Mix martial arts with meditation at a South Korean temple retreat
Martial arts retreat at a Buddhist temple carved into a South Korean mountainside offers a deep sense of peace - eventually
The hollow donnngg of a bell gently burrows into my sleep. It is a comforting, if unfamiliar, sound, accompanying the strange new dreams of a foreign place, a new bed, an unfamiliar night.
Again and again, with increasing persistence, the bell calls me out of my sleep, sounding like a bullfrog in the woods. Donnngg … donnngg. I am still swimming towards consciousness when the ringing stops and the deep baritone chanting of a monk fills the predawn air.
As I awake, I slowly remember where I am: in a narrow bunk bed in a dormitory at the Golgulsa Templestay, on South Korea’s Hamwolsan mountain, about to start a second day learning an ancient meditative martial art. I have signed up to be a Buddhist warrior for a few days. To practise or to pretend, I am not sure.
As the monk’s voice drones over the loudspeakers, I rise, wash and walk through the morning dark to the practice hall for meditation.
When I arrived at Golgulsa, I was issued with a temple uniform – baggy, faded-orange cotton trousers held up with a string, and a matching vest – and then assigned a bed in an undecorated room with six bunks, two toilets and glaring fluorescent lights. I am sharing it with a Korean and an American. New arrivals are repeatedly reminded of the strict rules: be punctual; don’t smoke, drink alcohol or eat meat; stay out of the rooms occupied by the opposite sex; and wear modest clothing.
Exponents claim seonmudo improves energy flow and opens the joints, helps with spinal problems and lumbago, improves digestion and alleviates depression, obesity and constipation. My middle-aged body felt eager for the benefits, even if I was not ready for the effort involved in achieving them.