Puzzled about something.

This goes out to anyone who might know or have an idea. Right now I'm stationed in Korea, as some might know, and My family and I live next door to who we assume are a kind of Buddhist temple. From time to time we observe them putting out offerings and performing rites. Its always a treat to witness this, I feel truly lucky. But today puzzled me a bit. I'll try to describe it the best I can. Well I goes as follows. It involves about 6 or 7 individuals, three of which are dress in traditional Korean religious garb. An elderly women, whom we assume is the priestess, who is actually running the ritual. A man sits on the ground covered in clothe like material, wearing a ceremonial coat, a hood, four flags of different color, and covered by more cloths of various color and patterns. One woman plays a two cymbals and another performs the drums. Throughout the ritual, the priestess violently rips the clothe like material over,on and around the man sitting on the ground, a man standing next to him and a woman standing next to him. The priestess also rants something in Korean, sounding very fired up. She may have been deeply involved in her ceremonial trance. Believe me she was feeling it! She also had an assistant maybe an apprentice working with her. The ceremony also involved mock slashes and stabs with knives and machetes and some kind of Sai weapon. She then lit a ball of material on fire. Then spun it extremely close to the sitting mans head and blowing the fire with alcohol at the sametime. Meat and vegatables were spred all over the area and on the sitting man.
It was a very exciting experience. Does know of this tradition?

I look forward to some of the responses that will come from those here at the temple that know of the Buddist religion as to what this rite is..... I know very little about their rituals but as I was reading and envisioning what you wrote, I saw it as a ritual to release or remove demons..... but as I said, I know very little about their rituals but do look forward in what replies do come...... Thank you for sharing this.....

Shamanistic (Shamanism and Buddhism very often go hand in hand) performances \"Kut\" in Korea are very often conducted by women. She invokes a spirit power and shows a radical change in personality and behaviour, similar to that of possession. The spirits within the Shaman respond to the specific requst of the patient in the ritual setting. It is believed that only through a generous payment can the favour of the evoked spirits be won. Those attending the ritual are either related to the patient or are devoted to the Shaman.

The tearing of cloth can represent the passing on over into the next world, here`s an extract of an experience:

\"The shaman, in her bright and multicolored outfit, finally snapped her fan shut and stepped up to the very end of a long, narrow sheet of canvas that several people were holding up between them (I remember it being as thick as sail cloth, but it was probably thinner). The people stood like a gauntlet with the canvas stretched between them so that it hung, suspended in their hands, like a long, pale road. And, in fact, this was representative of the road the deceased spirit was to take into the next world. At the end of the ceremony, the shaman struck the very end of the canvas with her closed fan, and the cloth ripped--with surprising force and speed--from one end to the other, with a loud tearing sound, so that its two halves spread out like the wings of a giant egret. The dead boy's spirit had moved on.\"

This might not be the answer you are looking for but it may serve as a start.

I'm not sure if this is the right rite? But the dates match. Be interesting to know what the event was.

THE 30th Kalachakra Empowerment to be offered by the Fourteenth Dalai Lama at Amaravati in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh from January 5 to 16 is an international event being looked forward to by 390 million Buddhists the world over.

Check out the link:

http://www.flonnet.com/fl2227/stories/20060113003603400.htm

oops, off by two years but it still may apply

Without looking in the book or googleing I know the gist of it. This is Buddhist but not Pure Land Zen (which I know as much about as anyone).

This is one of the branches of Buddhism that includes shades (ghosts) and probably takes a literal approach to reincarnation and spiritualism.

The previous posts about this are good and I don't have anything to add without going into a full 387 page discourse which neither you or I want to write and nobody wants to read.

If these folks speak a language you understand I hope you personally ask them about the details. Perhaps you know someone who speaks both languages and it'd be a treat to hear about it.

I (Br. John) personally believe that Jesus' missing years were spent studying the teachings of Buddha. The Gospels leave us with Good Master Jesus at 13 years old and pick up when he's about 30 years old.

The mere fact that his teachings as a Rabbi were at odds with The Powers That Be'd at the time gives heavy circumstantial evidence of this.

I am biased because I do not like St. Paul. Saul had issues being a mass murder of Christians before his 'conversion' which was probably a heat stroke and fueled with guilt. He was terrified of good old human sex and put women down every chance he got - something that Jesus never did - and something that Jedi reject. Women ministers are natural to me and the 'Christian' arguments against such a thing don't have anything to do with what Jesus said; only with speculation of what he said and a bias with male dominance.

Poo!

Paul's Jesus in not my Jesus. Many Christians don't know that they are really worshiping the teachings of Saul / Paul and NOT Jesus' teachings. (They are actually Paulist) The other Apostles clearly did not like St. Paul or agree with him - and they actually knew Jesus; Saul / Paul did not.

Br. John+

Then you`l love Rome Br.John, its full of St.Paul statues :evil: !

Awesome, this is somegood stuff. I've gotten alot of good insight on this. I too suspected that this was some sort of cleansing ritual, given that the center of attention was still alive. I have a few resources here that I can use. I can't speak Korean, but only a few words.
I work with Korean soldiers everyday called KATUSA. I'll give a little insight on what they are all about. After the Koran War, South Korea and the U.S. formed an inseparatable bond, a brotherhood if you will. Through this bond, the U.S. accepted Korean soldiers to train side by side with American soldiers in South Korea augmenting one another. These are not ROK( Republic of Korea) soldiers so to speak. All Korean males are made to serve a mandatory 2yrs military service. They either choose the ROK army or the KATUSA program, most choose the latter. Sometimes American soldiers will befriend them to learn more about this country and it's traditions. We also use them for interpretors in dealing with the public or any situations we might have with the ROK Army.
Hopefully, they'll know given that most of them are Christian amazingly enough. They might not know. That is why I direct the quetion here first, since this really a good source spiritual knowledge. SO far, so good. Keep it flowing. MTFBWY.

It would be very interesting to know the meaning behind this ritual. Keep us posted on what you discover br.

Will do. I try to find out as much as I can. We managed to catch some of it on film. Unfortunately, it was a vhs camcorder and I can't figure out how to post it for everyone to see. I know I'm way behind the digital power curb, but I'm working on it...technology is so confusing sometimes:huh: . Thank you for everyone's efforts.