Unfortunately, I am not a well-traveled person. I wasn't born in the United States, but I was raised by its customs and traditions. I have yet to travel outside the country, and the most I know in another language is high school level Spanish.
I am, however, lucky enough to be part of the Buddhist fraternity, Delta Beta Tau, at my university. I've talked about my experience with Delta Beta Tau a number of times by now, but the wisdom and memories I continue to cultivate are something I will never stop being amazed by. Without a doubt, one of the most rewarding things about pledging a Buddhist fraternity is the retreats we go on.
My pledge class and I visited the Metta Forest Monastery recently, and this experience was beautifully different from what I expected. Whereas I'm used to silent, individual meditation, our entire experience here was based on community.
The monks who live and practice at this monastery follow a specific routine which we were lucky enough to participate in. Though their morning began bright and early at 5:30 a.m., our class jumped in during the 8:30 a.m. Alms round where volunteers offered rice to each monk. Then came the offering of volunteer-brought meals to the monks, and finally the morning chanting.
Growing up monolingual and without any form of religion, I, of course, understood very little about what was going on, but this ended up being one of the most inspiring experiences anyhow. There was something wonderful about following along with them simply because I was confused. I'm so used to being surrounded by what I call "typical" that it was a refreshing and much-needed shock to be exposed to something new. I felt as though I got to see beauty through someone else's perspective.
I wouldn't exactly call myself ignorant as that carries a more negative connotation, but there's a myriad of cultures I've yet to learn about, many of them coexisting beside my own. There are, of course, plenty of generous and giving people in American culture, but overall we tend to lean toward individualism.
Here, however, everything people did was an act of community. Everyone participated in providing food for the monks and everyone helped clean up afterward. Everyone shared the leftover food, and on this particular day, everyone helped prepare the monastery for the next day's festival.
That's what I thought was so interesting about this retreat. It wasn't just meditation; it was community-building. I didn't mind that it was sweltering hot or that my back ached from cleaning table after table. I felt honored to even be here in the first place.
The motto of Delta Beta Tau, "for the benefit of others," truly came alive that day, and it forced me to stop and reflect on how I connect to the people in my own life.
I'd like to think I'm a generous and caring person now, but I didn't magically become this way. Like anything in life, I had to learn how to be kind and light-hearted. I had to learn to appreciate the small things in life and how to change them into little acts of wonder. Both Delta Beta Tau and my experience on these retreats have greatly shaped who I am becoming in college.
