One-day Retreat in Cambodia

Hundreds of Vietnamese compatriots and local citizens came and attended one-day retreat at Hoang Phap temple on Oct 9th 2016 (9th of Lunar Sep., Monkey Year) in Cambodia.

In this session, Venerable Thich Tam Dao was respectfully welcomed to the main hall, and then he gave a lecture “The Noble Eightfold Paths”. It is the most fundamental lesson for Buddhists to practice and was eight right ways, or eight magic means bringing living beings to peaceful life of practitioners. The noble eightfold paths included:

Right view: “right” means true, correct; “view” means sight, prospect or inspection of something. “Right view” means seeing, inspecting objects correctly and truly. Ones having right view will do correctly as they do not turn black into white, do not do something wrong instead of right, well instead of badly.

Right thought: “thought” which is process of thinking belongs to consciousness. Right thought is to think correctly of the truth.

Right speech: speech means a person’s style of speaking. Right speech is to speak sincerely, impartially, frankly, and suitably.

Right action: action is the process of doing something. Right action is to do something correctly and suitably to the truth, beneficially to both human kinds and living things.

Right livelihood: livelihood refers to life. Right livelihood means leading an honest life on one’s own decent profession.

Right effort: right effort is painstaking, hardworking to strive to our target but not giving up for any reasons.

Right mindfulness: it is to memorize things that are good, true, beneficial to others and ourselves.

Right concentration: it is to concentrate on things that are worth, correct, and beneficial to others and ourselves.

From the lecture, the Venerable analyzed clearly and gave some specific examples relating our daily life. Buddhists are practitioners, who should rely on The Noble Eightfold Paths as provision to the liberation target.

In the end, Venerable hoped Buddhists would instruct Vietnamese in Cambodia, who have not ever intended to visit pagoda and never understood Buddhism, should usually visit pagoda and learn Buddha’s teachings. Hoang Phap pagoda in Cambodia was a sanghagara (the park of monastery) for Buddhists as well as Vietnamese compatriots to practice true Dharma and recall their hometown.

After the lecture, the assembly practiced meditative walking, reciting Buddha’s name, and having meal in mindfulness.

At the end of the retreat, every Buddhist was given a Dharma present VCD “Simple Burial for the Death”.All the Buddhist cheerfully returned home and had a smile on their face as they had already had a peaceful-retreat-day.

Here are some images recorded:

Translated by Nguyen Hoang Thoai