on the last day of my lunar new year holiday, i decided i should get out and see something else in seoul...with my time here winding down really fast, i know there are a lot of things i haven't seen that i should've seen during my time here...myogaksa is one of the temples in seoul that has a templestay programme, and though i wasn't interested in that at the time, it's definitely a possibility in the future...
myogaksa is on the side of a hill in north central seoul, so when you get there you can look out over a fair amount of the city...go figure, the day i went, the weather was hazy/overcast...due to the holiday and small size of the temple complex there weren't many people there, so i really enjoyed the solitude...there are staircases all over the complex that lead to it's different parts, including this large buddha, a bell, and more...
soon after i came in the entrance door of the temple a nun approached and asked why i was there...i think she wanted do know if i was there for a temple stay, and if so, she would've directed me to the right place...but since i was just curious and wanted to look around...as she saw me a few minutes later having climbed up a couple sets of stairs, she told me the temple is 500 years old...at least, i think that's what she meant...or maybe she meant the huge buddha that was carved into the stone side of the mountain...anywho, i really appreciated the friendliness, yet aloofness...
in between this set of candles and another set of candles was a deep tray full of burned incense...it smelled lovely, and the aesthetic appeal was lovely...aesthetic appeal is one reason i continue to try to find temples to go visit, even though most people would say that most temples in korea are all the same...to some degree i find this to be true, but i love the peacefullness of each temple, particularly the least touristy temples...
i ended up spending a good 30 minutes meditating with the monks on the second floor of this temple, as they chanted and banged on the noisemaker...in korea a different sect of buddhism is most predominant (as opposed to the rest of the world which mostly sticks to two majour divisions (mahayana and theravada) so i don't know if the chanting was in pali, the language of the buddha or not...but i think so...
in front of each of these small buddha statues was a card on which was written a name...i'm assuming these were contributors, or wishmakers, or something along those lines...
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