A Time to Meditate

 Trying to catch up on posts. . . this is from last weekend.

(July 8^th – July 10^th) (Part 1)

After a fast pace and active two days, today it decided to rain. Which is quite pleasant to be honest. Furthermore, it seems to be an example of the teachings we learned on Friday. 

Friday was our first excursion. We left NPUE at 8am and went on our way to Kaohsiung. It was quite pleasant to get on a bus (which are so much more comfortable than American buses) and see the countryside of Taiwan. For me there is something about an open road and open land (or an open ocean); I just take in all the surroundings and let my mind wonder with thought. I guess that is just the "southern/beach boy" in me. 

Anyways, our first stop was Fo Guang Shan, a Buddhist Monastery. We spent the entire morning touring the monastery and going into the temple. It was so cool to see the architecture and learn about Buddhist belief. At one point, we were led to a classroom that looked like it could have been taken out of Hogwarts. On our desk were a scroll and a special calligraphy pen. On the scroll were watermarked Chinese characters. We had to try our best to brush over them by performing calligraphy (they said I had talent at it). At the bottom we signed our name and our Chinese name.

From there we went on into the temple. The Temple was amazing! Before entering, you have to take your shoes off. As you enter, you take a flower and say a prayer. Then you put the flower on the table in front of the three big Buddha statues. It probably was about the same size as Lincoln Memorial. Everything inside was detailed with miniature Buddha statues all in iron and copper walls and the whole room was filled with the smell of fresh incense. As you exit the doors (which are handcrafted with an image of giant trees with birds in the branches) you come back out to the big green courtyard. At that moment you have to just take a moment and enjoy the scenery around you (if you have seen my photos on Facebook, this is were the jumping photos were taken).

Afterwards, we were led to the meditation room! One of the monks spoke to us in Chinese, as a student translated into English. He explained why meditation was important to them and we were led into this room with raised individual benches that had pillows on top of them. We sat down and were instructed on the proper body form and the proper technique. While meditating you are supposed to have complete control of your mind while in a relaxed state. So, the trick is you count your breaths in tens (i.e. 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10 and start over again 1…2…3….). Your mind is not supposed to wonder and you have to stay awake (there is a lap track in the room for them to get up and walk around when they get to tired). If you loose count, your restart your counting cycle. Anyways, we did this for 5 minutes, which only seems like two minutes. The monk told us that they do this everyday for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Furthermore, he told us that so many times a year they spend days only in meditation with proper breaks for food and rest, however, there is no speaking. That being said, I definitely enjoy moments of silence or just listening to music, however, 1 to 2 weeks of no talking would be difficult. I wonder how much they have to say when it is all over?

After our meditation lesson, we then had a vegetarian lunch. Let me just say, if vegetarian food was always like that, than I would have no problem not eating meat . . . well maybe. Everything was so fresh and had a unique flavor that each dish that they brought out smoothly blended into the next. The proper way to eat is you put rice in your bowl and you then add things on top of the rice (you do not stir it in the rice). We had tofu, cucumbers, vegetables soup, fresh fruit, some type of pasta, sweet squash, some really good desert thing that tasted like funnel cake, and more! All complemented with warm tea to drink. It was like a whole different type of meditation.

After lunch we said our thank yous and good-byes and headed to our next destination…