Young Voices is a special project from Buddhistdoor Global collecting insightful essays written by high school students in the US who have attended experiential-learning-based courses rooted in the Buddhist teaching. Running in parallel with BDG’s Beginner’s Mind project for college students, Young Voices offers a platform for these students to share essays expressing their impressions and perspectives on their exposure to the Buddhadharma and its relationship with their hopes, aspirations, and expectations.
Kian Burt wrote this essay for his Listening to the Buddhists in Our Backyard class at Phillips Academy, a high school in Massachusetts.
The Next Generation: Buddhist Youth Group Experience at Chùa Tường Vân Lowell
When I first saw the Dharma hall, I noticed children setting up round cushions in rows on the floor. As I set down my bag, I was ushered to sit on one of the circular beanbags. Kids who looked as young as elementary schoolers filed in from behind, each taking a seat. We began the meditation with the ringing of a meditation bowl, and I closed my eyes to relax. It was only at the end of the day that I would realize, with shock, that the kids had all been completely silent and composed. The same kids who would normally play around chaotically had begun Youth Group in silent in meditation.
Working on the experiential-learning based Listening to the Buddhists in our Backyard (L2BB)* project at Phillips Academy over the past nine weeks has taken me to nine temples in the Merrimack Valley (some 40 minutes north of Boston). I couldn’t help but notice the absence of peers my own age. This observation led me to ask the following questions: Where is the next generation of Buddhists? How do kids my age experience and perceive Buddhism differently from the older generations I had encountered?
My curiosity led me to Chùa Tường Vân (CTV), a Vietnamese temple in Lowell. Here, I discovered a vibrant youth group directed by Dr. Tham Tran, who holds a PhD in education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and who established the Tuong Van Buddhist Youth Association in 2016. She welcomed me into CTV’s Youth Group and generously gave her time. I am deeply grateful for her help with this project.
On my first visit to CTV, I saw that kids joined for different reasons. Some were there at their parents’ insistence, others had developed a habit of attending, and a few chose to be there voluntarily. Despite their varied reasons for participation, all were part of a welcoming community that equipped them with tools to navigate life’s challenges. I realized that the monastic sangha is not only a hierarchical community of monks and nuns, but an active practice of Buddhism and an expression of the Dharma and Buddha’s teachings.
For this project, I interviewed youth group members about their experiences and takeaways. Their responses were to deliberately open-ended questions such as, “What is your biggest takeaway from your temple experience?” and “How does being at Youth Group affect your life outside the temple?” Their responses from the interviews offer insight into the question I posed at the beginning: how do kids my age experience and engage with Buddhism?
Meditation
One of the first students I spoke with talked about meditation, sharing: “Meditation helps me to focus in school when kids are talking and being disruptive.” This practice, central to their routine at the temple, has equipped this student with the ability to manage distractions and emotions, a skill they have carried into their academic life. Through these practices, the students learn to channel their focus and calm their minds.
Vietnamese classes
After meditation, they attend Vietnamese language classes. One student remarked, “Before I came here, I couldn’t read or spell Viet low-key, and now I can text my parents in Viet. That’s like a huge stepping stone that has affected my life, really.” Language is how members understand and learn the teachings/Dharma. Chenxing Han’s book Be the Refuge notes how some young adults who only know English feel excluded from temples because they don’t speak the language.
To this student, learning Vietnamese is then marked as a “huge stepping stone” because it allows them to connect with their parents, their culture, and the Buddhist teachings.
The Vietnamese classes are taught by older students. One student I talked to shared how they felt responsible and connected with younger students in this role. They mentioned that they liked to “bond with all the little kids and . . . teach them the right thing to do; what to do and what not to do.” The community at CTV is very collaborative. As younger students become older, they take on leadership roles and help Dr. Tran lead the program. For this member, it is the people and the community-building that they appreciate the most.
Community
When there is a community that cares about its members, it leads to experiences like the following: “I showed up one day and they all welcomed me, like so fast, it was actually crazy.” To understand this quote, it’s important to recognize that this student joined at an older age and they have only been a member for two years. This is someone who, newly joined, now points to the warm welcoming community as something that stands out from their previous experiences in other community spaces.
Faced with this information, I decided to ask the students I talked to, what they thought about the youth experience for other members. They mentioned two instances: someone who joined when they were younger; and someone who joined when they were older. The younger students are immersed in the teachings and have a unique mindset that is quintessentially “Buddhist.” On the other hand, students who joined when they were 19 years old missed out on “the childhood . . . knowing the people . . . making memories . . . the Buddha’s teachings as a child . . . field trips . . . and [vegetarian] food.” To this student, the Youth Group Buddhist experience is one that places the community, the sangha, at the center.
Final thoughts
Returning to my initial question, “How do kids my age experience and think about Buddhism?” it became clear that, at Chùa Tường Vân, Buddhism is lived through community: meditating together, learning Vietnamese, teaching each other, and building lasting memories. Initially, I viewed Buddhism through an academic lens, focusing on interpreting sutras and performing rituals. However, this youth group illuminated a different facet—one of belonging, shared experiences, and embodying the true essence of sangha.
* This project explores Asian American Buddhist communities in the Merrimack Valley, a region of northeastern Massachusetts. L2BB is part of the Workshop, an interdisciplinary school within a school run by the Tang Institute that emphasizes community partnership, public-facing learning, and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
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