Today was the first transition day of the trip. We began by packing up at our hotel in Seoul, loading our luggage in a truck, and riding a bus to the KTX Station. We rode a bullet train at 180 mph from Seoul to Gyeongju. The train ride took about two hours, and we stopped at a local place for lunch.
Once we finally arrived at the temple stay, it took a while to find everyone’s rooms, but we finally got settled and went to our first ceremony. At the ceremony, we were introduced to Seonmudo, which is a form of martial arts that has an emphasis on being aware of your body and your breathing. After the demonstration, I took the time to unpack everything in my room. I was given a traditional room, which meant there were no beds, just mats on the floor. I didn’t have a problem with this, but I can’t speak for others. Overall, the rooms were fine and honestly a lot nicer than I expected. After moving in, we had our first lesson with the monks on Seonmudo. This included lots of basic stretches, breathing exercises, and basic strength exercises. It reminded me a lot of a yoga session. Something interesting to me was when the monk offered for people to leave the session for physical or religious reasons, he encouraged everyone to try it, and even told us that he was a Christian in order to encourage more people to. This was interesting to me because I learned that Buddhism can be more of a way of life or cultural activity for some, rather than a primary religion.
The food that was served was interesting to try. The temple was fully vegan, and I hadn’t been to a strictly vegan place to eat in Korea yet. While I certainly missed meat, it was interesting to try all of these different foods. One Buddhist tradition is to not waste any food, so there was nowhere to throw away food that you hadn’t eaten, and you had to eat everything before returning your dishes.
