut. Sorted!

sojourner1 · Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject:

I haven't done a temple stay myself, but wish to so I found the info. The first link is for Hainsa, one of the most important temples and the second one is the temple stay guide in English. I couldn't find anything about longer stays. It's mostly weekender oriented, while a few monks stay full time. I take it that longer stays are for monks or those studying full time.

While it's lights out at 9:30 and wake up at 3 or 4, you don't drink, smoke, talk loudly, and I would say to come on the first day as exhausted as you can so you do lay down at 9. It seems strict, but it would be nice to do it for 2 or 3 days in a vacation rather than trying to cram it into a weekend. This is not a party weekend, but a meditative finding yourself and learning more about the old traditional ways of life. While I don't know a whole lot about Buddhism, I like how they seem to have a philosophy of humans complimenting nature and then going back to the Earth when they die. The architecture of the temples just look so wonderful against a scenic mountain sides.

http://80000.or.kr/eng/info/temple_stay.html
http://www.templestaykorea.com/