A Visit to International Buddhist Temple in South Korea !!

I always wonder and curious about how is the temple and Korean Buddhism tradition look like? Same like Malaysia or China? One day I decided to go with my ASEAN friends to take a visit at International Buddhist Temple near Daejeon. All of us wake up early in the Sunday morning and take several buses to a temple call Mu Sang Sa International Buddhist Temple! It took about an hour for us to be there. 

Finally the bus stop! but we still need to spent some time to climb up the hill in order to get to the temple. Started to feel good about the surrounding, fresh air, the sound of nature and some rain drops! 

Few minutes later, we finally can see the temple! The picture above was my first glanced of the temple with very special architecture and design! Awesome! Right? So, I took quite some of the pictures of the temple!  ^_^ 

After look around the temple, we decided to go inside one of the building and make a wish and pray for peace! : D   The architecture and design of the Korea Buddhist Temple is somehow a little bit different from Malaysia Buddhist Temple especially the colors as well as the roof design! Very interesting!

Then now is the time for our picture! ^_^

Later one we greeted by a monk and we started to introduce ourself as well as him too. After that, I was too shock! Very Shock! He speak hokkien (one of the chinese dialect) to me! My God! Korean do learn Hokkien? I was totally out of my mind! Well! later on he told us that he is a Malaysian!! A Malaysian Monk from Melaka! I am really surprise about it! Then we continue talk more about ourself and shared some experiences that we had go through in our life and we are in Korea. After talk about half an hour, we start our vegetarian lunch with others monks and international visitors. 

Somehow, I get really surprise again because this is my first time I saw westerner monk in my life. Wow! I feel that Buddhism is very international as well. ^_^ 

Now what? then what we going to do in the temple after this? Well! after all the visitors get their stomach full, then we going to practice Zen Meditation! It is a simple meditation to relax ourself with very simple steps. The meditation take about one and half an hour in the room. It was my first time to meditated in that time of period!

After some hard work on the meditation practice, we continue with a talk from Buddhist Teacher  by the Malaysian Monk, Myong An Sunim (his name)  and a westerner Monk from Europe. The talk mainly about the Zen Meditation that we went through and some life time experiences sharing from the teachers! 

All of us were really attracted by their speech and explanation! I can say that it was a very inspirational talk and somehow I understand more about myself! Both of them had went through many hardship and difficulties. I am impress!

After the talk, before we going back to University, we luckily have a chance to take picture with the Buddhist Teachers. It was a very memorable experience for me! 

Dear readers, if you have a chance to visit Korea or you currently in Korea, I strongly recommend you to take a visit here " The Mu Sang Sa International Buddhist Temple". They will organize a retreat in this coming winter. Do not miss it! ^_^

How to get there?

By Train: 

From Seoul, Yongsan Station take about 2 and half hours to Gye-Ryong Train Station. From Gye-Ryong, you can take a short taxi ride to Mu Sang Sa International Buddhist Temple about 20 minutes time with 6000 to 7000won. 

By Bus: 

Take an Express Bus from Seoul Nambu Express Bus Terminal to Shindo-an Bus Stop near Omsa-ri about 2 hours and 10 minute. Then take a short taxi about 20minute to Mu Sang Sa International Buddhist Temple with around 8000won.

If you have any questions, please leave comments or you can email me (Email is in my profile).

Thank you! 

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