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My community: Thien Sinh Buddhist Youth Group

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My community: Thien Sinh Buddhist Youth Group

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These are a few members of the Thien Sinh community, which is a group in a Vietnamese temple I grew up going to most of my life. In this community we focused on being true Buddhists where we were being taught morals of what Buddhists need to practice, while also learning lessons on how to be good citizens.

This group was formed back in the 1940's as a way for the youth to practice Buddhism. At my specific temple our group started back in 2009 where we would meet up every Sunday to pray while also doing learning activities, games, and etc. Our group focused a lot on volunteer work, community outreach, and also an overall sense of community as we all had the same religion and also ethnicity.

Growing up within this community, not only did I make a lot of memories but I also learned a lot of my values here at a young age. The specific group had over more than 100 members and occasionally there would be more members that wanted to join as the weeks went by.

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How have historical events shaped the experience of the Thien Sinh members?

Historically, the Thien Sinh group has technically only had 2-3 sets of groups that have actively partaken in the community. During the time where I was still partaking in my group we had already slowly started losing members to college or just other priorities. That is also when covid had just became a thing which hit the group really hard because we were no longer able to meet up at temple, or do any of our volunteer work. The impact of covid solely disbanded our group in a way since after the whole pandemic no one in the group had chose to come back and actively participate.

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How have changes in culture shaped the experiences of the Thien Sinh members?

During the time that the group was still actively running, us members participated in many cultural activities including traditional dancing, food, history, and etc. These activities were being done as a way to celebrate, learn and enjoy our culture, but as time went on we all actively knew a lot about our culture already and everyone slowly stopped wanting to do the activities because not only have we been doing these for years but they progressively stopped being fun for most of us as we got older.

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How have environmental changes shaped the experiences of the Thien Sinh members?

Due to our past group meetings being indoors at our temple, changes within the environment don't exactly affect us. Although our temple was a little older and smaller the conditions sometimes made it difficult to accommodate for the many people that would try to come for our celebrations during the popular events or holidays.

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Economy has drastically impacted the Thien Sinh community especially after the 2019 Pandemic. The pandemic not only changed and scared people a lot upon our overall health and wellbeing but it changed our perspective a lot on financial wellbeing as well. Economy has never not been an issue, but after years of many people being let go from their jobs, unemployment, and lack of jobs people have never been more scared about their financial state. This is why I say that the economy impacted our community so much. The lingering fear of financial instability changed a lot of our lives. Instead of coming to temple on Sunday's we started going to work. As time went on things got more expensive so it was hard to bring in new members especially since there wasn't a lot of upkeep we could do for the temple. As so many people stopped coming to temple because of work, others slowly stopped coming for other reasons, therefore leaving our group to dismantle slowly. Although the group doesn't come together as we used to, Buddhism will always hold us together no matter how far away we are.

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Week 4: Globalization's impact upon Thien Sinh 

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Week 4: Globalization's impact upon Thien Sinh 

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With the acts of gobalization in a way it has helped the Thien Sinh group into becoming more known especially to other groups around the world. With the fast developments and popularity of social media platforms it has helped more groups come together and share appreciation for one another. When I was still actively going to temple there would be times where we would plan trips to go to many different temples and visit their temple and their own Thien Sinh groups if they had any. This helped us meet other monks and also those within our culture, religion, and overall community.

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Week 7: Institutions that have affected us

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Week 7: Institutions that have affected us

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With the expensive costs of healthcare in today's society, it is extremely difficult to get adequate healthcare. As we all know the US healthcare system is very complex and at times very unfair. Therefore at our specific temple we had healthcare providers that were members of the temple who would help others when it came to massages, or cupping therapy which is a very common practice within Buddhism and also Vietnamese culture. With the healthcare system being so expensive this was a way for our community to help one another.

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Week 6: Economic systems impacting Thien Sinh

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Week 6: Economic systems impacting Thien Sinh

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As some may or may not know temples are establishments that take donations and offerings therefore that being their only source of "income". With everything going on in the economy like inflation and our temple being on older side it was extremely difficult to make renovations or purchase new things. Although the economy makes it difficult for us to keep up the temple, in a way it brought us closer together because we were determined to make things work for our community. This meant finding ways to save on cost but also still being able to provide for each other.

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Within the Thien Sinh group there are members that range from the ages as young as 6-30+. Although this is a youth group we had leaders who were older than us that guided us through Buddhism and also the group itself. As they were older than us they have had experiences within the education system and knowledge upon careers and other things that fell into that category. As we all went to different schools and had different education experiences whenever we all came together we were able to help each other with school work, activities, projects, and even college applications. Schools have over hundreds or even thousands of students therefore it's super difficult to help everyone. Therefore the Thien Sinh group in a way also served as a learning center not only for religion but also education. The education system affected our community by allowing us to further support our members if they weren't able to get that at school itself.

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Religion is the root of how Buddhism has impacted all of us. This is by far has the most influence on us because without religion there isn't Buddhism because Buddhism is a religion. Religion offers people a sense of community, belonging, and shared values. This is by far what Buddhism has done for me and so many others. Not only did all the members in a way grow up together but some of us have made bonds for life. Bonds that aren't only shared by friendship but bonds built from shared values, companionship and so much more. Religion brings those together, which is something so important but beautiful. Therefore having the most impact on our community.

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As the Thien Sinh community is a religion group itself the impacts of different religions or religion itself has helped not just me but most of the members within the group feel closer to Buddha. Learning about our religion not only helps and guides you through learning about yourself but also your values and overall viewpoint. Our religious practices offered me and many others a sense of belonging and emotional support. The impact of religion continuously allows you to maintain a sense of community but also to continue future practices and overall tradition.

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Buddhism is a religion that strives for compassion and bravery. Therefore back then when the group was very active we would constantly share with each other about social movements that we were passionate about. Although there have never been any direct plans to be involved we individually share different thoughts upon different movements. So although it has never been a Thien Sinh activity, we all individually focus on our own things and own actions when it comes to social movements.

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Education is extremely valuable. Therefore has impacted the Thien Sinh alot. Not only are we constantly being educated on Buddhism and practicing it, but we are also being educated on how to be a good person in society. Buddhism does not allow hate or harm to another individual or animals. These values also correlate with how we should also be in today's society. Growing up learning and being educated on how to treat others was simple for me not only cause I learned it at home and school but I also learned it at temple. Temple was another space for me to learn and also continue practicing who I wanted to be, but also allowing me to make mistakes and growing from them. Temple ultimately was a place of education not only on Buddhism but also things that correlate to what we learn in a classroom.