This year my summer vacation was really good! My first week of vacation after summer camp I attended a teachers badminton training. I was invited by the gym teacher at my school. The training was from Monday to Friday and 8 hours per day. It turned out that some days I stayed for 10 hours. The training took place at Gohyeon middle school which was only 20 minutes from my house. There were about 40-50 other teachers taking part in the training. I was the only foreigner and the rest were elementary, middle and high school teachers from around Geoje-do.
Every morning we would warm up with some basic strecthes and warm-up activities. Then we would work on badminton foot work and proper stroke form. After this we would do badminton drills usually until lunch. If there was a court open, some people could get some games in before lunch. After lunch we would start with warm ups, then right to drills and for the last few hours it would all be about doubles games. It was so hot and I would sweat so much. I probably lost a few pounds that week.
The next week I went to the vipassana center like I try and do every year. I think of it as a mind tune up. It definetly was and I felt so good leaving there. This year, since I did not have enough time to stay the whole course, I signed up as a server and worked mostly in the kitchen. Before the course started, I was asked to be a driver and drive some things to the dump a few times. This was a little nerve racking since I had not driven in almost 2 years. It turned out to be alright and it was a small town with hardly any traffic. It was quite exciting to get back behind the wheel.
After the course started, I would wake up everyday before 5:00 and head to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the meditators. Everynight, I slept like a log. I don't know why I sleep so well at the centers but it always seems to be this way. Maybe because there is no internet, computer, phones or any other distraction that activate my mind into overdrive. I always seem to be calm. The one thing that I do get to do is read my book on down time. This is the luxury or being a server. As a meditator, they cannot do this. They are asked to hand in all their reading material along with phones, writing material and anything else. They are pretty much only supposed to focus on their meditation. It can make life at the center quite mundane for them but extremely benefitial for their meditation progress.
I have not been meditation much this year, so I thought I might have a harder time getting back into it. I was pleasantly surprised that my meditations were actually really good. I say good in terms of being able to sit without moving. Usually, I get to the center and it takes me some time to be able to sit without moving for an hour. However, my first sit, I felt like I broke a new barrier within my meditation. You never know when these barriers will be broken. They can come when one least expects it. The rest of my sits were also pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised by it all.
Serving a course seems to involve more learning about the self than actually just sitting the course. For servers, sanhkaras (deep rooted impurities) arise and the server has to interact with other people and this can cause tension. For the meditator, they just have to deal with them without the need to interact with anyone else. This was definetly the case for me in the kitchen this time around. I tried to remain equanimous but there are certain people that seem to push my buttons. This person was on everyones case. He seemed to be a control freak but I tried to stay calm. This person was also sitting next to me in the meditation hall. He was moving around every few minutes. I knew that sankaras were arising from his meditation. It can be very difficult to sit when the sankaras come to the surface if one has no equanimity. I knew his mind must be really agitated because of the way he was sitting and his method of dealing with people in the kitchen. Eventhough it was difficult with him around, I felt lucky at the same time. He was able to help me with my practice. I had to make sure that my negative feelings which arose within me did not affect other people. I did not want to in turn throw my fire at them. I tried to smile and be grateful for the lessons that I was receiving.
I was lucky that there were so many other positive people around me. This one lady in particular that would always lift my spirits. She was always smiling but at the same time got told by this other person not to talk so much . She seemed to take it alright. We are supposed to limit are chatting in the kitchen and in general as servers, but we have to comunicate with each other at the same time.
Before going to the retreat, I always try and give my mind and body a cleanse in order to be ready for practice. This means that I do not drink or drastically limit my consumption quantities. At the same time, I try and limit my meat and sugar in take. Its not fun to have any sort of withdrawls from alcohol or dietary things. While at the center, I would only eat very small meat of vegatarian foods. This means that I usually lose another couple of pounds. As a server, I eat more than if I'm sitting. While sitting, I hardly eat anything. Two meals a day and only a little rice, vegetables and kimchi. It helps to keep the stomoach mostly empty for meditation. Allows meditators to go deeper.
From these experiences, I have cleansed my mind and I feel ready to start work again. The body and mind and clean and I feel happy and light. This will allow me to teach my best and go great work. Thats all for now about my second summer vacation in Korea.
Every morning we would warm up with some basic strecthes and warm-up activities. Then we would work on badminton foot work and proper stroke form. After this we would do badminton drills usually until lunch. If there was a court open, some people could get some games in before lunch. After lunch we would start with warm ups, then right to drills and for the last few hours it would all be about doubles games. It was so hot and I would sweat so much. I probably lost a few pounds that week.
The next week I went to the vipassana center like I try and do every year. I think of it as a mind tune up. It definetly was and I felt so good leaving there. This year, since I did not have enough time to stay the whole course, I signed up as a server and worked mostly in the kitchen. Before the course started, I was asked to be a driver and drive some things to the dump a few times. This was a little nerve racking since I had not driven in almost 2 years. It turned out to be alright and it was a small town with hardly any traffic. It was quite exciting to get back behind the wheel.
After the course started, I would wake up everyday before 5:00 and head to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the meditators. Everynight, I slept like a log. I don't know why I sleep so well at the centers but it always seems to be this way. Maybe because there is no internet, computer, phones or any other distraction that activate my mind into overdrive. I always seem to be calm. The one thing that I do get to do is read my book on down time. This is the luxury or being a server. As a meditator, they cannot do this. They are asked to hand in all their reading material along with phones, writing material and anything else. They are pretty much only supposed to focus on their meditation. It can make life at the center quite mundane for them but extremely benefitial for their meditation progress.
I have not been meditation much this year, so I thought I might have a harder time getting back into it. I was pleasantly surprised that my meditations were actually really good. I say good in terms of being able to sit without moving. Usually, I get to the center and it takes me some time to be able to sit without moving for an hour. However, my first sit, I felt like I broke a new barrier within my meditation. You never know when these barriers will be broken. They can come when one least expects it. The rest of my sits were also pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised by it all.
Serving a course seems to involve more learning about the self than actually just sitting the course. For servers, sanhkaras (deep rooted impurities) arise and the server has to interact with other people and this can cause tension. For the meditator, they just have to deal with them without the need to interact with anyone else. This was definetly the case for me in the kitchen this time around. I tried to remain equanimous but there are certain people that seem to push my buttons. This person was on everyones case. He seemed to be a control freak but I tried to stay calm. This person was also sitting next to me in the meditation hall. He was moving around every few minutes. I knew that sankaras were arising from his meditation. It can be very difficult to sit when the sankaras come to the surface if one has no equanimity. I knew his mind must be really agitated because of the way he was sitting and his method of dealing with people in the kitchen. Eventhough it was difficult with him around, I felt lucky at the same time. He was able to help me with my practice. I had to make sure that my negative feelings which arose within me did not affect other people. I did not want to in turn throw my fire at them. I tried to smile and be grateful for the lessons that I was receiving.
I was lucky that there were so many other positive people around me. This one lady in particular that would always lift my spirits. She was always smiling but at the same time got told by this other person not to talk so much . She seemed to take it alright. We are supposed to limit are chatting in the kitchen and in general as servers, but we have to comunicate with each other at the same time.
Before going to the retreat, I always try and give my mind and body a cleanse in order to be ready for practice. This means that I do not drink or drastically limit my consumption quantities. At the same time, I try and limit my meat and sugar in take. Its not fun to have any sort of withdrawls from alcohol or dietary things. While at the center, I would only eat very small meat of vegatarian foods. This means that I usually lose another couple of pounds. As a server, I eat more than if I'm sitting. While sitting, I hardly eat anything. Two meals a day and only a little rice, vegetables and kimchi. It helps to keep the stomoach mostly empty for meditation. Allows meditators to go deeper.
From these experiences, I have cleansed my mind and I feel ready to start work again. The body and mind and clean and I feel happy and light. This will allow me to teach my best and go great work. Thats all for now about my second summer vacation in Korea.
