Some Serious Sitting...

Well, I just finished a week-end sesshin and was feeling inordinately full of myself, that is, until I read about those who have just ended an intensive three-month retreat in Korea at Kumdangsonwon Monastery in Hadong. No reading, no TV, no e-mail, no speaking. Lots of sitting, as each sought,

the answer to a single question given by a teacher. Far from secular distractions, each spent the winter contemplating such questions as ``What is nothingness?'' ``Where do I come from?'' and, perhaps the most elusive of all, ``What is it?''

Rev. Kosan, the abbot of the monastery, was quoted in a piece The Korea Times as observing that "During Tongango, clerics face two obstacles. One is sleepiness and the other is daydreaming." I can identify with that!...