Temple-ing in Michigan

I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Sangha = Community of believers.

Since leaving Korea, I've wanted to visit some of the American temples. In early July, I finally had the chance to do so: twice.

The first one I visited was the Americana [Chinese] Buddhist Temple, in Howell. Howell, a small rural community, is kind of a strange place for a temple if you ask, but there it is. After the July 4th dinner with my brother who lives in Howell, my father and I went to find the temple. I thought it would be close to Howell's downtown: wrong. It was way north, down a dirt road.

The temple itself was smallish, with a few large statues (a laughing Buddha, a standing Kwan-Yin), a locked pavilion, and a meditation hall. I talked with a few men who were working outside, one of whom was a monk. They were nice enough, and invited me to practice with them, but Howell is too far away from me.

http://www.abtemple.org/cgi-bin/abtemple.org/

Last week, I visited the morning meditation session at the Ann Arbor Zen Temple.

I first visited the temple when I was in Uni, some 20 years ago. It hasn't changed much, but there is a nice new big meditation hall (a former bike shop) now.

I got sooooo lost in A2, much to my annoyance. There was a time when I knew A2 like the back of my hand, but not anymore. It took me a half an hour to find the temple itself.

The temple is supposedly Korean Zen, although the only Korean-ness I experienced was the chanting of the 예불. (Which I did not recognize, due to a different beat.) There was a mok-tok (wooden fish-drum), but it wasn't used.

The (all female) monks let a 25 minute meditation session, followed by stretching, followed by another meditation session, followed lastly by a friendly and intimate Dharma talk. There were about 30 people in the hall, mostly men.

Ann Arbor is slightly closer to me than Howell, but still about 45 minutes away. Still, it was a wonderful experience, and it was wonderful to practice with my Dharma brothers and sisters again. I missed the meditation today, but I'll try again in a week or two.

http://zenbuddhisttemple.org/