Buddha's Birthday Weekend

Noel O'Neill

Buddhism and Catholicism have some common meeting points as Fr Noel O'Neill discovered on a Buddhist weekend retreat.

It was the Eve of Pentecost. Whether it was due to my submission to the movement of the Holy Spirit or more likely my willingness to accommodate my niece and her husband, I found myself entering Sang Kwang Buddhist Temple on a Saturday afternoon in late April.

At the entrance to the long avenue leading up to the temple, a large rock commanded respect and attention. As we passed by, it had an inscription which read "Dismount your horse and walk from here on." Obviously it was meant for visitors of another age.

When we arrived at the reception office we were greeted by Monk Sang Bum. He showed us to our individual rooms that were about 10 feet by 8 feet. No bed, no wash basin, no bathroom, no TV, no radio, just a sleeping mat, an eiderdown and a rice-packed small hard pillow.

At 6:00pm we joined the other visitors in the dining facility where we enjoyed our first monastic meal in the company of the monks. The meal was simple fare: rice, vegetables and a bowl of seaweed soup. Around 7:00pm we were gathered in the inner courtyard in front of a two-storey open pavilion.

In the bottom section was a great bell, perhaps six or eight feet high and ten inches thick. In the upper part there was a large cowhide drum possibly six feet wide. Suspended nearby was a huge brazen gong and a hollow wooden fish. Each of those instruments has a symbolic meaning. Bell-beings of the world, gong-beings of the sky, wooden fish-beings of the water and the cowhide drum symbolise earthbound beings on the road to spiritual enlightenment.

Standing near the instruments were three monks waiting for their cue to perform. This came in the form of the fading sound of a distant drumming from the other end of the temple that was out of sight. One of the monks stepped forward and began to beat the drum with dexterity of movement and sound which had its own rhythm. He was followed by the second monk and finally the third monk took over, obviously the maestro himself, ending with staccato sharp thuds on the fish shaped wooden drum.

After the drum beating ceremony Monk Sang Bum escorted us to a quiet room where we squatted on the floor to await the arrival of Monk Chul Sou. This benign-faced monk introduced us to the lotus flower tea ceremony. He told us the story of the lotus flower and how it is one of Buddhism's most significant symbols. The lotus flower grows in the still water and mud of the pond and blossoms into a beautiful flower. This is a symbol of the process of shedding ignorance (mud) to attaining wisdom (the opening of the flower in the sunlight).

Before retiring we went for a stroll along the lotus pond. In preparation for Buddha's Birthday it was lit up with colourful lotus lanterns. The traditional Korean lanterns are made of beautifully coloured Korean paper; the beauty of them hanging and casting a mystic light in the stillness of the night. That night as I lay down on my floor mat the colourful images of the lotus lanterns rocked me to sleep.

At 3:30am the sound of a wooden percussion instrument that Buddhist monks "play every morning to start the temples day jolted me awake." I pulled myself up from my floor mat and joined my niece and her husband as we made our way through the darkness to the Dharma Hall to join the monks for morning meditation.

We experienced a 2000 year tradition as we watched and listened as 100 monks seated in a lotus position broke out in chant and then turned to silent meditation. The ritual was concluded by the monks performing 108 prostrations accompanied by chanting and the rhythm of the wooden drum.

After our breakfast Monk Sang Bum lead us to the foot of the mountain behind the temple, he requested that we observe silence as we walked up to the hermitage. He asked that we think of nothing but to allow our senses to come alive and experience the various sounds, the various smells, the various sights, and to touch the leaves of the trees or the plants as we climbed the mountain.

Arriving at the top we sat down and listened as Monk Sang Bum told us something of his personal life. After finishing college he worked at some financial company in Seoul. On the weekends, to get away from the hustle and bustle of life in the fast lane of the financial world, he and a Buddhist friend used to escape to a temple near Seoul. Finally he opted for the peaceful atmosphere and hours of silence and meditation as an alternative lifestyle to that of the fast lane of hedonism and consumerism. When we arrived down from the mountain we were joined by Monk Chul Sou who invited us to join him for a cup of tea at the visitors tea shop.

As we made the two hour drive back to Emmaus Centre I pondered the richness both Catholicism and Buddhism shared in ritual, symbolism and prayer of quiet. I understood better what Arnold Toynbee meant when he remarked that the meeting between Buddhism and Catholicism would be one of the big events of the 20th century. Fr Noel O'Neill has been a missionary in Korea since 1957.