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The End of Three-months Long Winter Retreat for Monastics
by Emi Hailey Hayakawa, BTN, March 18th, 2015
Seoul, South Korea -- Over 2,000 monastics have completed their three months long winter retreat and are returning back to their daily routines.
During this time, the monastic community remain inside the monasteries and temple grounds and dedicate their three months to intensive meditation. Some practitioners even choose to obeserve this time of retreat by adopting a more intense practice such as the gateless gate practice, where they will lock themselves into a small room for intense hwadu mediation.
At the Gobul Comprehensive Monastic Training Centre of Gobul Seon Center, 12 senior monks completed their three months long intense hwadu mediation and returned back to their monasteries. Venerable Jiseon believes that the hwadu meditation that he had practiced will be beneficial to all sentient beings.
According to the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, it was reported that over 20 senior monks and 81 monastics have completed their viriya practice. The intense hwadu meditation that the monastics have performed is the sincere longing to know the true nature of the self. This practice will surely lead directly to the experiential understanding of the nature of reality and ultimately to realization, and to further propagation of the Buddha Dharma for their followers.
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