6 p.m. Oct. 5 at Gimhae Arts Center's Maru Hall: A Dharma talk by Monk Jeong Mok and the traditional Korean opera Gaya Operetta
As fall deepens, the heart, too, seems to long for a slower rhythm. In a season when bodies that have raced through the year are the first to ask for a pause, welcome news has arrived from Gimhae. The Gaya Meditation Culture Festival, which has brought meditation and the arts together on one stage, will open its 10th edition this year. As someone who has watched the meditation community for many years, I find it especially meaningful that one city has sustained meditation as the name and focus of a festival for nearly a decade.
Gaya Meditation Culture Festival: Gimhae's meditation festival since 2017
Gimhae City said Sept. 29 that the 10th Gaya Meditation Culture Festival will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 5 at Maru Hall in the Gimhae Arts Center. The Gaya Cultural Promotion Institute, a nonprofit organization chaired by Monk Haegong, is hosting and organizing the event, with support from Gimhae City. The Gimhae Ilbo reported that Beomeosa Temple, Tongdosa Temple and Anguk Seon Center are also providing support. This year's theme is “Brilliant Gaya, Radiant Gimhae.”
The festival began in 2017. Gimhae City says its programs, which combine meditation with culture and the arts, have given residents opportunities for rest and cultural enrichment. The Gimhae Ilbo reported that organizers designed this year's event not as a religious ceremony or a one-off performance, but as a gathering that adds meditation — a contemporary form of healing — to Gaya's history and culture. This year, the program divides dance, a Dharma talk, meditation, traditional Korean opera and choral performances by children and residents between two acts. Monk Inhae, dean of Tongdosa's Buddhist College, is serving as the overall director.
Act 1: Birth and quiet movement, from gesture to Dharma talk
Act 1 opens with the dance performance 〈Ripples of Stillness〉. The work expresses stillness and breathing through movement. According to the Gimhae Ilbo, the performance features choreography by Choi Eun-hee, with Ha Yeon-hwa and Son Mi-ran among those taking the stage. It is a moment when the body offers stillness before words do.
Monk Jeong Mok, abbot of Jeonggaksa Temple, will then meet the audience for a talk that also serves as a Dharma lecture. Its theme is “Everyone Was Once My Mother.” The talk will reflect on life, relationships and sharing. Even reading the title seems to loosen something in the heart. How different might the face of an ordinary day become if we could look at a passing stranger as we would at our mother? A meditation program involving the Gaya International Meditation Center will follow the talk, inviting those in the audience to steady their breathing.
[Image: Exterior of the Gimhae Arts Center or seating in Maru Hall — Gimhae Arts Center official website, Photo Korea search for “Gimhae Arts Center”]
Act 2: A feast of traditional Korean music, Gaya Operetta sings of King Suro and Queen Heo
Act 2 explores Gaya's history and mythology through traditional Korean music, dance and song, with the theme of Geumgwan Gaya's era of peace and prosperity. At its center is the traditional Korean opera 〈Gaya Operetta〉, based on the meeting of King Suro and Queen Heo. It tells the founding myth of a king born after an egg descended from the heavens, and the story of his relationship with a princess from Ayuta, a kingdom across the sea. They are stories that Gimhae has carried for nearly 2,000 years.
The operetta features 〈Gaya's Morning〉 and 〈The Egg Descends〉, along with 〈Jangguntea Ballad〉, based on jangguntea, Gimhae's signature traditional tea. The children’s choir from Gubong Elementary School will sing 〈Gaya's Dream, Land of Jewels〉 and 〈Brilliant Gaya, Song of the Eternal Sun〉. Dances by the Hoyeon Gaya Buddhist Dance Troupe and traditional Korean pop songs by singers Jeong Seung-jun and Kim Sun-hee will add to the program, which will also feature a dance drama inspired by the ancient relationship between Gaya and Ayuta in India. The finale will be 〈Echoes of Gaya〉, performed by the Gaya Maha United Choir. From the clear voices of children to the adults' choral singing, the scene evokes generations across one city filling a fall night with the same songs.
The Gaya Cultural Promotion Institute and Gaya International Meditation Center: The people who have nurtured the festival
The Gaya Cultural Promotion Institute, which leads the festival, was founded in 2014. It has continued projects that promote the value of Gaya culture, including operating the Gaya International Meditation Center and holding academic conferences on Gaya cultural advancement. According to a report by the Beopbo Shinmun, the Gaya International Meditation Center opened at Baramil Seonwon in Gimhae in September 2022. Looking back at past events reveals the path the festival has taken. The sixth festival, held in 2022, featured Monk Beopsang's meditation lecture, a tea ceremony demonstration, salpuri and taepyeongmu, under the theme “Meditation with Dance and Seon Tea.” At last year's ninth festival, Monk Maga led a loving-kindness meditation with practitioners from the Gaya International Meditation Center, alongside yoga, traditional Korean music and sand art. Each year, the festival has broadened its scope by varying its meditation leaders and artistic genres. This year, modern dance and traditional Korean opera take their place on the program.
What we gain when meditation takes the stage
Spend enough time with meditation and you learn that stillness does not come only in a quiet room. A single dance movement can deepen the breath, and the heart can grow calm after the final note of a choir fades. For people unfamiliar with meditation, a performance venue can be the most comfortable entry point. If closing your eyes and counting your breaths has felt difficult, you can begin by following the movement and sound onstage and allowing your breathing to settle naturally.
Ahead of the festival, Monk Haegong said Gaya meditation offers modern people, who race through life without pause, a journey toward discovering the happiness within themselves. A Gimhae City official said the city hopes residents will find room to breathe through meditation and reflect on Gaya's beauty through traditional art.
It will be an evening to hear a story from 2,000 years ago in Gaya's ancient capital while steadying the breath of the present. On Monday, Oct. 5, Maru Hall at the Gimhae Arts Center is expected to fill with people ready to share that stillness.