Our first workshop on Daoism, on 11th October, featured a fascinating lecture by Master Rene Goris of the International Oriental College.
Rene, who’s school is based in The Netherlands, delivered a talk focusing on Daoist medicine and Daoist concepts for healthy living.
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Rene spent more than 10 years living with the Zheng Yi Daoist sect in Wudang Mountains and started his school, the International Oriental College in the late 1990’s, the curriculum focusing on the study of Daoism, Daoist principles, Buddhism, Confucianism, Qigong, Taiji Quan and a variety of other Chinese philosophies. (see our links page for a link to the school’s own website).
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The DDA workshop was well attended by a large of audience of both western and Chinese guests. Rene, was aided by senior DDA assistant Ms Jessie Zhang, who again exercised her considerable interpretation skills, but this time by providing translation from English to Chinese!
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Rene’s lecture concentrated on health concepts which date back to age-old Daoist philosophies, but which are just as relevant in today’s busy, stress-filled modern age.
Much of Rene’s lecture dealt with becoming more aware of the self, your own environment and of how to be fully involved with one’s life and immediate actions and state of being.
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He talked about how we often are not fully aware of or involved in what we are doing; we are so busy and our lives so hectic, that we are not often “mentally” present in the actions we are making, which can lead us to slowly become more and more out of touch with ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally, often leading to many health problems and conditions in the long term.
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?The fairly simple, yet profound concepts for rediscovering “the art of awareness” in our movements and ways of living, when practiced can start to unify our bodies and minds and pave the way for more consciousness and harmony in our lives.
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Rene also took questions from the audience, some of whom had researched articles he had written in the past and had interesting questions about some of the challenging described in Rene’s treatises.
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Hosted by Rose Oliver at our regular venue the Pu Er Story Tearooms, the event was a very interesting, informative and enjoyable evening.
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And with great support by Rose’s DDA assistants, Fern, Angela, Prince, Vivian, Yuki, Christianna and Lavinah, who took excellent care of the guests, making sure they all had plenty of tea and refreshments, the event was a great success.
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We hope to host a second workshop on Daoism when Rene returns to Shanghai in December; news of the upcoming event will be advertised on our website once the date and time is set.
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Thanks to everyone who attended the first lecture in the series and we hope that everyone gained some helpful tips for healthier living!?
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Please follow our link to Rene’s lecture topic on our ARTICLES page.