Text and photographs by Melanie Radzicki McManus
August, 2012 Vol. 16, No. 9
A two-day stay opens the mind and frees the spirit.
Clutching our square, padded floor mats, we file into one of Beomeosa Temple’s Buddha halls, then set down the mats in neat rows off to the side of the main chamber. Several dozen of the temple’s 150 or so monks will soon be entering the hall for their evening worship ceremony, and as guests we’re allowed to observe this ancient ritual. We’ve also been given some basic instructions on how to participate in the reverencing portion of the worship ceremony, which will require repeatedly kneeling, touching our foreheads to the mat while raising our palms skyward, then standing.