Rushi Youth Camp

When most of my friends were away to Melbourne, I joined Rushi Youth Camp. Initially, I signed up for the camp for I thought holidays would be quite boring since there's nothing much to see or visit in Adelaide. Besides that, I guess it would be a good chance for me to know more about Buddhism while enjoying the camp.

Honestly, I didn't put in much hope for the camp as it was a small camp with as few as 20 participants. However, I guess this would be an advantage for the committee to come out with interesting yet meaningful activities as a small group of people was easier to be managed.

It was a 4 days 3 nights camp held at Zhu Lin Temple. The first day was kicked off with some "break-the-ice" activities so that all of us could mingle well with each other. Then, there was some introduction to basic principles in Buddhism. The day continued with station games and sitting meditation. Significantly, it made me realised that I had A LOT of wondering thoughts. In fact, the amount of wondering thoughts I had gave me a shock. I didn't sleep well at night as it was too coooold and I didn't have any experience in dealing with the coldness. (PS: after that I wore 5 layers of clothes at night =P)

Generally, day 02 was light and easy. We had Tea Zen and games. There was a game called Travel Around The World which I personally think that it was quite meaningful. I actually played this game at Botanic Garden outing. This game is best played with about 16-20 people and all players are divided into 4-5 groups. For each group, there are different rules for playing card games. While the game is running, everyone must remain silent. For each game, the winner will move to another group on the right while the loser will move the another group on the left and the game continues. The interesting part of this game is that the one who moves to another group doesn't know about the rules of the new group he or she is in. The aim of this game is to win as many times as possible by figuring out the rules of other groups. However, the underlying lesson of this game is to teach us to adapt to new environment by respecting others' culture. ^^

No doubt, we had many other interesting activities in the camp. One that is worth mentioning is Experience Night on day 03. It reminded us about the four things we need to undergo in life, birth, old, sickness and death. Also, it reminded us to appreciate what we have, and be thankful to the people around us. At most of the time, we tend to neglect and think that what we own are supposed to be there for us but we seldom realise that they do not necessarily need to be there. So, be grateful. =)

I think it's all for the camp. I know this post is kind of late anyway. =P