Experiencing a Formal Zen Meal (Baru Gongyang)

no. 36 and no. 37

Watching this video, you may think this process is peaceful. But for someone new, it can be quite stressful, especially when there are 4o other people involved. It’s all about figuring our strategies. With the silent help of my neighbor — I was assigned bowl no. 37, I assume she was no.36 — it took me about three days to adopt the skills for eating faster and cleaning my bowl on time. A process testing your ability to stay in the moment.

If you don’t have your strategies down, you could be the person everyone is left waiting for. When they say, “Make sure not to take too much food”, it’s because if you do, you could be the last one eating. Although monks and meditators should be pretty cool about waiting, being the last one cleaning your bowl still isn’t a fun feeling.

And that bowl must be clean! Once you quietly pour your bowl cleaning water into the pot, it must be clear. The water goes to the hungry ghosts, and their necks are too thin to accept even the smallest kimchi chilli flake. We don’t want to choke them.

by Timothy Wright (http://timothyssketchpad.blogspot.com)

Minus the murder investigation, while at Musangsa, I often imagined I was in a surreal movie. The formal meal truly added to the surrealism.

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My 7 Day Meditation Retreat at MuSangSa

The Saturday I arrived at MuSangSa (Kyeryongsan International Zen Center), marked the last week of Kyol Che (Tight Dharma). This meant I was going to be spending my time with people who had been silent for up to 3 months: silent and unplugged from all things tech. My adventures into the “don’t know” mind began. Here is a basic run down of our daily schedule:

Mornings started off at 3:25am with 108 bows in Meditation Hall (see pictures below), followed by Kido chanting at 4am at the Buddha Hall. We then would walk back down to the Meditation Hall to start sitting meditation at 4:40am until 6am, when we would head to Dinning Hall for our formal breakfast. Then it’s time for working meditation until 7:40am. We break until 9am, where we meet in silence for 2 hours of meditation. Remember, except for the chanting, this is all done in silence. Then it’s a formal lunch. Then break. Then meditation from 1:30 until 4:30. Then a silent informal dinner. Break. Our final chanting of the day begins at 6pm. Once this is over, we return to meditate until 9pm in the Meditation Hall. Lights are out at 9:20pm.

We do it again the next day.

The regiment, the order, the silence, and the community has a fascinating impact on ones thoughts. For once, I got a glimpse into what real clarity might be like.

What did I learn or at least glean from this time? Scroll to the end of the photo gallery to find out.

Our morning chants (4am) & evening chants (6pm) were done here

Buddha of Compassion – Gwanse-eum Bosal (Buddha Hall)

Dragon above Gwanse-eum Bosal (Buddha Hall)

Buddha of Compassion – Gwanse-eum Bosal (Buddha Hall)

My accomodations for 7 days

To my room

During our silent work period, my silent friends and I were in charge of bedding and ironing

For breakfast (6am) and lunch (11am) we silently ate from these bowls (Baru Gongyang))

My bowl was #37. The meal is quite an orderly process.

Dinning room

Winter work clothes

Meditation Hall

These meditation pillows were set up the whole week

At specific points during our meditation periods, one of the monks would walk behind us, and we could request a tap from this Zen stick. Very helpful when nodding off.

My meditation pillow was #37.

For some reason, ladybugs seemed to have found refuge in the meditation hall. A sign of wishes fulfilled.

The monks’ pillows

First snow of the retreat

To Buddha Hall

The House Master kindly sweeps the snow before our 1:30pm meditation period.

Snow on bamboo

Bo Haeng Sunim organizes our outdoor walking meditation practice

Walking meditation was usually done indoors, so this was a treat!

Retreat attendees and monks

By day 5, we weren’t always silent.

Back from the walk

“Bo Haeng Sunim, can I take a picture?” – “Why not? It’s just a building?”

Only plain gray clothing for the week

These were posted throughout the living quarters.

Working meditation with Joseph in the storage room

Winter and summe clothing for retreat attendees and staff

Tea room in the Meditation Hall

Non-silent hike

Getting ready to do a deep cleaning of the Buddha Hall. This is done after every 3 month retreat.

Cleaning the year-prayer candles

Cleaning the meditation pillows

Learnings to hold on to

- The fact that we think that we think we make decisions is a huge delusion. – Won San Sunim

- We take audio and visual silence for granted. It’s amazing how much one word or one image can trigger the ego.

- DanJeon (Tantien) breathing techniques helped keep me focused when meditation got hard.

- Zen sticks are necessary for rigorous meditation. I couldn’t have done without those courteous wake up calls.

- Zen Masters are pretty darn cool to talk to in Kong-an interviews or simply over tea.

- “Decide and do.” – Bo Haeng Sunim

- “Have a ‘don’t know’ mind” – Seung Sahn Haeng Won Sunim

- 41.5 hours of meditation in 7 days taught me that I need to meditate a whole lot more.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful

7am – Saulnierville, Nova Scotia

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Self Potrait

When I found out about this week’s challenge, I was happy to find a space for these silly self-portraits. I took these for my presentation on the experiential learning cycle (Presenting the Experiential Learning Cycle) in November. I was really hoping to make my audience laugh, but instead I was met with a small crowd of unwitting faces. Afterwards I learned that no one knew these were pictures of me. They just thought it was some random chick who had a lot on her mind. The next time I present, I’ll have to wear a sweatshirt and swap my contact lenses for glasses.

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A Single Word for Autumn in Korea

Dan-poong (단풍).

This single Korean word describes the period of time when leaves change color in autumn. In English you have to describe this event within a phrase (“the colors of the leaves this fall are spectacular!”), but in Korean all you have to utter is “dan-poong is spectacular!”. I love this about the Korean language. Complex events or experiences are often described within one word. (See jeong & han)

Dan-poong is a wondrous phenomenon of nature and deserves to be in this week’s photo challenge: wonder.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Dragon Window

My husband and I visited an arboretum today. We followed a long path up the mountain that indicated it would lead us to a look-off. Below is the look-off building, and above is one of its windows.

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Join the Happiness Project

The basics:

Make a poster that describes what makes you happy, and tell us about it. It’s that easy!

Find details on how to enter at, The Happiness Project. This fabulous project is the creation of two amazing educators, Chuck Sandy and Vladimira Michalkova. Help them spread the joy!

My entry:

My Happiness

This project brings me happiness! It’s such a fantastic idea, and I’m excited to be a part of it. I can’t wait to see how far it goes!

I feel happy in my communities! I’m so grateful for my communities:

- My families & cultures (Korean, Canadian, and Acadian)
- My Nonviolent Communication (NVC) practice group
- My School for International Training (SIT) soul mates (MA TESOL colleagues)
- My blogging communities …and now my Twitter community!
- The participants in our training program

And last but not least, the happiness I find in love, fun and beauty.

i.e. My husband and I riding off into the multidimensional, Nova Scotia sunset.

Can you find the corresponding pictures?

My Happiness

Happiness in my creative side: privatemixture.wordpress.com
Happiness in my professional — and also — creative side: tokenteach.wordpress.com

Combine these two sides, and you have one happy lady :)

Thank you, Chuck and Vladimira!, for giving me the space to reflect on my happiness.

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