One Day Retreat for Student

On the evening of May 6th, 2023 before the practice day, thousands of young people eagerly returned to the pagoda waiting for the One-Day Retreat for students to be held tomorrow morning.

After registering and receiving pass cards on Saturday night, the students gathered in the lecture halls for cultural activities, meet and exchange with 2 famous Tiktokers Vien Vibi and Tina Thao Thi.

The lovely Tiktokers Vien Vibi and Tina Thao Thi talked about their start-up experiences, their energy to overcome difficulties, and cherish family affection especially for parents; besides, there are orientations for life to have peace, to be community-oriented, always keep positive energy to spread to the people around. After that, the students had a live conversation: questions and problems in building the platform, creating Tiktok content were answered thoroughly by Tiktoker Vien Vibi and Tina Thao Thi and were witty and friendly.

Nearly 6,000 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 May 7th, 2023.

By the guidance of monks, a meditation sitting session started with cool weather in the morning to receive positive energy for a new day full of happiness.

After the chanting, all students listened to a dharma talk named “Who leads you to the end of life?” preached by Bhikkhu Giac Minh Luat is currently studying at Nhu Lai Thien Tu, San Diego, California, USA, PhD student at University of Thailand and the United States.

There is no perfect thing, or a perfect person from the past up to now; only being improvable people, and improving themselves in their own way. People with wisdom know how to remove the defilements in the mind, turn to rely on the Buddha (who shows the way in life); Dharma (the teaching of love and understanding); Sangha (those who vow to live an awakened life) to find Buddha nature within themselves. Young people often run after temporary emotions, pass in sorrow and suffering. We are so busy learning about others that we forget to understand ourselves. How long do not we remember our body and mind are in need of care, need a peaceful silence? Sometimes, because we are afraid of loneliness, we rush to have a superficial love when we are not mature enough, not ready enough, do not know how to love, etc, but we hurt ourselves and the person we love. He reminds young people: when you want to love others, you should learn to love yourself first, give yourself peace, a calm mind accepting everything that comes into your life.

We can give up everything, but we must not give up our own goals and ideals. Look at ourselves as our own island, our own refuge; because, the person who can accompany us to the end of the life is ourselves.

After the rest in the afternoon, the youth had a short exchange with the monks from Myanmar. In the exchange, the monks taught the Happiness Sutra (Mangala Sutta) to have a peaceful, happy, harmonious and progressive life for themselves and the society.

Continuing the study program with a Dharma talk "Youth, love and ideals" taught by Nun Dr. Thich Nu Hue Hoa - Lecturer at Vietnam Buddhist University in HCMC.

The Buddha taught that the human body is difficult, meeting the Buddha's Dharma is even more difficult. At present, young listeners have enough conditions to go to the temple to listen to the Dharma to water the seeds of goodness and awakening, so they need to cherish their blessings and follow the Buddha's example and teachings to direct their lives forward to the sun. By the way, the nun shared with them the ten perfect and noble qualities of the Buddha so that they can better understand the guru to whom they are turning to rely.

Young people, everyone has the desire for love and ideals for their life. Amidst thousands of difficult problems that need to be solved in life, have you ever set yourself up and found a way to solve the equation for your life: (a ± b) ² = a² ± 2ab + b²

In which: a is the seeds that were sown in the past and in the present; b is the conditions (similar attraction). When the cause meets the conditions, it will lead to the corresponding result. Therefore, it is necessary for us to tame the mind, remove bad conditions, and add to good conditions to receive about good results.

In modern society, young people are facing many temptations before making choices for their life. Therefore, you need to be alert to find yourself a good environment to promote your potential, good qualities, a peaceful path, and minimize the risks from bad conditions.

In the Kalama Sutta, the nun showed extremely important and mysterious criteria for determining right and wrong in life, choosing for itself the best orientation.

It is not wrong for young people to wish for love because affection is the waves of loving, no one can live in life without love. To gain true love and go together for a long time, we need to cultivate the necessary qualities, such as: understanding, gratitude, and good direction for the family.

By the time of the Dharma talk, the nun was equipped with necessary and valuable knowledge, helping listeners firmly step into life towards peace and happiness.

Lastly, the nun spent 15 minutes answering questions from young people about problems in cultivation, how to apply Buddha's teachings to transform suffering and pain in life.

The day of practice ended in the joy of participants. Before leaving, all students received a gift of the book named "Master our destiny".

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