Young persons retreat welcome information

Welcome to Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

Young Person Retreat

This welcome pack includes a rough map of the monastery, this introduction to the style and language used on the retreat, a introduction to Buddhism and useful guide to the “right attitude for meditation.”

Introduction.

This young persons retreat came out of the family events, which are held three times a year at the monastery. The retreat was formed as there was no place for the teenagers to meet without their parents and to develop more understanding of the monastery and teachings of the Buddha. So the group can be a bit split to start off with as many of the teenagers know each other and other don't.

The format of the retreat is not in teaching Buddhism but in experiencing the teachings of the Buddha and how they can be used in life. The type of Buddhism that the monastics are trained in, comes from Thailand, although it is adapting to the west. More specifically it is a Forest Tradition, which means that we live in or close to nature and have a simple life. Our focus is on only one thing and that is freeing the heart, liberation, Nibbana. The reason why the monastic tradition has lasted so long is that it is based on rules that support community and not ego. They provided away of mirroring back your personality.

The monastic rules then are not, what you have to practise in lay life, although you may find some of the rules the monastics follow helpful for a peaceful mind. For laypeople the rules are more like guidelines, it's your choice. What can be helpful to see is how we use the monastic form (which in Theravadian is quite strict although ultimately very freeing), that its not about being perfect, following all the rules, but learning how to use a convention to understand yourself. Language is also a convention, and so its limited, this is why you can't describe the experience of meditation.

The basis of the retreat is to use your intuitive mind, the gut reaction, the sensing part of the mind, to investigate experience. In order for this to happen, the body generally needs to be relaxed. You can then use the mind to explore the world, the mind-body state. A simple way of saying this is being a like a explorer, to investigate, a detective to listen to yourself, others.

In this retreat we use two types of investigation, one is called reflection and the other is contemplation. Reflection happens naturally, it's not something you do. When you open up to the world and accept what's happening, wisdom arises naturally and all “you” have to do is acknowledge, recognize that it has happened. The other style is contemplation and this is taking an idea, a concept and use the thinking or intuitive mind to understand and see what happens.

So there are few things to define which may help you with your stay at the retreat.

Buddhism is not about suffering
There is a lot of talk about the Buddhas teaching of “suffering.” We are not interested in making more suffering, we are interested in understanding it. We make it a object of meditation, not something we create onto our already complex lives.

Self and Not self
This is usually the big question. What is not-self? I like to express this as non-self, which means an absence of self. So notice when a sense of “me” is here and when it is not. This is not about getting rid of anything but simply understanding who you are. So the emphasis on this retreat is more on self. This is especially important as teenagers, as you are also developing your sense of self, individuality.

The Conditioned World.
The world from the Buddhist viewpoint arises because the conditions are right and the world disappears because the condition are right for that. For example a football match can only arise because there are footballs, football players, a football pitch. If one of these condition is not there you cant have a football match. Similarly when the football players come off the field the match disappears. In a very simple way we say that “because of this, that happens.” The this or that are conditions. Now just as a point of contemplation: What then happens if there is no crowd?

Skilful Means.
Over the retreat you may find that we don't do a lot of meditation. The reason behind this is that the thing we are trying to understand is self so that we can let it go (or be). So we use different approaches to either relax the body and mind, or to get a better understanding of what mind/body is.

Thought is creative.
You create your world. So if you put energy (intention) and thought together you get a action. So with this understanding you can make a choice about what you think and how you behave. It may not turn out exactly how you want it because of all the the other conditions that arise with that action. For example you choose to eat a vegetarian meal, you got to your restaurant in town thinking that they will serve a vegetarian meal and find out that the salad you order has prawns in it.

Awareness.
A way of explaining this is to focus your mind on your foot – you have become aware of your foot. The feeling and sensation, the concepts of a foot. This is the power of attention, the way we focus our mind. Awareness is becoming aware of being aware! Its knowing the way things are.