Dharma Drum Sangha University Held "Awakening Camp" for Youth from Multiple Countries to Experience Monastic Life

From January 27^th to February 3^rd, 2024, Dharma Drum Sangha University (DDSU) held the 21st "Awakening Camp" at Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM) World Center for Buddhist Education. A total of 165 participants from the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, experienced monastic life during the eight-day-seven-night "Awakening Camp." Through receiving precepts, introspection, and arousing bodhi-mind, these young attendees have gained a further understanding of the Buddhist perspective on life. 

"Buddhist practice is not for seeking our own happiness, but for all sentient beings to leave sufferings behind." "Be content with either possessing or not possessing and being satisfied with having either many or few." "Be happily busy, and be joyfully tired." After transmitting the eight precepts for postulants, the Abbot President Venerable Guo Huei encouraged attendees interested in entering a monastic order to apply to DDSU. Through spiritual cultivation and training programs at DDSU, the students can be expected to become Chinese Buddhist teachers of a new era.

During the "Night of Gratitude" on the last evening of the Camp, with a lamp bowl symbolizing illumination and wisdom lit in the hands of each young attendee, the Abbot President led everyone to pray, reminding them to remember that they have taken monastic vows, generated bodhi-mind, and aspired to uphold the Three Jewels at Dharma Drum Mountain.

"I intend to experience monastic life in person, and to emulate Buddhist cleric's demeanor and monastic mentality through practicing daily activities." Hong-yi Shen (沈鴻議), who used to feel helpless and lost during the pandemic, has found peace of mind and body after learning Chan meditation. In gratitude for the teachings of the founder, Master Sheng Yen, and for volunteers' dedication to the Dharma center, he vowed to uphold Buddhadharma and has now volunteered at Dharma Drum Singapore. 

"Upon hearing the Venerable saying 'Let the passing stay in the past.' I suddenly found an outlet for emotions associated with my father's passing last year. There is no need for regret or loss. With my blessings, I transfer the merit gained from my practice to him." Pei-tsen Yeh (葉珮岑), a recent college graduate, said she hopes to emulate monastic mentality, which is to view the world with gratitude from moment to moment. If we can see everything with such a mindset, we can accept anything that comes our way, whether they are good or bad things. 

Ven. Chang Fa (常法法師), the General Upholder of the Camp, shared an excerpt from a Buddhist scripture: "A Bodhisattva's object of focus (ālambana) is the sufferings of sentient beings." She indicated that it means that we (practitioners on the Bodhisattva path) are willing to expand our concern from ourselves, our relatives and friends to sentient beings. We thereby learn the levels of suffering of sentient beings, from material poverty to spiritual poverty. She further explained that entering monastic life is about benefiting self and others through attaining enlightenment for self and others. As we improve ourselves through practicing diligently, we will gain the capacity to dedicate ourselves to people around us. This makes entering a monastic order a meaningful choice of life.



Original text written in Chinese by Ya-ying Ling (林雅櫻)
Photos provided by Dharma Drum Sangha University, Yao-Zhong Zhang (張曜鐘), Ya-ying Ling (林雅櫻)
Translated by Siang-ling Li
Edited by YKL, Keith Brown