Find a New Path in Life at The DDM Awaking Camp 2012
The DDM Awakening Camp 2012, hosted by Dharma Drum Sangha University, commenced on the 2nd February 2012 at the DDM World Center for Buddhist Education.
The camp has attracted a total of 196 people from around the world to enrol in for 9 days of monastic life.
Besides leading students to review one’s own life, modules designed in the camp would also help students to contemplate the meaning of life, thereby furthering their understanding of self; as well as developing a better path in life.
Hsuan-Chi Sun, a student from Kaohsiung, says that happiness is there always, if one lives in the life of simplicity with less materialistic desires and with a more peaceful mind. She reflects that this has encouraged her to register for the camp in quest of a new path in life, and has strengthened her determination of walking away from the life of fierce competitiveness, although it involved high financial returns.
This 9-day camp was intensive. Students get up at 4 o’clock in the early morning and get to bed at 10 o’clock in the evening each day - following heartfelt sessions of training and practice. The camp has not only facilitated students to a joyful experience in a monastic life, it has also help students cultivate their own wisdom from the Dharma.
Living is Chan (Zen) meditation. Living at present is a proof of Chan. The DDM Awakening Camp 2012 endeavors to teach one the ways of living in the present with one’s own mind.
(translated by Jin Yang/edited by DDM Australia Editing Team)