ON YOUR KNEES!!

 108 times!

I'll get into serious trouble for saying this truism: Koreans bow a lot. Why this seems to be so has been my academic quest this summer. There are apparently unique "bowing" rituals here beyond the still-omnipresent social bows and kowtows that are primarily Confucian in origin. Confucian-inspired bowing on this social level establishes everyone's social rank ... acknowledement that there are elders and juniors, those with rank and those without.

The Greeting Man, by YOO, Young-Ho.

This is also the home (for Christians around the world) of the very famous early morning prayer meetings. See this short clip:

 

Early morning prayers and prostrations for the Christians began over a century ago in some historic evangelistic revivals in what is now North Korea. To this day, many will say that the numerical success of Christianity here, and the success of the nation, lies explicitly in this practice of debasing, self-effacing, face-to-the-ground bowing and prostration. The spiritual logic: when one is in full spiritual compliance, as in prostration-prayer, then one's divinity is able to bless one more. Become spiritually empty of Self and Ego, to be spiritually filled.

This idea of spiritual "merit" or "advantage" occuring while only in the prostation position/attitude has Buddhist expression as well. Korean Buddhism is quite vibrant and diverse. However, one explicit contribution and consistent practice of Korean Buddhism (especially its Seon or Zen expression) is the "108 Prostrations of Great Repentance." I urge the reader to click the video below and engage in the full 25-minute experience. 

Here is a short video on how to bow in Korean Buddhism. For those wondering about whether this constitutes "worship" the usual response is "no," but it is honoring.

The "108 Bows" is now an integral part of the TempleStay experience that draws many Korean nationals and foreign travelers to the Temples. It seems to be a uniquely Korean Buddhist ritual, although it has traveled. 

What Buddhists do here is 108 bows at a time. There can be music, or accompanyimg words like the video above, but the number 108 is important.

Why 108? Many explanations exist. One is that there are 108 different kinds of delusions and illusions that plague the habits of the brain. Another explanation comes from Hinduism, which predates Buddhism: The "1" stands for one truth. The "0" represents emptiness, and the 8, when turned on its side, recalls infinity. One monk told me that we have 6 senses (including the mind), times 3 deluded minds (ignorance, lust and anger), times 2 states (craving & non-craving), times 3 periods (past, present, future) = 108. 

Prostration is a spiritual practice. They are the "horizontalizing of the mast of the ego". They are tough; not easy on the knees. One should want to perform them until one actually wants to perform them ... when Extrinsic becomes Intrinsic. Sometimes I see monks in the middle of their 1000+ prostrations, and sometimes even 10,000 plus (in one day!).

A brief analysis of the words: There are several spoken versions, and these spoken words are a very recent addition to Korean Buddhism, and unique to world Buddhism. First one bows in repentance for small mindedness, immodest living, not realizing the miraculous nature of each encounter. A second set of bows emphasizes one coming into more awareness and realization, such as "I prostrate for coming to realize that my deeds are the same as those of Buddha." Another set of bows are in gratitude, such as for realizing one's anger as a bad response to others' actions, so one bows in gratitude to one's "enemies." Finally, one bows as promises, as vows not to lead unthankful, small, truthless lives. 

The wonder of this ritual is that it has ties with many-a-religion. There are shamanistic recognitions that there are larger forces in your life. Confucian thankfulness for family, ancestors and trusted friends are part of these 108 bows. Christian gratitude for Creation, and Christian repentance both filter into these 108 bows as well.

One of the advantages of this 108 Prostrations is its portability. One does not have to be in a Temple or sacred space to perform them. This is Buddhism off the temple mat, but practiced on the mat of common places and common times. Buddhism is the ever-humbling of the ego, lowering oneself until you know your oneness with everything. This is not a temple-only, worship-only spiritual technology.  

So, with all the Korean ways of bows and prostrations to you, I hope to see you on, and off, the mat. 

SPIRITUAL TERRORISM??

This time, things get strange and weird.

Background: I have just finished a few weeks of teaching Shamanism and popular Daoism. Long discussion made short, many in Korean history have felt (and still feel) that the geography of Korea is alive ... alive with power, or spirits, and it is the human duty to harness and cooperate with these energies in order to build the most successful city, nation, and society.

I repeat: cooperate with these energies (or Ki in Korean, Chinese: 氣 Ch'i or Qi), and life will be successful. Interrupt these powers and disasters follow. Stay attuned to these Ki and supernatural powers, and the nation will survive.

Just like there are "maps" of the body's pressure points for accupressure, so too this map of the the Korean peninsula shows key "pressure points" where the earth's energies are especially potent. (They are along the mountain ranges.) Keep the energy moving, and society thrives.



Now, imagine you are the Japanese Empire in the previous century (Japan was the colonial power here from 1910 to 1945), and you wanted every possible advantage over the Korean peninsula which you now controlled. You will leave no stone unturned in your attempts to control Korea. Someone from the shamanist and popular Daoist traditions comes to you with an idea:

The energy in the land of Korea is strong. If we could interrupt
and destroy that energy, then our conquest of Korea would be so much easier. Let us therefore drive evil sticks (말뚝) into the power-places in Korea's geography and stop-up Korea's strong earth-power. Let us begin spiritual terrorism in Korea!

Spiritual Terrorism?

Koreans have recently discovered in their sacred mountain spaces many iron rods sunk deep into the earth. They believe these were placed by the Japanese to interrupt and stop Korea's ki. "They [Japanese] struck a spell to break the vein of this place. People could not find it because they put it secretly."*

This is akin to a sort of "evil acupuncture" to block energy flow. The Korean language suggests the iron rods impede the "blood" of the mountain. These rods were thought to clot that blood, to provoke a "spiritual collapse" of the country and its people.

Here are some pictures to illustrate; they come from other sources than my camera. [It gets weirder still; get past these pictures, and you'll see.]


















Another set of pictures of a rod-extraction a rod is here.

Yesterday, I visited the House of Sharing for the third time. This is a place where some surviving "grandmothers" of Japaneses sexual slavery during WWII live. (See my blog on this last year.) A Japanese man recently planted a propaganda pole beside the emblematic statue where, each Wednesday, people demonstrate against Japan's refusal to apologize for these crimes outside the Japanese Embassy here in Seoul. The words on his "evil stick" read "Dokdo is Japanese territory." (Dokdo is a contested island close to Korea, but situated between the two countries.)



The actual video of him placing this and explaining why (in Japanese) is here. 

* * *

 All religions say the earth, especially its mountains, is in some way sacred. This blog is one report on how that is understood here.

Thanks to fellow Ewha University colleagues, IM, Eun-mi and Michael Pettid for their conversations with me about this.

* http://www.jsghnews.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=tb41&wr_id=595