The Nitty Gritty
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2009
1
5
18
Trip End
Jul 23, 2009
Kaohsiung,
Taiwan
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Today was both pleasant and painful, at least by my standards. Where to begin? This day seems to have lasted a week. I have to open the manual just to figure it out. We awoke at 5:30am, dressed and lined up for orientation. First, we settled into our designated line positions, organized by gender and height. We then learned standing meditation- feet several inches apart, 2 lines facing each other, good posture and eyes down at the feet of the person across from you. Basic greeting is "omituofo" meaning Amitaba bodhisattva in chinese (see wikipedia if confused). The basic non-verbal greeting to anyone at the monastery is "he zhang," palms closed like a lotus, thum b at the sternum, bow slightly. "wen xun" means, when lined up (which occurs before every activity), bow at the waist at teh ring of a bell, at the second ring rise and make a steeple with the forefingers, placing it between the eyebrows, then return back to "he zhang," palms joined. Then we "chu ban," meaning go out, turn, and walk in line, aligned with the person in front of us and adjacent to us. A bit militaristic, I must admit. When we walk in this way and focus on the back of the head of the person in front of us, this is called walking meditation.
After going over that, we went to our classroom to have ettiquette and program introductions from Venerable Yifa, program coordinator who's super nice. We essentially talked about the do's and don'ts of the program, for a long time. Then, we went to the big dining hall where all the monks, nuns, and college students eat (can hold something like 1000 people but usually only around 500) for our first real meal. Dining is a form of meditation in itself, and is so ritualistic that I should rather explain in person/provide pictures. But be aware, it's no form of dining that's conceivable to most people I can think of.
[Summary]:
-lunch
-meditation instruction, how to prostrate
-walking/standing meditation around shrine- hot as a sauna!
-10 min break, shower
-temple tour, led by a monk who talked like Arnold Schwarzenegar
-dinner, called medicine meal- the Venerable Master was present, and so the place was in a frenzy
[I know this seems unclear, but I hope that later posts help fill in the gaps.]
