What
comes into your mind when you hear the words “temple” and “Buddhism”? What
about “Zen”? In my head a picture of bold men and women appears, living a quiet
and stressless life in a green environment. They are wearing simple cloth made
from cotton and always carry a smile on their lips, never hesitate to find kind
words for people. Besides this, they don’t talk much, but rather sit quietly and
meditate all day long.
That
was before I went to the Zen-Buddhism temple “Sougenji” (曹源寺) in
Okayama last weekend. I’ve been there before in summer 2010 and was enchanted
by the lovely atmosphere I felt, while talking to the people who tried to live
the life of real monks and nuns, and some already for 3 years. However, I didn’t
know at that time what they are actually doing all day long and so I decided to
visit my friends Leah again, before I’ll have to move to Tokyo. That was my
chance to experience the life of the temple and what it might be like to be a
monk.
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| the room I stayed in |
I
stayed from Friday to Sunday. Leah showed me my small room where I could sleep
at night and spent some time in the “freetime” period in the afternoon. I later
realised that the rooms of the monks are way smaller: the girls stayed in separate
rooms in a “guesthouse” which were probably just 1.8m x 2.0m in size. The guys
slept in the “Zendou”, the place where meditation takes place, so they don’t have
an own room, only an own box where they store their personal stuff.
Right
from Friday I joined the temple life, as I had only 48 hours. People told me
that I came in a “lucky” time, as the Roushi, the head of the temple, had just
left to America. The time schedule was hence a bit relaxed and was as follows:
Wake up at 4:30 a.m., get dressed in Hakama and Gi and be in the temple at 4:50
with your Sutra book. 4:50 to 5:50 chanting in the temple with the other monks.
6:00 – 6:30 Zasen (meditation) in the Zendou with everyone. After that quick
gardening with raking and picking up leaves; afterwards, in door cleaning until
7:30. Come to breakfast in your working cloth, 7:30 – kitchen. Breakfast and
lunch were taken in a kind of praying-eating ceremony. While you prepare your
three bowl and chop sticks und when the food is going around and you take some
into your bowls, chanting takes place. There was always plenty and very good
food – way better, than what I normally eat at home! The bowls were cleaned
with a pickle and tea, or hot water which you could drink at the end. One wipe with your rag and the bowls were “clean”
and under chanting stored in a box. Before eating you had to put 7 grain of
rice to the side and later a bit of the left-over water in your bowl. These
things were offered later as a present to a plant. After breakfast we had
working bees until lunch and every day the head monk, or in our case the next
monk in row, which was a friendly old man from spain, distributed the work. On Saturday
I had to boil water for a little Onsen, which took me 3 hours, burning wood,
while I was weeding at the same time. Not to exhausting work, but the second
day we cut down some bamboo (so 40-50) and needed to get rid of the branches
and leaves, which was quite exhausting. But we had short tea and snack breaks.
After lunch (same procedure as breakfast) we had free time until 5 p.m.. I went hiking with Leah! At 5 p.m. a
small optional “freestyle” dinner took place, which normally consists of the
leftovers from breakfast and lunch and had no ceremony. Everyone was talking to
each other. At 6:00 p.m. we were back in our Hakamas and Gis in the Zendou and
sit until 9:00, meditating. After that a short good night chanting and off we
were for our beds.
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| Main hall, where the morning and evening chanting took place. |
I
said, this was the relaxed schedule, because when the Roushi is there you
normally meditate longer and need to wake up earlier. Also the most exhausting
mediation week in winter is, when you need to sit from 5.00 a.m. in the morning
until 9.00 or 10.00 in the evening, only having breaks for breakfast and lunch.
Sleeping was only allowed standing or sitting, definitely not laying. That is what
I’ve heard.
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| Kitchen |
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| Gangway of the "Guesthouse" with the doors to the rooms of the nuns. |
For
me already two days were quite exhausting. The sitting during the mediation was
okay, because you were allowed to move every half an hour and every hour you
had to walk very fast with the others around the Zendou building.
So
what has changed my image of a monks and nuns life: first of all – you use your
body a lot. It is very exhausting, physically as mentally. It is super cold
there: I was wearing constantly 3 layers of trousers, 5 layers on my upper body
(2 long T-Shirts, Tshirt, Pullover, Gi) and my hat on my head, and I still felt
cold. And most of all: it is kind of stressfull – you are not really free; many
rules keep you busy and you always check a watch somewhere (as you’re not
allowed to wear one) in order to make sure to be at the right time at the right
spot!
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| I really liked this tree, which grows out of an old one! |
After
all it was a great experience and I felt clearly that I could not live in
Sougenji at the moment for probably more than a week or month (or maybe I just
need more time to get used to it?). I love it too much to just jump on my bike
and be free to move and do what I like to do without anyone telling me what I
have to do. But – I really would not like to miss this experience. It was great
to talk to these people from all over the world, who are so brave to leave
their life behind them and live the hard life of a monk in Sougenji now. After
all, it was and is their free decision and they can always leave the temple if
they don’t like it anymore. Talking about nationality: I also mentioned it
after my last visit, Sougenji is very international. I counted (including me) 4
Germany, 4 Poles, one guy from the Netherland and one from Belgium, one man
from France, Spain and Italy, 4 Americans, one Tai woman, and 3 Japanese!
After
I rode my bike back over Higashi-Okayama and arrived at the main station I
still had the chanting sing-sang in my head, and as I was walking through the bulk
of “busy” Sunday afternoon shopping people, I was looking around my shoulder,
expecting a group of monks, chanting! But I could only see people hasting to
their trains or checking their phone, and what sounded like the chants from the
temple was just the noise from all the busy people, their repetitive chants of “life”
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| Entrance of Sougenji. |
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| Kitchen house and some other rooms (^.^) |
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| Lake int he garden! The wall is leaking and gets repaired, that's why we had to cut bamboo! |
