Week 4 (8/5-8/9): Six Billion Paths to Peace

Retreats, to me, have a lot of different connotations. My personal definition of "retreat" has changed quite a bit with time.

In high school, my retreats were largely impersonal: my whole 170-person class was split up among 10 or 12 groups and then slept over in the gym, or spent the day off campus, all the while talking about brotherhood (it was an all-boys school) and service.

In college, a “retreat” was more of just an excuse for a student group to rent a house somewhere in Tahoe or Santa Cruz and justify not doing homework while simultaneously stressing about not doing homework.

This past weekend, though, I participated in the Shinnyo Fellows Orientation and Annual Retreat. And I have to say, I think I experienced my first real retreat. 

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Before I unpack that more, though, I thought I would quickly recount the events of the Fellows’ Orientation the day before. The Fellows’ Orientation was held at the Shinnyo-En Foundation’s office in San Francisco. Thankfully, Katie at the Foundation was able to get me a guest parking pass, so I didn’t have to worry about paying for parking.

Somehow, though, parking wasn’t even the best part of the day. I really enjoyed getting to know the rest of the Shinnyo Fellows (4 from George Mason University, 3 present from Seattle University, and 2 from UC Berkeley) and their supervisors. I was initially worried because I had only very recently been given the opportunity to attend the Fellows’ Orientation, and thus didn’t have time to inform my supervisors. So it was a little intimidating at first knowing that I would essentially be there alone. 

It wasn’t like that for long, though. Jana, my supervisor at Redwood City 2020, was able to stop by and introduce herself on her way to work. And even after she left, the Fellows, their supervisors, as well as the Shinnyo-En Foundation staff made me feel very included as we had discussions about service, peace, and our individual projects. We ended the day with dinner at Rosa Mexicano, which has to be the fanciest Mexican restaurant I’ve ever seen (with the best mini churros I’ve ever had--I even wasn’t aware you could buy churros in units less than 1.5 feet long). 

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I left the next morning for the Marconi Center, about 1.5 hours north of San Francisco. Besides overshooting the turn into the conference center (thanks to Siri and a lack of common sense), the drive went very smoothly. After a boxed lunch, we began preparing for the actual retreat. As Fellows, we would be co-facilitating groups made up of participants from various partners associated with the Foundation. I met with my co-facilitator, and talked about some guidelines and goals for our Home Group (Group 2, represent). Soon, everyone had arrived, including representatives from the Shinnyo-En Youth Association and the UC Berkeley Chan Fellows Program. After a few initial icebreakers, we all took about 3-5 minutes introducing our organizations to the group as a whole (approximately 50 people). Then it was off to dinner!

I really enjoyed these meal times; not only was the food delicious, but I got to eat meals with people that were not in my Home Group or fellow Fellows. Having this time also allowed us to talk about things not just related to service and get to know each other on a different level. 

Friday night was the Personal Object activity. There was a cool twist to this show-and-tell, though. Instead of explaining the significance of our objects right off the bat, we first gave them to our group members, who assigned meaning to the objects. It was like playing CSI but with more bracelets and necklaces. It was really cool to see the things people came up with, especially the last couple of people who had to go. Some of the coolest interpretations came from these people because everything superficial had been said about the object. They either had to go deeper to find significance or come up with another apt metaphor. Really great activity to get to know someone. 

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Saturday started early with breakfast at 7am, but somehow felt less packed than the half-day on Friday, although the three hour break in the afternoon may have had something to do with it. I personally was stressing because I had been thrown off my MCAT study schedule a little bit, so I took this good three-hour chunk to get some studying done.

...then promptly fell asleep for 2 hours and 50 minutes.

The session before the break had to do with “Play,” the things we feel guilty for doing because we don’t deem them “productive,” but are ultimately beneficial to our mental and emotional well-being. So, there you go, nap justified.

Anyways, feeling (very) rejuvenated, we had dinner and watched a video about reframing the question of “What’s wrong with the world?” to ask “What’s right with the world?” This was another cool activity that sparked a pretty deep discussion afterward. After the discussion was the Open Mic, which was an experience in itself. This was another one of those opportunities to really get to know people as people, out of the context of public servants and peace makers. It was really cool getting to see everyone share their talents.

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Waking up Sunday morning was different yet again. There’s always a tone of finality or closure on the last day of something: noting the last time you have breakfast together, the last walk from the dining hall, the last time you get lost on your way to the building where you’ve met for literally every single session. Even though it was only two full days, it had seemed like much longer, like time had slowed down.

The main activity on Sunday after breakfast was focused on self-reflection. For the first 20 minutes, we were led in silent meditation. I unfortunately wasn’t as relaxed as I could have been (never was good at criss-cross applesauce sitting), but it was soothing nonetheless. The next 40 minutes or so were spent navigating a labyrinth. I had walked a similar one on the UC Santa Barbara campus, but this one was pretty cool in that it was essentially a labyrinth printed on a mat that could be used anywhere with enough space. If you’ve never tried this type of labyrinth before, I highly recommend it. It’s not a maze; it’s not intended to trick you, and there are no dead ends. Rather, it is one continuous path in the shape of a circle, positioned in such a way that it folds on itself. I likened it to the many folds of the small intestine, but that might have just been the result of hitting the MCAT books too hard. In any case, once one reached the center, there was time to reflect on the journey, and the retreat as a whole. It was a really cool experience.

After that, there wasn’t much else left. We took a lot of pictures together and exchanged information. One walk up and back down the treacherous hill to the dining hall later, I was on the road again back home to Redwood City. 

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Overall, the combination of the Fellows’ Orientation and Annual Retreat was an amazing opportunity to meet so many people who want to make peace in the world. I found this week’s theme--Six Billion Paths to Peace-- quite appropriate. Six Billion Paths to Peace is an initiative from the Shinnyo-en Foundation to make the world a more peaceful place, one person at a time (at a time when there were still only six billion people in the world). The idea is that every single person can have his or her own path to peace, and that, though they are many, they are all valuable. I got to see this first-hand, not only by learning more about each Fellow’s project, but by seeing the Shinnyo-En Foundation staff work as well. So much work and planning went into this transformative weekend, and I cannot thank everyone enough for allowing me to be a part of it.

Additionally, I think I truly felt rejuvenated and refreshed after the retreat. I say this because when I got home, I was able to knock out a chapter of Ochem, a chapter of Gen Chem, and a chapter of Biology, without the fatigue or crying that usually accompanies it. Moving forward, in terms of studying, I think I’ve learned the value of a short break to recenter myself and reinvigorate my determination to study, pass the MCAT and get into medical school, as I try to pave my own path to peace.