At ease in a strange land

Taiwan is a small but nice country just north of the Philippines and its weather is almost the same in the southern part but since the Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Kaoshiung occupies 5 mountains, the weather is substantially cooler than in my homeland. 

I arrived at the Taoyuan airport in Taipei past midnight ten days ago and slept on the rented bus provided by the monastery towards Kaoshiung which is around 4 hours drive from Taipei and I slept throughout the ride. Upon arriving at the monastery, I witnessed my very first sunrise in this foreign land. The sun is less fierce than in the Philippines and it's cooler in the evening.

Taiwan is an independent country according to its people but the Republic of China begs to differ. The number of temples in Taiwan is countless as more and more temples are built while others expand further but one of the most grandeur temples are from the Humanistic Buddhism Fo Guang Shan Order. 

Currently I'm staying in Tsung Lin Buddhist University in their head monastery. I find life here comfortable despite the strict routine system. The program includes lectures, volunteer work, workshops on vegetarian cooking, numerous ceremonies and rituals, sutra calligraphy, and my free time is spent sight seeing in areas available or at the very least explorable without having to spend money. The program is a bit different from the program we have in Mabuhay Temple back in the Philippines. 

The program I'm in seeks to provide ordinary people a peek to the lives of monastics and their system with which they spread the Dharma teachings as discoursed by Buddha. Fo Guang Shan follows Mahayana Buddhism and has hundreds of  temples across the world. 

Amitabha Buddha, the biggest Buddha in Taiwan at FGS Kaoshiung.

Next week, we will visit several branch temples in the northern part of Taiwan. I've been with temple for approximately two months. I have left my family and let go of responsibilities for this opportunity. I haven't seen any of my friends for a long time and I could say that it is a sort of trade off to be here. 

I can't go online often since we have too many things to do. 

I have embraced this sort of mundane living for now. I'm not sorry and would even believe that it provides a wonderful experience for all of us in the program. I'm not too eager to comeback.