My Treasures From the BCA Youth Retreat

Editor’s note: Davis Wong of the Oregon Buddhist Temple submitted the following article about the BCA’s seventh annual BCA Youth Retreat (BYR), which was held June 23-29 at the Jodo Shinshu Center in Berkeley, California. The Wheel of Dharma is pleased to publish Wong’s article with his permission.

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Over the summer, I went to the BCA Youth Retreat (BYR) summer camp of 2024. The BYR trip was “Life Changing," and everyone felt that way, too. 

All of the participants came from the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) — Washington state, Chicago, California and New York. And each person represented their temple. 

The goal of the camp was to teach us about Buddhism and let us connect with other teenagers who are Buddhist. In November 2023, I attended a BYR retreat for the first time. It was an amazing experience with fellow Buddhist kids. I felt connected and enjoyed the group, which inspired me to attend the BYR summer camp. 

At camp, I learned many different things about myself, but the most important lesson was what it means to be Buddhist. 

Every day, we had three lectures about Buddhism from ministers of BCA. We learned about basic topics such as the history of Jodo Shinshu founder Shinran Shonin, the history of the Buddha, and the Eightfold Noble Path. There were discussions about what it means to be Buddhist and how that impacts us. 

Bishop Rev. Marvin Harada taught us that everyone is part of everything and understanding this requires realizing that everything else is a part of you. 

This lesson made me rethink how to live with the Dharma and how we should strive to live as Buddhists. By recognizing this, you become aware of your surroundings and realize that the actions you take greatly affect others, whether it is something simple like the tone of your voice or understanding that your behavior can create a ripple effect in your environment. 

The BYR trip was something I will remember forever. Many of the staff there had been to a BYR retreat just like this one. They also said they had a great time and that they still keep in touch with friends they met at the BYR retreat.

To ensure we socialized with each other, the staff took away all forms of technology to keep us off social media, so we were always involved in the present and learned to live with others. We interacted and learned to do activities rather than being on our phones. 

It was a great social opportunity to meet new people and most of the participants I met will be friends forever. 

We had outings like going to Japantown in San Francisco and going on a boba run in the University of California, Berkeley, area. 

We learned about each other. Even though we only spent a week together, we shared a bond that felt like we had known each other for a long time. 

By going on this trip, I learned more about the Three Treasures: the Buddha, the Sangha, and the Dharma, which are the most important things. 

To me, being able to learn about the Buddha and learning more about our founder, listening to the Dharma and understanding how to live life in peace and gratitude, and making connections with the Sangha like making all these friends at the BYR retreat was a real treasure.