A Day at Some Buddhist Temple in Hwasun

With raging hangovers, we all got on our party bus that blasted K-pop early Saturday morning to head to Hwasun (my new stomping grounds) for a day at a Buddhist temple. It was really really beautiful! The pictures won't do it any justice.

Anyway, we were taught how to meditate. Apparently my posture is pretty horrible because the monks kept coming by and straightening it out. The monk talking with us had to have been the most happy man I have ever encountered. I think he's got it figured out.

I was SO happy to have a good vegetarian meal. All the ingredients had been grown on the property and were incredibly fresh. We had a traditional Bibimbap meal with soup and a pumpkin rice drink. In the second part of the day we painted lotus flowers with vegetable paint on slices of maple (this is another form of mediation for them). My lotus flower, along with two others, won a bracelet. We then had a traditional tea ceremony of lotus tea and glutinous rice balls and ended the day with a short hike up the hill to a very old sculpture and headstone dedicated to a monk that died there in the 800AC times.