When my mom told us we were going to do a temple stay at the monastery, me and Grayson weren't that excited. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to talk while we ate and that we'd have to do a lot of chores and cleaning. But luckily that wasn't true.
When we arrived at the monastery, we had no clue what we were doing. so we had to get some help. A nun stopped us from going the wrong way and pointed us toward our lodge. Slowly we found our way. They told us to eat lunch. It was all vegetarian food. That is not what we are used to, but the rice was really good. After lunch we got to wander around the grounds. There were many buddha statues everywhere. The buddhas have curly hair and were gold or white while the little bald statues were of monks and nuns. The statues had different hand motions, with one hand up and one down, sometimes with two fingers up, sometimes doing yoga, sometimes hands in lap. They all looked calm.
A monk named Hue offered to take us on a tour. He walked us all over for more than 2 hours. He was very funny although Mom said she didn't get all of his jokes. He had lived at the monastery for 24 years. He was from Austria! He told us that hundreds of nuns and monks live at the monastery plus lots of guests like us. His assigned job was to give tours. He told us a bunch of times to go to different ceremonies and services and meals - it was very confusing to keep track of so mom had to write it down in her notes.
Hue took us to a room near the main shrine where you could practice calligraphy. Everyone was given a sheet with faint characters and a set of directions for making strokes. It was really quiet and relaxing. Mom and I really enjoyed it. Dad and Grayson struggled more.
We spent the night in the not-that-thrilling-of-a-lodge called the Bamboo Garden Lodge. It was small and cold. It was freezing. The carpet was spikey. The beds were hard but the blankets were very warm. But it was a good place to rest before we had to get up for the very early morning service. The overall experience was free-er than I thought. It is impressive to get to see all the buddhas -- Poppy with mom's help
Day 2 at the the monastery started with an early wake up so we could walk over to attend the 5:45am service at the Main Shrine. I didn't sleep well. I felt like I was weak minded as I laid in bed reflecting on the Buddha Core Values of, "Do good deeds, speak good words, think good thoughts" while tossing and turning awake thinking about how hard the mattress was, how I could not ignore the light urine odor in our room, and randomly, why does my right elbow hurt so bad?
We arrived at the shrine in the dark. Hue told us the day before that there would be someone there to help us when we arrived. We stood outside for a couple of minutes trying to figure out where we needed to go. Looking straight into the 3 giant doors of the shrine, it looked empty and we were the first ones to arrive. Sure enough, one of the nuns helped us in though it was a little stressful trying to figure out what we were supposed to do as she didn't speak English and we still don't speak any meaningful Chinese. My real anxiety came as the nun whisked us inside, but we still had our shoes on. The day before when we toured on our own through a few of the other shrines, it seemed that we absolutely needed to remove our shoes prior to entering. Much to our surprise, as we turned the corner after entering, there was around 80 other tourists already seated on the cushions on the floor. On the opposite side of the shrine sat another 50 nuns and monks. Everyone had shoes on. Crisis averted. The nun handed each of us a small prayer book which contained the words to the chanting that would be done during the service. Shortly after we were seated the service began.
There was a nun who was leading the chanting, while two others sat on either side of her. One rhymically hitting a drum and the other a bell. Everyone could participate in the chanting if you wanted, much like singing a hymn in church. We couldn't figure out what chant they were reading out of the book as it was about 50 pages in all. I also wasn't sure that it was okay to participate if you aren't a buddhist, so we just sat and watched. There was the occasional bowing that would happen and we would try and follow suit. Per usual, I had no idea what was going on, so just tried to take the whole experience in. It was a pretty awesome. The 3 buddhas in the shrine are massive and quite impressive by themselves to look at. The ceiling was probably 60 feet high. Pictures aren't allowed inside, so we don't have a good visual to show. On each side of the giant buddhas sit the world's tallest light jewel pagodas at 9 meters each, made up of 72 layers and containing another 7,200 buddha images each. Picture 2 giant cone towers with the base being roughly 8 feet in circumference and broken up into 72 levels reaching a height of about 30 feet. Each level contains golden buddha ornaments spanning the circumference of the cone. Each ornament has a light inside so the pagodas are almost like lit up Christmas trees.
Other than where the 3 buddhas sit, the remainder of the walls are lined from just above the floor to ceiling with built in rectangle wood compartments measuring about 6"x10". Inside each compartment sits a small buddha with a small light on top illuminating the individual box. There are 14,800 of the smaller buddhas lining the walls. Sitting there taking it all in, it was pretty spectacular to look at during the 30 minutes while listening to the steady cadence of the chants. I had no choice but to live the core value of thinking only good thoughts. I was completely immersed in the moment, loving the experience and being totally content in all my ignorance of what was going on around me...which later that day I learned that ignorance is one of the 4 poisons in buddhism. The light pagodas represent the light of wisdom which can break through the darkness of ignorance. I have a long way to go if I want to become buddhist. Regardless, the experience was great. -- Trae
After our very early morning, we set off for the "BIG buddha". Just to clarify how big - the head alone was 3 stories high! Before we went to visit the big buddha we made a stop at a museum. The museum was about the master and how he created a new style of caligraphy. We watched a documentary about him that explained that, as he got older, his sight became bad and his hands became trembly, but he overcame his challenges by creating a new type of calligraphy named one-stroke calligraphy. Basically, he would never pick up his paint brush so that he knew where to begin a new character. He would write his teachings, like life lessons on them like "speak good words. do good deeds. think good thoughts". We also got to use a wood carved print maker - you dip a paintbrush in ink and cover the wood stencil, then place a blank sheet of paper on top, and rub the back of the paper with a flat tool. When you take it off, wa-la. We also got to make three wishes on a piece of paper shaped like a leave which would then go on a tree. A picture of mine is down below. Now, finally, we went to see the big buddha up close. It was ginormous and really cool to see up close. But there was one bad thing - they were drilling on the pyramid in front of the buddha and it made a lot of noise and a bad smell. But otherwise it was a fascinating cultural experience even if we got a little tired on the way home. - Grayson
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