Take Flight with Chan Buddhism - Sharing from a DDM Youth member
This is my second time going to the DDM New York Retreat. I thought I knew exactly what to expect and I wouldn’t really learn anything new, but I was pleasantly surprised with the experiences I had this time.
From the Model UN of Chang Ji Fashi to the yoga and stretches from Chang Hua Fashi, I had a fun yet enlightening week at the DDRC. Not only did I experience how Buddhism can sharpen my focus and calm my mind personally through meditation, yoga, and stretches, but I also witnessed how Buddhist ideas can have a positive effect in a real-life situation through the inward vs outward mindset approaches we undertook for the Model United Nations discussions. It was particularly interesting because we often hear from others how we need to practice Buddhism everywhere we go and not just at home, but I often have trouble visualizing exactly how that works. For this fictional UN event, we had to solve a plastic crisis while representing fictitious countries in two rounds.
The first round we were asked to approach the issue normally, which is only looking out for our own interests and seeing things through only if they benefit us. The second round we were asked to approach the same discussions with an outward mindset, one where we try to see things from others' perspective and really try to solve the problem as a whole. As I expected, when we are only looking out for our own benefits, we couldn’t come to a solution that helped everybody, but when we try to really see things from the other side, we found a solution that is much better for everyone, that actually tackled the root cause of the plastic problem, which is our own overconsumption and overreliance on plastic. By going through this exercise, I saw firsthand how having the proper mindset can solve problems more efficiently and thoroughly, and create a positive and fun environment where everyone has a voice and people are inspired to make real changes.
For the 2-day retreat where Chang Hua Fashi went over different meditation styles and techniques, as well as exercises and stretches to prep our body for the meditation, it was really intense but as a result, I saw a lot of tangible improvements personally. Before the retreat, meditating for more than 10 minutes would feel really long and painful, but by the end of the second day, I could swear that a 20-minute meditation session was only 5 minutes long. It wasn’t just the endurance either, the quality of the meditation also improved as well through the use of the counting technique taught by Chang Hua Fashi.
The yoga was no joke either. There was one stretch for which Fashi asked us to reach down as far as we could while standing up, and although I was trying my hardest, I was still about 12 inches away from the floor. By the end of the second day I was able to fully palm the ground without any difficulty. I wish we could have extended the meditation/yoga portion for one more day, as the first day was mostly teaching us how to do everything and the second day was the only day where we practiced what Fashi taught.
Overall, this has been a very fruitful trip, one where I got to disassociate from the world for a week, learned more about Buddhism, and spent time with the best group of people. I only wish there were more time on the last day to write our words of appreciation on each other’s kites, because the trip was that good, and I truly am grateful to everyone who attended or organized it. It is so rare to experience the workshops with a group of people so open and supportive and mesh well with each other, so I just want to say thank you, and Amituofo.
Author: Daniel Lin
DDMLA
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