One Day Retreat for Students

On the evening of Oct. 12th, 2024 before the practice day, thousands of the young eagerly returned to the pagoda waiting for One-Day Retreat for Students to be held tomorrow morning

The students gathered at the Dharma Hall to interact with artist Brain Huy - the artist who paints Buddha for healing at 7:30 p.m.

 

With his simple image in a friendly and intimate atmosphere, he shared about the fate of drawing Buddha paintings, the process of learning about Buddhism and practicing Buddha's teachings in his daily work, which helped the students understand more about the healing benefits that Buddhism brings. When young people stumble with life, they will certainly encounter many difficulties that make their young souls suffocate and uncertain. If at that time we know how to return to living fully in each present moment, embrace each incident or difficulty and the joys that are present... then our hearts will be deeper, our steps will be steady on the journey to find peace. The exchange ended in joy filled with the meaning of life.

 

Nearly 1000 students from Colleges and Universities inside and outside Ho Chi Minh City returned to Hoang Phap Pagoda to attend One Day Retreat for Students on Oct. 13th, 2024.

 

The monks guided the students to exercise outside the main hall. After breakfast, they swept the leaves in the temple grounds together. Next, all students chanted the Six-sense Repentant Sutra.

 

- Next, young learners had a short exchange with actor, model Huu Vi.

 

- At 9:00 a.m., the young people listened to a Dharma talk named Is It a Flower or a Trash? preached by Nun Thich Nu Huong Nhu, Head of the Buddhist Nuns’ Central Board of Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS), Standing Member of the VBS’s Central Dharma Propagation Board, Lecturer at the Vietnam Buddhist University in HCMC, Abbot of Thien Quang Pagoda, Binh Duong Province.

 

The nun and the students reviewed the images of recent Typhoon Yagi, the mass dedicated the merits and blessings of today's retreat to the typhoon’s unfortunate victims. The nun taught the profound lessons that the typhoon left behind.

 

The nun taught that the devastation of natural disasters reminds us of the fierce impermanence, compassion, and knowing how to live for others. When everything is fragile and uncertain, we cannot hold to anything other than what we have given away. As a Buddhist, we must always remember cause and effect and have faith in cause and effect. Because the Buddha taught all things are created by the mind, the life around us exists according to each person's mind; therefore, sowing the seeds of peace with compassion, treating everyone with a truly loving heart, and influencing the environment with tolerance and gentleness, we will receive love from everyone and the harmony of nature.

 

Climate change is partly due to humans dumping toxic waste into the environment. Humans not only dump toxic substances but also spread negative thoughts that change the environment, and change in a bad direction, causing natural disasters to occur continuously. Happiness or suffering is created by each person through our thoughts, actions, and words that create this life. So, if we want nature to have favorable winds and rains, each of us must be clear-minded in our thinking, have sincere love in our hearts, and act as an expression of that love and clarity. Contributing to life is the smallest but meaningful good thing, like a flower transforming trash into fragrance and color to give to life.

 

After the Dharma talk, she spent 15 minutes answering questions from the practitioners about the lecture and problems in life. 

 

A live chat with Miss Intercontinental Vietnam 2024, Bui Khanh Linh in the inspirational Workshop program with students in the afternoon.

 

Khanh Linh shared the reasons that brought her to the path of conquering the crown, and the methods and motivations that helped her overcome the difficulties encountered on the path of art and in life. With her lovely confessions, Khanh Linh spread to the students a source of youthful and warm energy, she hopes that the young will always strive to overcome challenges in life and constantly move forward in the future. After that, Khanh Linh interacted and answered questions with the listeners.

 

The day of practice ended with the joy of the young. Before leaving, the organizers gave each of them a Dharma book gift.

 

 

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