Walking and Hiking Tours of Busan

Last Saturday night and Sunday morning (97/8/7), I ate at a (Pal-u hang-yang) Buddhist monk's dining ceremony in So-myon. The organizer, Jay Oh, invited foreigners, so they could see how monks eat every night. Most of the Koreans there were experiencing this for the first time as well. The night started off with the monk, Shin-san, explaining to everyone how the evening's meal would proceed. Everyone there was nervous, including me, because the rules seemed so complex. I soon realized that this form of eating is in reality very simple, indeed. We then broke for about half an hour, and at around 11:30pm, we sat down to eat. We had a special way we were supposed to hold our bowls, a way to serve the food (in a buffet manner) and we were not supposed to make any noise, not even to hear ourselves chew, because this would take us out of the meditative state of mind. The monk seemed to be really intrigued that there were some foreigners present, and was keen as to make sure that ...