Retreat

When summer first started, I was admittedly worried that the given 75 days might be put to waste at the rate that I thought it was going. As of right now, 20 days of summer have past and there are 55 more to go. That's scary. One third of summer is almost gone.

From June 29th to July 12th, I attended a Buddhist retreat where over 70 monks of different rankings from all over Canada and the United States gathered at Phap Van Buddhist Centre to study Buddhism  together. Buddhist monks across the world retreat annually every summer to share their learnings and interpretations of Buddhism with each other, as well as study and get appointed to a higher ranking.

This retreat has been very enlightening for me. I usually don't come out as openly or passionately religious but with Buddhism, I've come to understand it logically enough that it is something I truly believe in (it's basically to achieve eternal happiness by escaping the cycle of suffering). The course of these ten days were a time of deep self-reflection and observation. I would go more on what I learned but I don't want to come off as someone who would overwhelm others of their own religion.

Each day of this retreat starts at 5:30 am with a 30 minute meditation (it's actually really great and calming). Meditation is all about having your mind be really aware of your body and surroundings. It really practices the mind to calm itself and the body when encountering anxiety-inducing situations (calming of the heart and breathing patterns). Meditation is followed with reading mantras and suttras. Those who don't understand suttras and mantras can still benefit from its calming and enchanting effect (reading suttras and mantras in Buddhism is almost like Gregorian chanting- it's almost musical?). After that, there's breakfast (which is vegetarian- actually, all food in Vietnamese Buddhism are meat-free), then classes. I would go into more detail but that would be a bit monotonous to read.