My Unordinary Summer Vacation

Traveling to lovely places with my friends, watching movies everyday at home, and tutoring high school students are what I usually do in my vacation. But what I want to introduce to you is not a common activity in vacation. That is staying in a Buddhist temple. 

Two years ago, I was sick and tired of everything. There were many reasons why I felt this way but the main reason was that I had been injured during my military services. So when my school was on vacation, I decided to stay at a Buddhist temple to seek inner peace. I searched for the right temple online and applied for a solitary program at Magoksa Temple in Chung-Cheong province.

Korean Buddhist temples are often located in mountainous regions near the natural beauty of rivers, valleys, or the sea. The Magoksa temple also has that kind of beautiful scenery. What I tried to do in there was mastering my mind through meditation. So I was usually alone in my own world. Sometimes when I was bored, I participated in some group activities like walking around the temple, religious services, talking with a Buddhist monk, and drawing some pictures in a Korean traditional way.

To be honest, I couldn’t achieve what I wanted during my stay in the temple. But, I learned something through my experiences. The first thing is, I can’t change things that already happened. So I made up my mind not to be obsessed with the past things. The second thing is some amazing change can happen not only in special places, but also just ordinary places like home, school and work place. It is not important where you are but who you are.