National Camp of Chinese New Year in Dong Zen Temple

Date: 03/02/2012 – 05/02/2012
Venue : Dong Zen Temple
(PT 2297, Jalan Sg. Buaya, 42600 Jenjarom, Kuala Langat, Selangor)



Day 1
We departed from KDU Main campus at 2.30pm sharp and reached the temple around 4.00pm.
The temple was crowded with people when we reached there as there were some exhibitions going on. Once we reached there, we registered at the registered office.
Around 5.30pm, we were gathered in a hall and a welcoming ceremony was held.
After dinner, we were lead to the auditorium for ice breaking. We were separated into different groups with students from other universities and colleges. There are students from UKM, UM, INTI University College, UTAR, KTAR, The One Academy, UUM, New Era College, UNIMAP, UTM and Taylor University College.
After the ice-breaking section, we continue with the next activity – “Great Compassion Repentance Service”.
Great Compassion Dharani Sutra stated, “The mighty power of this dharani is inconceivable and unimaginable and one can’t exhaust its praises.” This includes all the aforementioned kinds of merit and virtue power of upholding the perfect mantra. “Mighty is the authority others fear; all people and demons are in terror of this inconceivable power. The power of the mighty is a power that others fear and respect. We will never be able to exhaust praising the mighty power of this dharani in our words
At 11pm we went back to our room respectively and woke up by 6.00am the next morning.



Day 2
On the second day, we started our morning recitation around 6.45am.
After having our breakfast, we had an assembly then we were separated into different groups to clean the car park area and food stores of the Dong Zen Temple. This is to create a awareness among ourselves that picking up the rubbish is not that as easy as just merely throwing them away and this is one of the most practical ways in preserving the environment by separating the rubbish into those which can be recycled and those which cannot be recycled.
Then, we continue with our next activity - treasure hunt. This activity was held for us to know better about Dong Zen Temple and Buddha. Besides that, this activity also helps us to build up our solidarity and leadership skills.
After that, we were allowed to discuss among ourselves to do a performance greeting the Venerable and the participants from different universities and colleges.
We were singing a Chinese New Year song with greetings to the venerable and the participants there.
Around 5pm, each group was given a task for the preparation of the major event which will be held at night. Two of us volunteered to be the waiter during the night dinner for the elderly people and the others helping in decorating the festooned vehicle.
Four of our members who were given the task decorating the festooned vehicle were later wearing the Chinese traditional costume during the parade at night.



Day 3
We started our morning recitation of Heart Sutra around 7am and had a ten minutes meditation session guided by Venerable Ru Yin.
After having breakfast, we were separated into groups to clean Dong Zen Temple. 4 of our members were cleaning the washroom, 2 of the members were sweeping the hall and others were picking up rubbish at the Dong Zen Temple.
After having our lunch and packing our own luggage and clean the room where we were staying for 3 days 2 nights, we were lead to the Zen Hall for the last day assembly.
There was some interesting sharing made by Venerable Ru Yin and Venerable Miao Feng.
Venerable Miao Feng had explained to us why we were being the volunteer on the second day, as the theme of this camp is about the heavenly blessings and protection, the first day of the camp we were taught on the theoretical part of it, thus second day we applied what we learnt by being the volunteer in the temple but not just merely doing nothing on what we promised.
As Venerable Miao Feng said, the life in the temple is totally different with the life in the outside world, in the temple, what we are helping to do is for the public, public is always the priority in our work. This is the most precious gift that being given by the committees of the camp to us, the culture of the temple of being selfless to serve everyone.
Moreover, Venerable also clarified that most of the people always have the opinion that Dong Zen Temple is so rich, as they have so many beautiful buildings inside there, but actually those beautiful parts are all being opened for the public, according to what was told by Venerable Master Hsin Yun that always serve the best to the people. The venerable inside the temple are all actually lead a simple life without the luxury and comfortable environment as we saw from the outside of the temple.
Then, Venerable Ru Yin sang a song wrote by Venerable Master Hsin Yun for us as she said that it is easier to convey the message to we all youngster through singing than just keep talking about it. The song is about the preservation of the world and doing good deeds in our life.
At last, every leader of each Buddhist Club was given a chance to share what they learnt for the past three days. Firstly I expressed my gratitude to the temple for organizing this camp and some of the touching moments when we were serving the elderly people.
Indeed, we had an unforgettable experience in the temple.

Prepared by
Ong Yee Chiing (56652), Vice President of KDUBSC