Buddha's Birthday

Hi there! Sorry I have not written in a while.

This past weekend was really crazy and great. I signed up for a two day retreat at Hwa Gye Sa monastery where I've been going for the past few months to do meditation. My new friend Rebbecca of New Zealand came along for the ride, which was impressive as she is very new to meditation. The retreat there is no joke. I got there on Friday at 8am after a 2 hour subway ride from where I live. From then it was meditation for most of the day until 9 at night. Next morning, 3am wake up for chanting, bows and then mediation for the rest of the day until 10 am with a break for breakfast. It was hard but worth it, and I feel pretty good, but sore in the knees now. The monastery is such a beautiful peaceful place, and its quite a relief to be out of the city and seeing and hearing nature all around.

After we finished the retreat, four of us, out of 20 or so people who attended to the retreat, opted to accompany the monks down to Seoul for the Buddha's Birthday lantern festival parade... the preparations for this holiday have been going on at the monastery since I have been here... Lantern making and the construction of floats and so on.. Thousands of pink paper lotus lanterns decorated the ceiling of main shrine room.

So Rebbecca and I and some other girls went down on the subway with three senior monks (called "Senim" in Korea) who are quite the characters. Two were form America and one form Poland.. The monks and nuns at Hwa Gyesa come from all over. They have all been living together at the monastery for some time, practicing meditation. This gives them quite a different outlook on life than most people you run into. They are a bit scary to approach.. Zen is not known for its errr cuddly qualities, and the monks and nuns tend to reflect that. Outside the monastery and retreat environment tho they turned out to be really light and smiley.

We went to the stadium at Dondemun, a centre of Seoul commercial life. The whole place was packed with monks from all different orders, and lay people who come out to see the sights and support their monasteries. We sat in a special section for Hwa Gye Sa, and were led in a crazy pep rally for hours, The floor of the stadium was covered with dancers and people representing different sects of Buddhism... Buddha's birthday was celebrated to electric guitars and cannon shots. We were led be dancers in little dances where we had to hold up colored cards to create a sycanous effect of colors flashing all over the stadium. Everyone even did "the wave" a bunch of times! Sound sacreligious? The monks were really into it! I swear.

After a few fun yet semi-extruciating hours of this we marched across the stadium floor and out to the street.. me and my crew of four surviving participants from the retreat had flags that the outgoing Senim from Poland gave us to carry. We were met by the floats from Hwa Gye Sa which were all glowing on the street.. The monks followed the floats, we followed them, and were followed by children carrying lotus flashlight torches who were followed by a crew of ajimas (old ladies) with lanterns. The lanterns are made out of paper and have real candles inside... So I find myself waking down the street in a parade with a bunch of Zen monks carrying a Portuguese flag! After 3am wake up and sitting all day it was Surreal to the max.

Everyone on the side was cheering for us! We walked for miles down the street like this, with drums and cymbals all around us, and everyone in Seoul clapping and cheering us on. We felt like we were being rewarded many times over for out tough weekend of meditation. The monks in this situation shed their serious, somber manner I was accustomed to seeing. They were like kids in a candy factory, dancing around with flags, and waving and shaking hands with the crowd. It felt like all of Korea had come out to congratulate them for their hard work at saving all beings.

*phew* if reading that makes you tired I was tired when I came back. I posted some pictures below, but I didn't get any at night unfortunately. You can look at Josuha's blog at http://www.cowboyduende.blogspot.com/ for some Really awesome night time pictures! I am really grateful I got to take part in this experience.


"The sky is always blue
Water always flows towards the great sea"
-Zen Master Seung Sahn