The Young Buddhist Association of Thailand (YBAT) is hosting an international students meditation camp for the second time this year. The camp will take place between Aug 8 to 12 at YBAT centre in Pathum Thani and its participants are international students between the ages of 12 to 18 who are new to meditation.
International students meditation camp.
Most meditation courses for children aim to develop self-discipline, concentration and a sense of morality, relying on dhamma lectures and practices. The YBAT camp, however, is designed to include stimulating games and student participation. It is a camp that uses young speakers to communicate with young students, instead of the usual top-down approach.
"Basically, other camps tend to focus on meditation and lectures," said Chatchai Bunnag, who designed the course. "Here we incorporate games and activities to give them a more complete picture of what dhamma is. Our camp encourages kids to raise their voices because kids from international schools are keen on sharing their opinions and using critical thinking skills. We also hand-pick young speakers, so the students can become more motivated."
Chutikarn Cholsaipant, a first-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the volunteers from last year who will help out at the camp again next month. She explained how this camp is different from other camps she has experienced.
"It is really encouraging in terms of having a certain degree of freedom," she said. "We are trying to set a home environment for the kids that teaches them to meditate, unlike going to a strict camp that forces you to conform with everything. The past meditation camps that I have been to are very discouraging because I had to be quiet all the time."
Another volunteer who worked at the camp last year, Sahnfun Chittmittrapap, is a student at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
She said the camp takes away the materialistic aspect of the youngsters' lifestyles and with no internet access and no phone, she believes such rules have positive effects for the campers.
"At first, the participants might not enjoy the experience because of the drastic change in lifestyle," she said. "However, towards the end of the camp, they did see what they had gained through the trade-off they made. They realised that it was meaningful."
"When I went back to school, my friends noticed how I became calmer, which was a huge contrast to my habit of panicking and messing around. I have also learnt how to cope with exam stress through talks we had at YBAT," said Nirada Habanananda, a 15-year-old who participated in the course last year.
Visit facebook.com/YBATinternationalstudents.
Meditation camp.
