Experience | Recommended Tour

Templestay, a time to take a break from your daily life

Why not rediscover yourself and forget the bustle of everyday life for a while?

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What modern people dream of and long for is to take a rest, to escape from the hustle and bustle of daily life that repeats itself like a wheel. If you can't do so forever, gather your nerve to take a break from your everyday routine. Templestay at the foot of a tranquil mountain in Busan helps you take a load off your mind and find inner peace.

Seonamsa Temple located in Baegyangsan Mountain is the place to go to experience a templestay program. The simple and cozy ondol room (underfloor-heated room) looks good enough to spend two days and one night in the mountain temple. Why not sit on the antique toenmaru (wood-floored veranda) without dancheong? (Dancheong means elaborately adorning a building with diverse colors.) You can find the ultimate Korean beauty created by the old wood and eaves of the temple, which also makes you feel peaceful. This landscape alone allows you to regain your psychological stability. Feel your body relax.

Let's take a walk around the temple with a Buddhist monk after getting dressed in loose, casual hanbok style clothes and white rubber shoes. Wherever you go, you can see the decent and understated beauty of the mountain temple.
The evening temple dinner (called gongyang i) is followed by the evening Buddhist ceremony (called yebul). Along with the beautiful sky at sunset, the resonating sound of a bell in the serene mountain temple keeps your mind clean and clear. kneel and prostrate yourself on the wooden floor according to the sound of moktak, a wooden handbell, struck by a Buddhist monk in the Dharma Hall. Holding your palms together (hapjang), refresh your mind.

After the Buddhist ceremony, you will have a conversation with a Buddhist monk over tea. The conversation topics and atmosphere may be totally new as you rarely have an opportunity to talk directly with a Buddhist monk. As tea is brewed with warm water, it gives off a bitter scent. Accordingly, the atmosphere of the conversation over tea is getting better. You can pour your heart out to the monk although probably hesitating to do so at first. Just sharing the worries that you've been struggling with will make you feel freer and easier. In addition, you can listen to the monk's candid advice, so you will feel quite unburdened.

At 4 a.m., the early morning ceremony (yebul) begins with a quite different mood from the evening ceremony, along with the heavily resounding bell. Get rid of useless thoughts in your head one by one in the reverent and sacred atmosphere. The Dharma Hall is quickly filled with silent prayers. Strangely, the temple seems to have energy that help you focus on one thought. After 108 prostrations, you will be lost in meditation, paying attention to your own breathing. The early morning air emitting from the forest is helpful for calmer meditation. Opening your eyes, you feel like your mind is full of clean energy.

Before finishing the templestay program, you have another conversation over tea. It is just an overnight experience, but you feel yourself change a little and the monk may look different. Templestay ends, with your burden getting lighter and your insight into life deeper.

Overview

Address
138, Baegyangsan-ro, Busanjin-gu, Busan
Inquiry
+82-51-805-7573
Closing Dates
Open all year round
Hours
See the website
Service Fees
See the website
Traffic Information
Exit 9, Seomyeon Station, Busan Metro Line 2 → Transfer to Bus No. 17 or 141 at the bus stop across Lotte Hotel & Lotte Department Store → Get off at Seonamsa Temple Entrance Bus Stop, a 14-min walk
Seonamsa Temple Parking Lot available