The Gwangdae Performance and Buddha's Birthday

May 8^th, 2011

Had a meeting of our dissertation support group with Jenny, Bonnie and Shannon – we brainstormed and gave feedback on writing we had shared—beyond awesome.

In the early evening we watched a performance by 더 광대 The Gwangdae at 광화문 Gwanghwamun. That's Changyeol, Daecheon, Yeongho etc.'s group. It was quite unexpected. I mean, I thought I knew the direction they were heading with this performance, more towards mask dance drama, but clearly I was mistaken. In the performance everyone is under the thrall of the business world until 이매 Imae (from 하회별신굿탈놀이 Hahoi Byeolshin'gut Talnoli) comes along to wake them up to fun. They turn into squid, then get hooked on religion (literally, but a fisherman with a giant lure and hooks with each religion's symbols on them). Uh? I need to talk to Changyeol some more about it.

After the show Karjam and I went to dinner with Sejeong.

May 9^th, 2011

I stayed home and worked on the computer

May 10^th, 2011

It was Buddha's Birthday in Korea so I dragged Karjam (who wanted to stay home and keep preparing to record his CD) out of the house. We went to 봉원사 Bongwon Temple, one of my favorites, the head temple of the Taego Order (태고종) and it was a very sweet scene there. Busy and bustling, but we went into each of the halls, did our bows (I did my long series of bows in the 대웅전), offered donations, lit incense, etc. It felt really awesome. Then I went to 조계사 Jogye Temple, the head temple of the 조계종 and I should have known better. It was a mad house. And muddy. And full of people shaking donation boxes and there was a guy on a loud speaker who was –not- chanting. Everyone had cameras out, tons of tourists and there was a LONG line to even get into the hall to do bows. We got out of there pretty fast. I hate seeing Buddhism demeaned in that sort of way. I guess it's a bit like the Catholics who don't want the Christmas and Easter people crowding them out. But at least people aren't standing on stools to take photos of you when you want do what Catholics do in the cathedral (is there communion on those big holiday days?)

Back to Songpa Sandae Noli

February 27th, 2011
At 3:45 I swung my legs out of bed and shortly after 4 we heard the 목탁 moktak (wooden clacker used by Buddhists in ceremonies) outside. We climbed up the stairs I'd been told to use, emerging from behind the altar.

The only lay people were the grandmother and I, and the abbess didn't come to the morning service, only 연일스님 Yeonil Seunim. We carried out a fairly typical morning service. Before we even began 예불문 Yebulmun (a key chant) I had already finished my 108 bows. After Yebulmun we did two other chants, one of which was hard to follow even when reading along, because of the speed and non-Korean combination of sounds (Sanskrit written in Korean). Back downstairs the grandmother read in the prayer book and I worked on translating a paper. Breakfast was shortly before 7:30, and it was much of the same foods I'd had for dinner the night before, including excellent 된장찌게 bean paste stew. After we ate and shared the apples that had been starting to go bad sitting in front of the altar in the prayer hall, Yeonil took me outside to the large ceramic jugs full of handmade sauces and filled up a huge container with bean paste for me to take back to Seoul. I was also given a bunch of 고추장 chili pepper paste, but that wasn't made at the temple. Yeonil wandered off and came back with toothpaste and facial wash, emphasizing that it was just given to them and they didn't need it, she added it to my bundle, then a few minutes later added some large pounded rice noodles.

It was really awesome to see her, but they were going to be running a 제사 jesa memorial service and I decided that my foreign presence might mar the solemnity of the occasion for the grieving family, so I headed back to Seoul.

It took forever, and it was raining cats and dogs part of the time (and I didn't have an umbrella) but I finally reached my house and changed into dry lounging around pants and started checking my email. Then the office manager from 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli called me.
"Where are you?"
"At home."
"Aren't you coming?"
"I came yesterday, should I have come today, too?"
"How long does it take to get here?"
"About 70 minutes."
"Leave right now and you can have lunch with us."
Uhh…. I was actually really pissed off, though it took me a while to figure out why. One reason was that if I'd gone from the temple back to Songpa I could have had a leisurely coffee and been on time for class. Another was that only I am apparently expected to show up for two classes every week. And I hadn't quite been clear that I had to do that before the phone call, so I felt a bit like, as they say in Korean 양 다리 someone who is two-timing. You know, keeping both the Saturday crew (Human Treasure Ham) and the Sunday crew (Professor Yi) happy. And finally I just hate that Songpa is so far away and I'd be out a good portion of my day to have lunch with them. But I decided that since the abbess of the temple had given me some "transportation money" (totally excessive) I would take a taxi to Songpa. And then I got a really horrible taxi driver. I can translate academic Korean into English for publication, but this guy refused to hear me as wanting to go anywhere other than Itaewon (the foreigner district which was an eight minute walk away). Finally I got out of his taxi (and was incensed that I'd paid to be pissed off) and got another taxi, who was very good and sweet and calmed me down.

I got to Songpa as they were packing up to end class, and had lunch with 김학석 Kim Hakseok (the other National Human Treasure), 김영숙 Kim Yeongsuk (my office manager friend), 이병옥 Yi Byeongok (2nd ranked and a professor), and 강차욱 Gang Cha'uk, the best and most versatile musician in the group. Lunch was pretty good and afterwards I interviewed Gang. There is a lot of tension in the group right now I just can't write about in the public account.

In the evening I had dinner with Eugene and his wife 주희 Juhee, who seems just amazingly real and unpretentious, not to mention warm-hearted and beautiful. I guess it's pretty clear why Eugene wanted to marry her.

Visiting Yeongseonsa (Temple)

February 26th, 2011
I went to 송파산대놀이 Songpa Sandae Noli practice and it was just 함완식 Ham Wanshik (one of the two National Human Treasures), 함승헌 Ham Seungheon (his son) and 어원석 Eo Wonseok (the other 전수자 jeonsuja—actually, there are more than just the three of us, there are also the two musicians who are jeonsuja). We were also joined by someone who I think is Ham's co-worker and his two young daughters, elementary school-aged. It was frustrating. At the start Ham wanted my help explaining something about Songpa Sandae Noli in English (he has a work related conferred in the US in a couple months, and he'll present about Songpa Sandae Noli during an evening dinner-time session, I guess). After that Ham led us through four motions. That's right. Four. And we took a lot of five and three minute breaks. Why? Honestly, Ham looked tired and irritated. Then Ham Jr. and Eo worked on Act 4. There are four principal characters, the two monks (that was them), the old woman (former gisaeng/geisha) and her daughter (whom she sells), the musician/entertainer 'Aesadang.' Ham told me to try being Aesadang. But to me, that character is completely wrong. First because the part includes a drum solo. Second, because this is one of the most feminine acting characters in the mask dance drama. Which according to the general concept of suit the part to the personality of the player, means it's the wrong part for me. I was very uncomfortable and really annoyed. Because the old woman enters stage first and I'd much rather learn her part! Then exactly one hour after the start of the class, Ham called it a day. Which irritated the bejesus out of me. It takes me 70 minutes or more to get to Songpa, the last thing I want is to only practice for an hour.

I walked back to the subway with Ham and I explained that I'd rather learn the part of the 8 dark-faced monks (which is the part almost everyone starts with) and that we should practice for longer, since it's so far away (esp. for Eo who needs two hours to get to Songpa!).

I grabbed a snack and found a bus to 남양주 Namyangju where my friend 연일스님 Yeonil Seunnim (Seunnim is Buddhist monk or nun) is staying at Yeonseonsa, a small temple of (one of?) her teacher(s). I wrote about finding this friend again in this blog post. Yeonil doesn't normally live in Namyangju, but she told me she commonly goes to this temple after she finishes the twice yearly retreats that (almost) all Buddhist clergy in Korea engage in.

I arrived just a few minutes before evening prayers, and after introducing me to the main prayer hall (so I could bow to the Buddha and admire how amazingly beautiful the prayer hall was) and the abbess, Yeonil insisted that I eat. Two 보살님 (lay people who volunteer at the temple) were in the kitchen, and they fixed me up a meal. It turns out that the younger one lives at the temple, she's been there for a year and a half. The older one was visiting, just like me. Dinner was excellent (and fully vegetarian). Before I had quite finished (in the temples you really have to polish your plate) Yeonil was back. The two lay women, Yeonil and I drank 보이차 puer tea for almost two hours of great conversation. Then (not yet 9) it was time to go to sleep, since we would all be waking up for the 4 a.m. morning ceremony. Amazingly, I was able to fall asleep next to the grandmother lay woman on a platform bed with a thin pad over a marble slab (the marble was heated and green and silver veined, very fancy). I slept lightly and after 3, particularly because of the drumming of rain on the skylight in the room, I couldn't get back to sleep.

Yeonil Seunim

August 26th 2010
Karjam and I have a friend, a Buddhist nun, 연일 스님 Yeonil Seunim. We met her in Lhasa and she came to Lanzhou and met us and went to Ahwencang with us where she stayed for several days charming everyone. I was later able to meet her in Korea (just a couple months later). However the contact info we had for her no longer worked and we couldn’t find her. I thought I had a physical address in an old notebook, but couldn’t find it if so. At any rate when we were moving back to Korea Karjam insisted that we HAD to find Yeonil Seunim. So I put it on my list of things to do and first I called directly to the 조계종 Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism (which Yeonil belongs to) head office, they directed me to another office. I told them all the info I had and they kept saying “it’s going to be really hard to find her if that’s all you know.” That frustrated the heck out of me. If they meant impossible, they shouldn’t say really hard. Yeonil is her Buddhist name, and I don’t know her legal name, that’s part of the problem because even I know two Yeonil Seunim (one a monk). At any rate they weren’t going to be useful and I’d be a bad Buddhist if I started getting all pissy with them, so I tried to come up with another method to find her. First I tried to Naver (Google) a list of all the temples with nuns, or all of them in 충청 Chungcheong Province (I didn’t even know if it was north or south Chungcheong, I could only remember that her temple was in Chungcheong somewhere). This was rather frustrating. I tried a lot of keyword combinations, 여스님 woman+monk didn’t work at all and kept giving me results showing a famous monk who is called X+여스님, but 비구니 bhikkuni was not super helpful, either. At any rate I determined that there was one temple for sure (a large one and I suspected Yeonil was at a smaller place) that had nuns and I called a random number on the internet and explained the situation to whoever answered (I suspect a nun, but I don’t even know). She didn’t personally know any Yeonil Seunim but she told me to call her back the next day and she’d see if she could locate anyone that met my description (I knew rough age, her proclivity for travel and the fact that she observed the two periods of confinement and practice each year and did a lot of meditation (as opposed to those who study a lot of texts or those who work in administration).

The next day we left for Daegu. More than a year ago I was beset by benign positional vertigo (peaking on the day I threw up twice), now it appears I have it again. After arriving in Daegu I was too busy trying not to spin to remember to call the helpful woman (nun?) again, but my phone rang after 7. “You were supposed to call me back.” “Sorry I’ve been feeling sick.” “Well I found a Yeonil Seunim and it might be the one you’re looking for, want the number?” So I called Yeonil Seunim and just with me meekly saying “안녕하세요. 저는 연일 스님 찾고 있습니다.” “Hello. I’m looking for Yeonil Seunim.” She already knew it was me. We had a really awesome talk, and will meet up soon in Seoul, as the summer seclusionary period has just ended. “I love you both, you know that, right?” She told me.

I went to meet old friends 정호 Jeongho and 수연 Suyeon .
I had dinner with Jeongho.

I had coffee with Suyeon
On the way back to Georgy's house a former student when I taught at Suseong Girls' Middle School approached me, and we had a nice talk on the subway (she rode all the way to Georgy and Jinhong's stop in order to have a good chat).

I took this photo of 보경 Bogyeong, my former student, on Karjam's camera: