March 31, 2008Wisdom and friendship warmed a cold Berkeley morning at the 10th Annual DRBY Conference on March 29-30, 2008. Eighty young adults (with a few teenagers and those young-at-heart) gathered together to investigate how insight and happiness make up the Buddhist spiritual path.
DAY 1: Rev. Heng Sure, the director of Berkeley Buddhist Monastery, began with a keynote talk on "Wisdom and Blessings." Wisdom, the ability to see past the surface appearance of things, allows one to understand reality at a deeper level. Blessings, the goodness one cultivates, gives a practitioner the support and space to sustain a spiritual practice. Both are required for a complete and balanced practice; the Buddha himself was someone who had perfected both. Rev. Heng Sure related these principles directly to modern society linking wisdom to seeing through the media and advertisements and blessings to a simple formula: "making others happy."
The afternoon was filled with many workshops ranging from an introduction to Buddhist Sutras (words spoken by the Buddha) to cultivating "Dharmic relationships" and practical advice on cultivating happiness and wisdom. Since there were two tracks of workshops going on at the same time, it was difficult to choose between which workshops to go to since both were appealing. People who went to different workshops would sometimes meet in between the workshops to try to share with each other the highlights from the talk they attended.
Lunch was also a wonderful opportunity to eat good vegetarian food. Prepared by a devoted cooking crew, the food came out delicious and nutritious and left many participants wondering when the monastery would put out a cookbook.
After lunch, there was a guided meditation practice by Shramenera Chin He on "Integrated Mahayana Meditation" which attempts to tie together many different elements of the Buddhist practice. Since this was the first time he shared this practice with a large group of people, he led the meditation in the spirit of an experiment and requested people give honest feedback on the practice.
DAY 2 immediately started with two workshops, one featuring Dharma Master Heng Yin, a Buddhist nun currently living and serving as the girls’ school principal at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, and her mother, Priscilla Yeh. It was a heartwarming experience to see how a mother and daughter cared for one another and supported each other on the spiritual path before and after Dharma Master Heng Yin became a monastic. At the same time, Shramanera Chin He addressed the topic "Buddhism as More Than Just Meditation" to give perspective and context to the meditation practice.
At the end of the conference, a panel of young adults spoke about their personal experience trying to walk on a Buddhist spiritual path. They described their initial encounters with Buddhism: Kenny through the door of martial arts, Laura rediscovering the Buddhist tradition in America, Steve began by secretly attending Buddhist events so as not to upset his Christian friends, and Stacy who really began to ask herself what she was doing in life. The diversity of experiences was refreshing and their humorous stories of personal mistakes and successes made the panel lively and engaging. Beneath the laughter and good humor, the wisdom that they alluded to came from their personal experience of cultivation and personal transformation.
Many participants commented on how they were surprised by the good humor of the speakers and practitioners that spoke at the conference (perhaps spiritual teachers are supposed to be stern and austere), yet there was wisdom and goodness underneath that resonated with the listeners. Throughout the conference, there was a sense of welcoming and community, care and understanding, open-mindedness and reflection that made the experience extremely worthwhile for everyone involved. A great deal of appreciation is given to the organizers, volunteers, and participants that made this possible. For those who are interested, DRBY will be hosting its Spring Retreat on April 11-13 at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas titled: "The Lotus Sutra & the Bodhisattva Ideal." It is a wonderful chance to continue on the path to enlightenment.
