This conference is wonderful! I learned a lot during the camp. I am a new Tzu Ching and did not know much about Tzu Chi. SGs recommended me to attend this camp but I did not quite understand what the camp would be at that time. I was so curious until I came to the camp. I am so excited about it because I met so many good friends and learned a lot of interesting contents.
Learning from others is always a good way for us. During this camp, I met a lot of great Tzu Chings. We came from different areas but we share the same concepts. It is amazing because I realized that our Tzu Ching group is so big and strong. With so many people gather together, we can make a great difference! We shared our own experiences about what we did in our local Tzu Ching so that we can learn from each other.
The major content I learned from this camp is how to combine our events and dhamma. Once I saw a sentence in a book that said by Siddhatta gotama,”He who sees me, sees the Dhamma, and he who sees the Dhamma, sees me.” I did not quite understand why these two things come together. During this camp, especially the night class from Hualiang, I began to know the reason. Gotama eventually became a Buddha because he experienced a lot in his life and found the Dhamma. In other words, we must first to do right things in our life so that we may have the chance to really see the Dhamma. Dhamma is not just the disciplines in the book. Practice in life is very important. We can learn the concepts by studying or listening to Shangren’s classes, but the most importance is that we must to do it by ourselves, to really make it an action. Gotama did not leave any learning “tips” to his followers, but told them his whole life experiences. Everyone’s path is different because we have different fates, so experience our own life is the true way instead of just reading, learning but do anything.
Another good learning is being a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian is hard by own but could be interesting with a group of people. During this camp, I saw a lot of vegetarians. I used to think it is hard because we are young and if we do not eat meat, we would lose friends. But I learned from many Tzu Ching that being vegetarian could meet new friends! Before this camp, I was not very involved in our local vegetarian on-campus events. This camp really changed my mind. I hope to contribute to our vegetarian cooking class and make it successful! Start to be a vegetarian step by step. Not only do it myself, but invite my friends to do it together!
At last, I want to say, thank you so much to those people who organized this wonderful camp! It is a great success! I hope to attend next year, too!
Written by Tzu Ching Yihan Bao
Photo by Tzu Ching Yu-Ru Yang
