I think society (in general, not just Korean) is fundamentally broken when people are actually considering something like this. The Korean Government reduced working hours from 68 to 52, it's still 48 too many (see the four hour working week) Life is for LIVING. Too many people forget that.
That sounds a bit excessive.
Even the slackers that permeate the software developer industry, those who spend more than half of their workday on reddit can't get all their work done in four hours.
I looked into signing up for a silent retreat, but they are expensive and sold out months in advance.
The Vipassana silent courses put on by dhamma.org are entirely free, run by volunteers. The popular locations are fully booked months in advance, but if you have a very flexible schedule you can get on the waitlist and be accepted right before the course, that is how I did my first one. I've done two 10-day courses from them. After my first one I described it to people as like being in prison, never having gone to pr…
I highly recommend Vipassana too. It completely changed my perceptions about the world and humans.
Question for South Koreans here: Is this real or is this report just the usual exaggeration by western media? Asking because Reuter’s has a biased reporting for anything related to India, and I’m wondering if they have a similar lens / filter for South Korea. (I’m from India in US)
Just ask Google, there are others who have reported on this before Reuter.
Of course most people haven't heard of it. It is basically a gimmicky take on a silent retreat and there is only 1. I'm sure there are all sorts of odd takes on silent retreats in the US too.
Question for South Koreans here: Is this real or is this report just the usual exaggeration by western media? Asking because Reuter’s has a biased reporting for anything related to India, and I’m wondering if they have a similar lens / filter for South Korea. (I’m from India in US)
This seems to be a cheaper, ascetic equivalent, of the classic meditation retreat, which is already popular in both the East and West. Marketing it as a prison puts a quirky twist on it. This makes for an interesting article, which also fits Western stereotypes.
The defining feature of a prison is that you can't leave until your time is up. I doubt that they have implemented it.
Obviously, not all South Koreans are locking themselves up. This is just an unusual hotel that helps people get away from everyday life and stop being tied to their smartphones for a while. You could remove all references to South Korea, and the business model still looks interesting. I suspect it could work just as well in Japan, or even in the West as a modern alternative to a monastery.
Why not just go to a monastery? It's just as structured, but with better food, scenery and the meditation/prayer/spirituality element helps when you return to civilisation.
That actually sounds pretty interesting to me. Like, could I take a month off and go study Christ at some catholic monastery even though I'm not a believer?
Define where? I would wager that in a lot of the modern world, you'd probably get adequate care.
In those places, you can probably get better care outside prison.
Even if you're as a tourist or immigrant?
There was an article recently on HN where a British citizen was shipped home for surgery instead of getting it done in Singapore by their travel insurance company.
Actually sometimes I really fantasize about a 3-6 month stint in prison - am I the only one. Surely it can't be that bad If Martha Stewart can do it. Imagine no commuting or on call support or social engagements or children's homework or chores. bliss.
> Surely it can't be that bad Sure. If you don't mind very bad food. If you don't mind always being a little too cold. If you don't mind never having a moment to yourself. If you don't mind not being able to use the bathroom in private. If you don't mind never showering alone. If you don't never being alone. If you don't mind not seeing much sun.
I remember a large survey across the French prisons, about 10 years ago. The number one wish of prisoners was to be granted more showers during summer.
Context: overcrowded prisons (prisons for light sentences have 142% rate, so 2 or 3 people in 9 m² are common), old buildings, very little time out of cells, 3 showers per week in the law but often 1/week in reality.
Do people actually think they'll die if they sleep with the fan on? Thats pretty weird to me.
Yes, that used to be a common misconception in Korea until recently. It is completely false but such rumors can get viral very quickly. There are also many such misonceptions in the West. For instance, in the West, many people still believe that different areas of the tongues are used for different tastes (sweet, bitter,...). You can find more such things in this famous wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w…
Some interesting ones. Fortune cookies originating in Japan, and being seen by the Chinese as an American affectation - they're very rarely seen here in the UK so I can well believe it.
Question for South Koreans here: Is this real or is this report just the usual exaggeration by western media? Asking because Reuter’s has a biased reporting for anything related to India, and I’m wondering if they have a similar lens / filter for South Korea. (I’m from India in US)