A Time to Collect Body and Mind and Awaken

Spring has come to Mt. Jirisan. I feel the vitality of spring with every step I take as I hike to the mountain temple of Daewonsa.
It is truly “spring, a time for all things to come to life.”
Before I looked up the phrase “come to life” in the dictionary, I thought it was just a cliché expression that I hear every spring.
People also say “to come back to life after almost dying” and “to revive.”
These do not mean that something that did not exist appears, but that a life which looked almost near death comes back to life.
Spring is the season of life.

Temple food reflects the seasons.
In spring, the food served at a mountain temple increases vitality.
Just like the rice-milk porridge that Gautama Siddhartha ate after ending six years of asceticism, a spoonful of temple food can revive a dying body and mind.
If this food is full of the vitality of spring, so much the better.

When I visited Daewonsa Temple one late afternoon, the temple compound was filled with the scent of spring.
The smell of freshly dug shepherd’s purse wafted on the spring breeze and into my nostrils.
Preparations to make shepherd’s purse dumplings for lunch the next day were in full swing.
Hands were busy trimming the muddy shepherd’s purse plants.
Simhun Seunim, who oversees the Templestay programs at Daewonsa Temple, planned to show off her skills by drawing on her past experience as a chaegong (temple cook in charge of vegetables).
Yeojin Seunim, the general affairs manager, helped Simhun, saying:
“When the seasons change from winter to spring, there is nothing better than spring vegetables to boost one’s immunity and restore energy.
For nuns who have recently completed the 100-day winter practice retreat, dumplings made with shepherd’s purse offer the best nutrition and are a delicacy.”

Nuns who lock themselves in a mountain temple for 100 days to do a winter meditation retreat are, in a sense, hibernating.
It is a time to collect their body and mind for the purpose of awakening.
Spring has now come also to those nuns who wandered the path of the mind for 100 days in search of the “doorless door.”
Seasonal vegetables that have absorbed the spring sunlight, soil, water, and wind were about to revive those nuns who had been in hibernation.

First, nuns stir-fry the chopped white radish and shiitake mushrooms to make the dumpling filling, and finely chop the kimchi and cabbage as well.
They then mash up the healthy tofu made from home-grown beans and seawater, and marinate the chopped glass noodles in soy sauce.
Now it’s time to chop the blanched shepherd’s purse.
The shepherd’s purse, which has become darker from the moisture it absorbed, is filled to the brim in a large bowl.
Buddhists say there is nothing in the world that is not a main character, but today, the shepherd’s purse is truly the main character.
Simhun Seunim squeezes the moisture out of the shepherd’s purse with her nimble hands, and the temple kitchen staff join forces to chop it up finely.
When working together, a task that seems like it will never end is finished in no time.
They mix the chopped ingredients well and season with the house-made soy sauce.
Finally, the key is to add crushed peanuts.

“Since there is no meat in the dumplings made at the temple, peanuts provide protein and add a unique flavor.
The crunchy texture is also pleasant,” says Simhun Seunim.
If the shepherd’s purse is the main character, peanuts are supporting actors, or in theater talk, the indispensable “scene-stealer.”

“Just 10 years ago, there were many nuns in Daewonsa’s Seon hall, so we used to make 4,000 dumplings at a time.
It took four days just to make the dumplings.
Today, we’re making it very simple. If we add chopped pumpkin, burdock and chili peppers, it would be even more flavorful,” adds Simhun Seunim.

Although meal offerings at a temple are not meant to be enjoyed, if the person in charge puts his or her heart into making it, it enlivens the natural taste of the ingredients and even increases nutrition.
Isn’t that also Buddhist practice and the act of a bodhisattva?

For dinner, diverse side dishes made with mushrooms, braised tofu with bracken, and deep-fried shepherd’s purse were served.
As Daewonsa Temple was designated a temple specializing in temple food in 2014, the meal offerings are simple but light and have depth of flavor.
The slower I chewed my food, the more my tastebuds appreciated the natural flavors.
In addition to the fried shepherd’s purse, the kimchi was especially delicious.
Even though it was temple kimchi made without the five pungent veggies and salted seafood, it had a deep, refreshing taste.
It reminded of the kimchi my grandmother used to scoop out from an earthenware pot buried in our yard, after which, she would tear off pieces with her hands and put in my mouth.
Then and now, people with a certain kind of heart give me hope.
A heart that wants someone special to enjoy the food I make with care.
A heart that wants them to be healthy after eating it.
A heart that wants the energy from that food to benefit the world.
I now have no doubt that such hearts can unite to make a person whole and ultimately make the world whole.

When I visited Daewonsa Temple, the temple compound was filled with the scent of spring.
The smell of freshly dug shepherd’s purse wafted into my nostrils on the spring breeze.
Preparations to make shepherd’s purse dumplings for lunch the next day were in full swing.

Nature’s Life-Giving Water that Has Flowed for Thousands of Years

The next morning at 4:30, the dawn Buddhist ceremony at Daewonsa Temple began with the sound of the temple bell piercing the darkness.
The sound of the stream flowing down from Mt. Jirisan and around Daewonsa Temple blended with the sounds of the dawn ceremony to create a magical harmony.
All things come awake and make their own unique sounds.
Those sounds become a living Dharma talk and a living hwadu.

Daewonsa Temple is located deep in the mountains 700 meters above sea level on the east side of Mt. Jirisan.
It is popular with Templestay participants who seek rest and healing immersed in nature.
In 2024 alone, a whopping 7,000 people participated in Daewonsa’s Templestay programs.

After the dawn ceremony, I had the morning meal offering with the other Templestay participants.
Coffee and bread were provided on one side of the dining room during the breakfast offering.
This is unique to Daewonsa Temple and done out of special consideration for modern people who come for the Templestay.
I toasted the bread in the toaster, spread it with basil pesto and jam, and took a bite.
Accompanied by morning coffee, it was much better than the usual hotel breakfast I eat while traveling.
Was it because the spring water was so pure?
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee permeated the air.

Daewonsa Temple is famous for its water.
In Dongui Bogam (Principles and Practice of Eastern Medicine), water that flows from west to east is called mineral water, and that is the water that flows in Daewonsa Valley.
Michael Mascha is a world-renowned water sommelier.
When he visited Korea in 2023, he chose the mineral water from Daewonsa Temple as being the most impressive in Korea.
He said that the soil accumulated over thousands of years acts as a filter to remove impurities, giving the water a refreshing taste.
That may be why Daewonsa’s pine tea—made by picking pine needles around the temple and steeping them in Jirisan’s mineral water—is a natural way to relieve fatigue, a drink one can’t find anywhere else.

Here, nuns cook rice, make soup, and make tea with water that nature has filtered and purified.
This life-giving water, bestowed freely by nature, has flowed for thousands of years, and is transformed into the blood and bones of practitioners on the path to enlightenment.

Afternoon Sunlight that Falls on the Crock Stand

Full-scale dumpling making began after the breakfast offering.
The abbess joined in, and eight nuns gathered in groups of three or five to make shepherd’s purse dumplings.
At the same time, in the old kitchen area where the cauldron is located, firewood was lit in the furnace for the first time in a long time.
The cauldron, which had been coated with sesame oil after cleaning, began to boil water.
Soon, the shepherd’s purse dumplings that the nuns had formed so beautifully would be steamed in this cauldron.

The cauldron was overseen by Yeojin Seunim.
As she adjusted the temperature of the fire by adding firewood, I asked her her secret, to which she gave a short answer.
“I just do it by feeling.”
If you ask someone for a recipe because their food is delicious, the answer is usually as vague as your mother’s when she uses words like “moderately” or “just the right amount.”
Only by feeling can one adjust the temperature of a fire while in a state of mindfulness.
Everything we do is practice, and there is nothing that does not require diligence.

Trays with shepherd’s purse dumplings are stacked in three tiers in a cauldron of boiling water.
Yeojin Seunim, her eyes teary from the smoke, stands on top of the furnace and starts steaming shepherd’s purse dumplings.
About 30 minutes pass.
When she opens the lid of the cauldron, the shepherd’s purse dumplings have been steamed moist and glossy in the white steam.
The dumplings are then coated with sesame oil to prevent them from sticking, and are first offered to the kitchen spirit “Jowang,” and then offered to the other buddha halls.

Then it was time to make mugwort soup in the cauldron where the dumplings had just been steamed.
Mugwort must be included as a seasonal spring vegetable along with shepherd’s purse.
First, make a broth with kelp and mistletoe.
Mistletoe that grows on oak trees is full of nutrients.
After removing the kelp and mistletoe from the broth, add thinly sliced radish to the broth and boil thoroughly.
Add soybean paste, mugwort, and shiitake mushrooms.
Lastly, add a thin batter of rice flour and sesame powder to complete the mugwort soup.

When Simhun Seunim was ordained 35 years ago, it is said there were three large cauldrons in the kitchen area.
When rebuilding Daewonsa Temple, which had fallen into ruins, Manheo Beobil (1904–1991) first established a Seon center for nuns.
She vowed to make Daewonsa an eminent Korean Seon temple.
She spared no effort or expense to provide three meals a day to the nuns practicing Seon in the Seon hall.
Over time, the temple’s kitchen has been modernized, but the power of Beobil Seunim’s vows has become a tradition of steadfast Seon practice at Daewonsa Temple and remains to this day.

Today’s lunch offering was seungso (lit. monastic’s smile).
Seungso is a temple favorite that monastics love so much that they smile when they see it.
Usually, noodles are called seungso, but today’s seungso is an abundance of many spring vegetables.
Mugwort soup and shepherd’s purse dumplings were served with mugwort rice balls, hardy early spring cabbage wraps with gangdoenjang sauce, and coriander salad.
The smell of the coriander, harvested straight from the field, automatically made my mouth water.
This was a mountain temple meal interwoven with bright spring colors.

The bitter taste of the spring vegetables awakened every cell in my body and brightened my eyes.
As I took a sip of mugwort soup, it felt like all the worries that had weighed on my chest all winter long vanished.
I was embarrassed to receive this food because, as the Buddhist meal verse (The Five Contemplations) says, my virtues were undeserving.
It was a meal of repentance that allowed me to release all the greed in my heart.

Revived by the energy of spring, I strove to embody spring.
In this way, I gained the strength to live a new and better spring.
The Templestay participants who ate this food with me and the nuns of Daewonsa Temple may have felt the same way.

As the afternoon sunlight shone down on Daewonsa Temple’s earthenware pot platform (jangdokdae), I knew it was truly spring.

 Jo Hye-yeong is the author of the essay collection Wanting to Live Like a Circle. She has worked as a writer for BBS (Buddhist Broadcasting System) and BTN Buddhist TV, a KBS radio drama writer, and a reporter for the monthly magazine Bulkwang. She teaches “literacy” at universities and shares her joy of reading and writing with the world.