One Day Retreat for Students

Nearly 700 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 Nov. 10th, 2024.

Starting the day full of energy, all students gathered in front of the main hall to exercise with cool weather in the early morning at 5 a.m.

 

Welcoming the delegation of Buddhists’ Guidance Board (BGB) of the HCMC’s Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (HCMC’s VBS) visited Hoang Phap pagoda at 7h30 am, Most Thích Chơn Không – Head of BGB of the HCMC’s VBS; Junior Thích Trung Minh – Vice of BGB of the HCMC’s VBS; Junior Thích Trí Bảo – Deputy Secretary cum Chief of Office of BGB of the HCMC’s VBS; Junior Thích Đức Lộc – the Lecturer member of BGB of the HCMC’s VBS, as well as nuns accompanied with. 

 

On behalf of the temple monks, Junior Abbot Thich Tam Truong and all students welcomed the Venerable delegation into the Dharma Hall. The Abbot expressed his gratitude to the monks and reported on the Retreats’ studying and organizing at the Pagoda.

 

On the delegation side, Junior Thich Trung Minh gave a dharma talk about “a Buddhist family” to all students. He instructed the young who have attended the retreat should bring the qualities of love and wisdom with them when they return. Thus, all attendees should create a disciplined and orderly lifestyle so that their family relatives can feel positive changes that the practice brings, thereby generating faith in Buddhism and living a life with Buddhist qualities. Next was the teaching of Most Thich Chon Khong, he praised the young who returned to the temple to practice, advised them to obey the Buddha’s teachings, take refuge in the Triple Gem and comply with Five Precepts. A Buddhist should be mindful, and select information that is useful for studying and living, staying away from negative and harmful things when using social networks today. The Venerable gave gifts and took souvenir photos with all attendees before leaving the temple.

 

In response to the Organizers’ invitation, Junior Thich Khong Tu – Lecturer of HCMC’s Buddhist University and Van Lang University, resident of Buu Da Pagoda, District 10, HCMC came to Dharma Hall to give a Dharma talk named “Dharma taste heals the trap of emotions” at 9:00 a.m.

 

He helped listeners understand the causes and methods to heal their negative emotions. The monk taught that the reason we are sad, or angry is because young people are easily influenced by circumstances, do not know how to regulate and control emotions, leading to being affected by emotions, especially bad emotions. More deeply, according to the Buddhist perspective, it is because the mind is obscured and does not recognize afflictions, is led and drowned by afflictions. Therefore, the origin of all negativity comes from the mind: "Nothing hurts us more than our thoughts". Where is wrong, fix it there. The method to cure the soul also is in our mind. Use mindfulness and awareness to recognize the presence of emotions that come to us; face and accept them not become negative. Look deeply and understand impermanence, then there will be no more unreasonable desires. Know how to love ourselves and build compassion for everyone around us. When the mind is less painful, positive energy and peace will naturally spread from within each person, attracting good things to life without having to seek them far away.

 

The day of practice ended with the joy of the attendees.

 

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