One-day Retreat for Students

In the cool climate of the last days of the year, in the morning of February 1st, 2015 (Lunar December 13th, Horse Year), almost 1.000 students of Universities and Colleges in Ho Chi Minh City gathered at Hoang Phap Pagoda to attend one-day retreat with title: “The Students’ looking forward to Buddhist Dharma”.

After having breakfast, Buddhists went to the main preaching\r\nhall and listened to Nun Ven. Thich Nu Huong Nhu. For over an hour, she talked\r\nabout some issues which are close to students on the topic: “Anxiety and Fear”.

In today’s society, human always faces with insecurities and\r\nsorrow. A focal point of them is psychological stress (also called stress).\r\nStress can be come from the impact of the external environment but the main\r\ncause is the negative psychological feeling of oneself. The stress condition\r\ndeeply spreading for long time can damage the body, which creates psychological\r\ndisorders and it is the reason of serious disease.

Measures of preventing stress and defeating psychology of\r\nfear and worry are to change the thought. There are 4 types of thought, such as\r\npositive thought, negative thought, wasting thought and necessary thought.\r\nNegative thought and wasted thought led to many harm to human’s life, so we\r\nneed positive thought and necessary thought because they are factors which help\r\nus decide the quality of life.

Life is never a deadlock, which has ways to solve those\r\nproblems. When facing with an unfortunate case, realize it in the right way, we\r\nwill have happy and peaceful life. Moreover, we sometimes need to slow down the\r\nliving and reject negative psychology; live sincerely with people around and\r\nappreciate what we possess. Practicing to meditate, practicing the repetition\r\nof Buddha’s name, chanting or praying to Buddha are effective methods which\r\nhelp us to relieve sorrow and fear. It transfers negative view to positive one.

After the Dharma talk, the Nun Ven. answered student’s\r\nquestions about the topic. Then, the good young mass continued with the rituals\r\nof chanting the sutras of “Kind Mind”. Next they had lunch and took a rest and\r\nprepare for practice activities in the afternoon.

In the afternoon of the same day, after practicing\r\nmeditation from the pagoda’s monks, they enjoyed a music show with members in\r\nthe group of Dharma Protection and children from Uom Mam Hieu Hanh (Filial\r\nPiety Seeding) club. Their ending was to receive a gift including a book\r\n“Flower Words” a DVD “Wonderful Sound of Propagation”, a VCD “Whose\r\nResponsibility is it?” and “The Nature of Happiness”.

Here are some images recorded: