(Green School for green Bhutan)

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Report of the Retreat

              Report of the Retreat                 22.07.2015

On the invitation of His Eminence Khamtrul Rinpochhe 51 students and two teachers of Lungtenzampa Middle Secondary School got the opportunity to attend a five days retreat (10-14 July) at Druk Ralung Shedrupcholing monastery in Thimphu.
When we hear the word ‘retreat’ or ‘tsam’ in dzongkha, the first thing that comes to our mind is the images of rituals, prostrations, meditation, prayers, monks and the nuns. We often tend to give a rigid definition or stereotype it, having the notion that religion and anything associated with it is meant only for the monk, the nuns or the older people. We feel that it is strict, tedious, boring or that it has fixed restrictions, but these five days retreat has made us realize that our concept was totally wrong.
Buddhism and spirituality is not about doing things or performing deeds that are expected from a person. It is more about rediscovering one’s true inner self and realizing the ultimate truth. Therefore, many spiritual leaders say that they would rather call Buddhism a philosophy rather than a religion.

During this 5 days retreat, we learned about the process of meditation and its benefits. We also learned about the origin of Buddhism and the different sects of Buddhism. His eminence also explained to us the meanings and the reasons for chanting different prayers.  If we take a simple example of the Morning Prayer that we do every day in the school, all these years we were merely chanting it, without understanding the meaning of these lines, simply because we were supposed to do so. From this retreat we understood the essence of these prayers and its benefit. We also had a refuge taking ceremony which was when we actually began to understand the Dharma teachings. This ceremony was a moment of realization of our unconditional devotion and respect to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Apart from the religious activities, we also got the opportunity to take part in the various talk shows on enthralling topics by eminent guest speakers, which were an eye-opening experience. Every night we were also shown documentaries and also an educative block buster Bhutanese movie which were all about taming our wild mind, about determination, spreading the happiness and selflessness.
Though we had a very tight schedule (7 am to 8 pm) this retreat has given us a lot to learn and understand. All the Dharma talks about ‘Karma’ (cause and effect and the root of all our sufferings) explained to us by His Eminence and other learned Lamas in very simple language with examples and stories from the religious texts were so convincing that we could relate to them. This renewed our faith and devotion to Buddhism.

We were lucky to have been given this opportunity to participate in this retreat for even if we can’t practice all the knowledge that we got from attending this retreat, we will definitely be remembering the essence of being a true human and be mindful of our thoughts and action. We will also take it as our responsibility to share this newfound knowledge with our friends so that they can also find the purpose of being a rational human.

We, the Lungtenzampa family, would like to thank Your Eminence for bestowing your love and affection on us, for always remembering us and for your unwavering support through all times. We pray for Your Eminence’s longevity, so that you continue to bless and inspire many more souls. Kadrin Che La.







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