Apr 2007

A couple of Saturdays ago, I guess it was, Sunim (Korean for "monk") asked if I wanted to become a novice here. I was stunned by the question. He offered this as a way for me to work and make money here in Korea, and, as a way to get into and to practice Seon.

At first, he said I'd need to commit for 3 or 5 years. I told him no straight away. I told him why. In the end, we agreed that I'd do the novice practice for a year. I can stay longer if I want. So we have an agreement.

The following Sunday he cut my hair. The next day I went into town to get a picture taken for my passport application. It expires in November of this year and I'll need to have a passport that will be valid longer than the one year religious visa that we'll start the application process for tomorrow.

I'm actually really pleased to do this. I don't know how the practice will differ from lay practice where I'd just live and work here at the temple. It may not differ much at all. I suppose it would if I were Korean. You know, language and all. But anyway, I'm looking forward to it.

I'll need to get some clothing which will be similar to monk's clothing. That'll cost a bit.

I'll just stop here. Want to get on to a couple of other things before I get ready for bed.

Oh, I'll be home in early May. I'll visit as many people as I can. But I suppose I'll only be home for about 10 days. Sunim wants me to get back as soon as possible. I'll start teaching after I get back.

I'll write about the kids in another entry. And about the gardening work.

Troy.

Hmm… seems I’ve written all this before. Have I?!

There’s one other lady who lives here most days. She sometimes goes to stay with her daughter. She’s fairly old. Maybe in her 70’s. Still quite strong. I saw her easily pick up and hold something really heavy not long ago. She’s super quiet. I used to greet her in the mornings but she never returned my greetings so I stopped. I’m not pushed out of shape or anything. I just suppose she doesn’t care for “good mornings” and I’m not so interested myself, so why bother? Actually, it’s nice so maybe I’ll start up again.

Anyway, this morning I was sweeping the leaves on the lawn when she came up to me holding a crate. I looked at her with curiosity, hoping to convey that I wondered what she was going to do with the crate, she put it down on the ground and gestured that she’d put the leaves in the crate. Expressionless communication. I understood immediately. So I swept the leaves in her direction. She gathered them by hand and scooped them up and put them into the crate. Cool.

Then a bit later she came up close to me and uttered a few things. I don’t know what language she speaks to me. (She doesn’t often say anything to me. A few days ago I understood one word out of one sentence. “Eat” in Korean. But I don’t know what she wanted to say with that sentence.) Anyhow, this morning when she came up close to me, she said something that I understood much more. I heard the Korean for “sweep” and “don’t”. But nothing else. A little while later Sunmi and her mother arrived. I told her that the old lady had said something to me, I didn’t understand, and asked if she’d go ask the old lady what she’d said. Sunmi came back a bit later and said that the old lady had told me that if I wanted to stop I could stop and rest! That’s all. Well, no, I wasn’t tired or anything. I kept on. But it was a heartwarming little encounter with this lady. There’s something about old country folk, those really laid back sort of people …. This lady’s got a quality that appeals to me.

Enough for now. Better short than long, I feel.

Troy.

Her name is Kong Yang Ju. I have a feeling that I’ll be writing more and more about me and this lady. She’s in her 60’s I guess. So, don’t think that there’s any “relationship” kind of relationship. She seems to be a pretty bitter woman. I really empathize. I wish her the best. She works so hard. Doesn’t often smile. But she did two nights ago.

About 10pm, after the 2 hours of meditation, in the Dharma Hall, I was still on the cushion, while she had stood up and was getting ready to leave. I said her name, then paused. She closed her eyes and smiled. She seemed to me somewhat reluctant to smile, but, it seemed a genuine enough smile just the same. I stuck out my tongue for some reason and bit it gently when I saw her smile. I just wanted to tell her that there was some work I wanted to do in the garden. I felt like it would be a good idea to pass the idea through her. But I couldn’t say everything I wanted to say so I had Sunmi help. Yeah, no problem.

So I did some of what I wanted to do yesterday. Worked all day in the garden. Sunmi told me this morning that Kong Yang Ju was pleased!!  Yes! Right on. She said that she was pleased with something I’d done.

I was straightening out a mess, a real mess that garden is, when she came into the garden. She started digging up the ground. I didn’t pay that much attention. Then a bit later she called me over. I went, giving up my work for the time being. Making a tomato bed. Boy, so many rocks in the ground on this island. So so many. I want to look into a Korean farming association that does not till the ground. Seems so incredibly appropriate to the situation on this island. And, my understanding is that the farmers who use the techniques of this association have fabulously rich soil. I got some experience with some of the techniques while living with Asoke in Thailand.

And, a few days ago, Kong Yang Ju helped me learn to work with a weeding tool. She put the tool in my hand, then took my hand into hers to show me how to use the tool. Wow. That was the first big breakthrough, I felt, in my relationship with her. So we worked pretty much side by side for a couple of hours weeding the spinach bed. Boy did my back ever hurt. And my knees to because I was kneeling for so many hours.

Ah, the tomato bed. After digging the ground we put down a black plastic sheet with holes for the plants. I’d never ever used one of these things before and I sure as hell wouldn’t now if I were on my own. Plastic. There’s so much plastic trash all over. That’s something I’ve been doing quite a bit of lately – picking up trash. The garden is no less trashed than any other place at the temple. Despicable in my opinion.

It was about 11:30 when we finished with the sheeting. Then I went for lunch. After lunch I went back into the garden to continue the work I’d started in the morning. When I arrived I saw her there and that she’d already planted all the tomato plants. This was after 1:30. The plants of course were lifeless looking, flat on the hot black plastic, but their roots in the ground. She’d put the stakes in and was tying the limp plants to the stakes. I helped. We finished before 2:00. The she watered thoroughly. About 5:00 I looked at the plants again and astonishingly all but one or two had recovered remarkably. Amazing. I’ve read that plants should not be watered in the heat of the day because the heat of the sun will burn the leaves. I noticed no such burning. And today I went and they all looked much stronger. Wow. I still don’t like plastic but I do realize these plastic sheets are good for some things.

Enough, I’m off to the garden to do an hour or so of watering. Then dinner. A banana – pineapple smoothie if my friend shows up. He and his girlfriend will share it with me.

Troy.

You know what, I just wrote about three paragraphs. Most of it I am pretty sure will not interest anyone of you. So I’ll delete it heavily. Here goes the new, edited version of this blog entry.

There are three monks here. There are two besides Dae-hyo Sunim and they are both sick at the moment! They’re both pretty good humored guys. I talk occasionally with one but rarely with the other. I think he’s been keeping to himself because of a sickness. He’s in the hospital now. The monk in the hospital comes back to help with ceremonies sometimes. I like his singing voice for the chanting. There’s a quality to his voice that is just right. When he doesn’t come for ceremonies the chanting / singing is just not quite as enjoyable! (Piyanuch, you’re probably saying, “Troy, how could you?! They’re singing the chants, and you’re enjoying it? Didn’t you learn anything with Asoke?!” I always enjoyed the singing chanting in Thailand. Yeah, I still enjoy it. ;-))

I really couldn’t tell you much about what they do all day. Even the head monk, I don’t know much about what he does all day. I do know that he’s having another temple built somewhere in the northern part of the country and so he goes there nearly every Tuesday morning and comes back Saturday afternoon. So we don’t see him here all that much. He’s busy with kindergarten administration, coordinating the building of the new temple, and who knows what.

Okay, I just edited a bunch. Still probably nothing very interesting for any of you. Sorry!

I’m typing this in my room on my laptop and will save it onto a “data stick” and send it later, in the office.

There are three young kindergarten teachers. All women. None of them, apparently speaks much English. One of them might speak a bit more than the others but probably not all that much more. They seem like nice people. We talk a little bit.

I’ve gone into their classes on occasion. The kids are great fun. They hang all over me, they are so incredibly cute. They are doing their little activities or playing, running around and just being kids. Makes me think back to my kindergarten years. I don’t remember much really. Wonder if I had as good a time as most of the kids that I notice here. Surely there are kids not having such a good time, and I just don’t notice them. Because they’re not the ones running all around me, jumping up and down, poking their finger in my butt!

I tell them not to do that. Doesn’t seem to be working though. Yesterday a kid did it and I got a little irritated. So I told him to not do that. I let it be known. I’m sure he got the message. But he didn’t really get it. You know what I mean, yeah? I got a bit more irritated after I saw that he didn’t get it. In the next moment, I calmed down realizing that it takes time. We all take time to really understand something. How could I expect a child to learn anything immediately?

I did start to learn this lesson at the English school. But changing our attitudes isn’t usually a quick process, is it? So it’s good to be patient, with ourselves and with others. Especially with kids. I look forward to spending more time with these kids.

They’re all 5 to 7 years old, Korean age. When a Korean child is born, it is one year old. Then on the first of each year everybody ages one more year. They celebrate birthdays it’s just that they don’t add another year to their ages on their birthdays. So these kids are between 3 and 5 in our system of counting age.

By traveling you encounter these different ways of looking at life, and in doing life. It’s pretty neat. But I do understand, to some degree, that it’s nothing to get too interested in. Not long ago I heard a Dharma Talk (Buddhist teaching) where the guy said that someone else once said, “If you can’t meditate, travel.”!! I love that. To me, it means that meditation is the best way to learn about the world. Traveling is the second best way!

I’ll first talk about the head monk, Da-hye Sunim. He’s been a monk for more than 30 years, most of those years here at this temple. He’s in his late 50’s I think. People say he’s enlightened. I don’t have any strong feelings one way or another about whether or not he’s got it, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. And if he really does have “it” then what a great opportunity to be around him. To benefit somewhat from his presence and from whatever else I might be able to gain. So I’m super glad to live and work here. I can see him often. I have told myself and others that I want to find an enlightened person. I guess I’ve found two actually. This monk and the head monk of Asoke, Samana Bodhiraksa. I didn’t have any strong feelings about whether or not he is enlightened either. And, like with Da-hye Sunim, I gave it the benefit of the doubt.

He seems to be a good guy. Congenial. Good humored. Helpful. Sincere.

I’m studying Korean pretty intensively in order, in large part, to be able to understand his teachings.

One difference in being around these two monks is that I get much much more exposure to Da-hye Sunim. Good. Great. One thing I think about monks from a long time ago is that they stayed in one temple for a long time. They knew their disciples. Now it seems like the people who are regarded as “masters” are traveling a lot. So those who don’t travel along don’t see so much of these masters.

Another person I see a lot is the lady “who makes food for the monks”. She’s a fairly old woman but still plenty strong and feisty! Her name is Kong Yang-ju. Actually, that’s probably more of a title. It means person “who makes food for the monks”. She’s never ever nice to me. There was one time, I’d say, that she was almost a bit nice. Saturday at noon. A bunch of us took a break from work to have lunch. I asked for one of those fruit skin peelers. She handed me a knife telling me, I guess to use it to peel the melons I brought in to eat. Well, I took the knife but had no intention of using it. But she was a bit playful in telling me. I don’t know where that came from. The rest of the time she is curt or downright harsh. Like last night, I had picked a bunch of vegetables for my dinner. But I wanted a bit more. So I went into the kitchen where she was washing dishes. On the table just behind her was a plate with some vegetables on it. I think nobody was going to eat them. So I asked if I could have them. She turned around, then barked out a few words which came across to me as very harsh. I don’t know the words she said, I’m not even sure she speaks to me in standard Korean. Sunmi has told me she speaks her native dialect to me!! Clear communication will never come in this way.

A few days ago at lunch I asked for two of the four bananas that were in the kitchen. She heard me plainly. But she was silent. I took the bananas, sat down at the same table as her where she could plainly see me, and ate the bananas. She was silent the whole time.

In the mornings when I go into the kitchen, she’s usually there and I usually greet her. She’ll usually respond with a word of acknowledgement.

She’s curt and harsh to everyone. But I do hear her talking decently and even joking with others. Like I said, she’s never kind to me. Unless you call that one time that I mentioned above kindness. I have no problem with her rudeness really. It’d be nice if we had a better relationship but I am fine with her the way she is. It would be better for work too if we had a better relationship. I would love to help with some of the work but there’s no way that we can communicate with her the way she is.

I’ve never been upset with her. Who knows. as I learn more Korean, maybe she’ll start talking with me. Who knows, maybe then I’ll start having problems with her!!

More about people in another entry. It’s 6:30 now and so it’s time to get to the Dharma Hall for a 3 ½ hour ceremony!

Troy.