One-Day Retreat for Students

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Update: 02/11/2025

In the evening of Nov. 01st, 2025 before the practice day, a crowd of the young eagerly returned to the pagoda waiting for One-Day Retreat for Students to be held tomorrow morning.

One-Day Retreat for Students

After registering and receiving passing cards, young participants gathered at Dharma-Wheel Building to participate in the meaningful discussion program with the theme "From the mud, lotus blooms". The discussion was witnessed by Junior Thich Tam Truong, Junior Thich Tam Thuc, Junior Thich Quang An, Junior Thich Khai Tuan. Through their loving sharing, the monks guided the attendees to return to their own peaceful silence. From that silence, they realized that every suffering is a precious gift that life gives them, an essential material to grow up, mature, and learn to look at life with gentler eyes, more calmly with everything that comes to them.

Over 500 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. 02nd, 2025.

At 07: 30 a.m, the mass chanted the sutras: The Greatest Blessings, Loving-kindness, Eliminating sorrows (Aghatavinaya) and Inference (Anumàna).

Next, all students listened to a Dharma talk named "Youth is a draft, life is a work”, preached by Junior Thích Khải Tuấn – Monks of Trúc Lâm Phú Yên Monastery.

Every day, we write our own life story with our own choices and experiences like scholars and artists. Some fates become heroic and passionate works of literature; some ones are peaceful love songs; and there are also unfinished pages, stained with tears.

Youth is the first draft. When clearly having not yet seen ourselves and life, we write with clumsy handwriting and some mistakes. However, that draft contains the most precious thing: freedom, daring to try, daring to make mistakes, and living life to the fullest. Youth gives us the privilege of making mistakes but still having the chance to correct them, to start over, and continue writing.

Therefore, as a person who is in the stage of youth, please do not hesitate at the crossroads of life; No matter what you choose, as long as your heart truly wants it, as well as having enough faith and determination, the universe will join forces to support every step you take. After going through a long journey and looking back, you realize not only the important destination, but that dedication has made you who you are, helped you mature, understand and cherish each stage of the journey. It is through the difficult paths that you learn to smile at obstacles, be grateful for challenges, find a way back, and listen to your heart. True happiness is not about fulfilling your dreams but the peace in every journey we take, in every word we write with all our heart and gratitude.

Last, the lecturer gives young people a solid "secret" on every journey: no matter what you choose, always carry a wish to contribute and serve life, so that every page of life is a masterpiece named you.

The students continued the sutra chanting named Siṅgālovāda, Parabhava, Samagama in the afternoon.