Magoksa Temple Stay with Adventure Korea

I decided that I wanted the experience of staying at a temple before I left Korea. Many companies organize temple stays, but I decided to do one with Adventure Korea . (I went on April 10, 2010 - and since I was the only Karamel colored person on the trip I've probably just given away my pseudo-anonymity) It was pretty easy to sign up for the trip, and then you have to make sure you pay* before all the seats are taken.

***In Korea they have this amazing system where you get an account number and transfer money directly from an ATM to the person/company, so you almost never need a credit card for online transactions.***

Anyways, the day of my trip was fast approaching, and I decided to go out for drinks the night before. Bad idea. It was 7 am, I was still up and I suddenly remembered I needed to head out or risk missing the trip. Keep in mind I haven't yet slept. I throw some things in a bag and rush out. Luckily I made it on time. I instantly grabbed a seat on the bus and passed out.

We finally arrived at Magoksa (마곡사) after a brief stop to grab food (oops slept through that).

The first thing that happened is that we got assigned rooms (I think you have to request or pay specifically to get rooms together with your friends, we didn't know so I got random roommates - more on this later). Immediately after we had for lunch. Lunch in a Buddhist temple, as you can imagine, is completely vegetarian. In a Korean Buddhist temple, that means lots of pickled goodies. yummy. not. I didn't really like the food. Not because it was vegetarian ( I was one for five years) but because it was bland...

I think Thai or Indian Buddhist food would be more flavorful - meat is what makes the Korean dishes apparently.

Then we headed down to the festival. There was a drumming contest going on.It was just monks beating a really large drum. Not much rhythm to that.

I got bored very quickly so I decided to wander to through the stalls and take pictures. They had booths for candle making, rosary making, rubbing, and lotus flower making. I think there were others but I don't remember.

Lotus flower I made

Working on a rubbing

Rubbing complete :)

Anyways afterwards we were told to gather together, and we began a hike up the mountain, to pick flowers. It took about 30 minutes and at the top we listened to the monks for a bit and then grabbed some flowers.

At the bottom of the mountain the flowers were used to make Hwajeon. I heard a lady say in Korean it wasn't common anymore, just a photo thing for foreigners, I think. It tasted terrible.

Later on we had naptime and dinner. Dinner was a vegetarian Bibimbap, and it was pretty good, but that was only because I gave it a bath in gochujang.

Then we headed to a talent/demonstration show.

First up - The taekwondo demonstration team. These kids were good. I mean really good. They were flying in the air, breaking boards left and right, all while telling a story and dancing. Holy cow. I can only hope to be that good.

Next was this awesome drumming team. They were not at all boring like the contest. And yet somehow I still fell asleep. I guess my escapades from the night before were kicking in.

After that was the sunmudo demonstration - in which I saw the amazing flexible capabilities of monks. Do not dare attack a temple thinking they are an easy target. Those movie scenes are true. They will kick your butt!!!

Then began this random talent show that wasn't really translated to us. All kinds of people got up to sing, good and bad. In the end, these weird music group that had boys dressed as girls and blowing bubbles won - IDK?

there was also a guy I named Korean Bono, a Korean idol singer and many monks who have amazing voices. We ended it all by walking around with lit candles to music played by the orchestra.

After all this love and peace there should have been no drama, but we ended up getting a random roommate. I decided to take a shower and go to bed and she spent the whole time complaining and talking. The next morning it was optional but you could wake up at 3 am to go pray and bow with monks. She woke up to do it and started ranting about how some girl had been snoring so she couldn't sleep, proceeded to do her make up in the middle of the room and talk out loud the whole time - while we tried to sleep. Finally she left, but then something convinced her in her head that if she had to go at 3 in the morning, we all did... so she ran around waking everyone in our area up. EEK. Anyways finally she left and we decided she was nuts.

Then it was up bright and early for some 6 AM meditation. Yeah.

So the monk that led us was an American monk who has lived in Korea for the past 25 years, and his assistant was a Latvian monk. Long story short they told us the proper way to meditate - trying to empty the brain was really hard. I couldn't turn mine off. If you couldn't last sitting butterfly you were permitted to stand. Surprisingly 30 minutes went by fast and then it was time for breakfast.

Breakfast was done as a traditional Buddhist style mean which meant we had to sit cross-legged and perform many rituals. First of all, the plates and cutlery are handed out, and then you place them in front of you. You unwrap in a certain order, wash each bowl in an order, sing/chat before and after eating to give thanks for the food. You are to take only as much as you can eat, as no food is to be wasted. When you've finished, rinse of your bowl and drink the water to ensure no waste. It is a very solemn and thoughtful ritual. So much so that even the monks only do it once a day. I am glad I had a chance to experience it.

After breakfast we had a chance to ask the monks some enlightening questions. Perhaps the most eye-opening answer he gave was that even the desire to achieve enlightenment is counter-intuitive to the crux of the Buddhist teachings. Therefore, you must cast even that away. Much respect - if I believe in the need for religion I would be Buddhist for sure.

We got a short break were I got to take a nap and a chance to straighten out psycho girl a bit. We left the temple right after lunch which was just as bland as the day before. Thankfully this time I was cognizant on the ride back, so at the stop I got to sample the yummy Korean goodies - ice-cream and sweet potatoes chips. Yum

I took many more pictures - check out the slideshow here

Apparently this chick was on the trip and didn't like it very much. I loved it :) The only thing I would do differently is pack up some goodies since I didn't like the food very much (not meat of course, that would just be sacrilegious - although I will confess I ate a steak for dinner that night)

• This website gives you more on the history of Magoksa and other temples, and here is a way to organize a temple stay on your own.
• Some upcoming temple stays include this one being organized for May 21, and adventure Korea has another one on the calendar for June 19.