Dharma Camp |
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From Sunday August 13th through Saturday the 19th Great Vow hosted a children's Dharma Camp. The camp was begun by the Dharma Rain zen center, and has been held at Great Vow for the past 5 years. The camp was attended by 45 campers and 13 counselors, which was a new high. The camp is divided into five "Buddha families", red, green, yellow, blue, and white. Each family included 2 counselors and campers from all age groups (campers ages ranged from 8-18). |
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Each morning the day with 20 minutes of meditation, followed by a short chanting service. |
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After each meal one Buddha family helped with wash-up. Chloe and Emma from the red family help wash plates. |
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After breakfast campers would participate in a work period, helping out in various ways around the monastery. Here several campers clean windows. |
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| Dawn, Julian, Kojun and Munnie help in the garden. | ||||
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The campers stayed in the guest area of the monastery, and used mattresses to transform the central meeting area into "the pit". |
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The pit was at times a place to wrestle, and at times a place to nap. Wrestlers who wanted out of the pit said "Bruce" to be released. Wrestlers who wanted a momentary break, but not to leave the pit said "wombat". |
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The most important rule in the pit was to obey the Sentinel, a counselor who was in the room keeping an eye on things. The Sentinel was identified as the counselor wearing the pink feather boa. |
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Each day included many blocks of free time. During this time Diego, Lucas, Thomas and Brendan play cards. |
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Ryushin takes a minute to teach some campers how to juggle. Xiao Chun is getting the hang of it! |
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Chloe, Nicole and Anna relax. |
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Irene, Jessica and Marissa look at photos from Dharma camps past. |
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Daniel and Yoan hang out. | |||
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One exciting event during camp is the Buddha Olympics. In the Buddha Olympics the different families compete against each other in such events as the marshmallow toss, the slow water walk, and the spaghetti-marshmallow tower building. The white family built the highest spaghetti-marshmallow tower, over 1 meter! |
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Congratulations to the green family for winning the "green" in the olympics! |
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Each day of camp ended with a campfire. |
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Campfire was a time to sing songs, play games, present skits, and be as silly as possible. |
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Samuel kept his shades on until the last hint of light had faded from the sky. |
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Campfire was blessed with the guitar playing of Sean and Ryushin. Jyoshin was the "Sherrif", as her hat indicates. The sherrif's job was to maintain the spirit of respect and community by previewing any questionable joke or skit before it was presented. |
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On the last morning all the campers processed to the maple tree for a closing ceremony. |
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Circling the maple tree that overlooks the monastery, the campers made offerings of gratitude for another year of camp. |
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The camp ended on Saturday afternoon. With parents, family and friends of the campers watching, each color group presenting a skit. The skits illustrated some aspect or quality of the groups particular color. |
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A final thanks to the counselors who helped make this a wonderful camp! |
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