A Brilliant Ending to the Hsi Lai Buddhist Retreat –

A 3-day Meditation Retreat and Dharma Talk by Venerable Yi Kung.

The students of the Hsi Lai Buddhist Retreat have spent the last month studying Buddhism and have just completed the pinnacle of their practice – a 3-day meditation retreat. Venerable Abbot Hui Dong offered instruction one evening stating that we must know the difference between awareness and wisdom. Suffering is all in your own ignorance and unawareness of the present moment. Meditative concentration is a part of the mind and awareness is a perception of memory. When it is put down, wisdom is the realization of this change. He also discussed how to enact the Threefold Training are fully used in meditation retreat training: Maintaining silence is part of the precepts, sitting fosters meditative concentration, and overcoming one’s unhelpful tendencies is wisdom. All three are practiced together during the 3-day meditation retreat.