Living, learning and sharing — about Taiwan, about traditional Asian cultures, about cross-cultural communication, about life — is what East West Culture Project is all about.
The project is the brainchild of a group of people coming from more than 15 countries, from a variety of backgrounds (academics, lawyers, yoga teachers, designers, artists), who have been living in Taipei for varying length of time and who first met as students of Khenchen Rinpoche, an authorized meditation master, or to give him his full title, the Tulku Khenchen Mawei Wangqiu Longli Jiacuo Rinpoche.
Based in Taiwan, he studied with masters from India, Tibet and Bhutan to obtain the lineages of all the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the titles Dorje Lopen and Khenpo.
Photo Courtesy of East West Culture Project
The group, which numbers about 30, was formed about eight months ago, East West Culture Project manager Jen Wen (文薇茹) explained in an interview on Thursday last week.
They were looking to bridge the cultural gap between Taiwanese and foreigners who have come to Taiwan to live and work, and pooling their respective areas of expertise and interests realized they had a lot to offer other expatriates who might be interested in learning more about traditional Asian societies and cultures, but might be handicapped by language barriers, she said.
The group now offers a variety of courses and outings, some weekly, some monthly, with about 12 to 15 instructors, on everything from traditional Chinese tea-making, to Tang Dynasty poetry and qigong to yoga and culture walks.
Photo Courtesy of East West Culture Project
For example, “the man who gives the talks about Chinese medicine worked as a Chinese medicine doctor in the US for several years but is in Taipei now doing an internship at a traditional clinic on Roosevelt Road,” Wen said.
The classes are held in a variety of locations around Taipei, including the Khenchen Rinpoche Center. The yoga classes are held on Monday nights at the Da-an Recreation Center on Xinhai Road, while the Zen tea-making course is held the third Sunday of the month at the Water Moon Tea House (水月草堂) on Fuxing South Road. There is a qigong class offered at a dojo in Tienmu and the culture walks start at 10am on the fourth Sunday of the month.
Prices range from NT$300 for a tea class or yoga class to NT$2,250 for the five-session qigong course.
At first the classes developed through word of mouth, “very old-school style,” Wen said, but now East West Culture Project has two Web sites (eastwestcultureproject.org and www.meetup.com/East-West-Culture-Project), as well as a blog, a Facebook page and other new media trappings such as Twitter (@EWCP_Presents).
Earlier this month, the group began an eight-part Sunday evening lecture series, titled Your Life as a Class Room, on topics ranging from traditional Chinese medicine, the Buddhist Dao of Physics, an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism and the 21st century through ancient eyes to tea. Each class ends in a question-and-answer session with the rinpoche, who lectures in Chinese, although English translation is provided. The series wraps up on June 5 and people can sign up for whatever classes they are interested in.
“The idea is you learn different tools in the series and can apply them to your everyday life,” Wen said.
And at the end of this month, the East West Culture Project will be putting on a meditation retreat, its second, offering members of the public a chance to step back from the hurly-burly of daily life, recharge their batteries and learn new skills.
The first retreat was a one-day affair, offered on a Sunday in October in Taipei. The morning presentations focused on yoga and qigong while the afternoon included a presentation on Buddhism, qigong and stillness meditation as well as relaxation exercises, followed by a lecture in the evening by Khenchen Rinpoche.
For the second retreat, East West Culture Project has moved up in scale and location, literally.
The two-night Spring Stillness and Movement Mountain Retreat will be held from April 29 to May 1 at a luxury hot-spring resort on Yangmingshan. The program includes sessions on qigong, yoga, walking meditation, as well as the traditional seven-point style of Tibetan mediation and visualization techniques. There will also be a special lecture by the rinpoche, followed by a question-and-answer session.
The NT$10,000 fee covers two nights accommodation in a shared room, breakfasts and lunches, transportation to and from downtown Taipei, classes and lectures, “everything but the resort’s spa and salon offerings,” Wen said.
There will also be time to explore the nearby nature trails, she said.
There will be a bus leaving downtown at 6:30pm on Friday (and a second one later in the evening if necessary) to take participants up Yangmingshan to the resort and then bus them back to Taipei on Sunday evening.
There is room for about 60 people at the retreat and there are about 45 signed up already, Wen said.
Why is the group, all volunteers, going to all the trouble of organizing a retreat on this scale?
“Because a lot of us have been to Vipassana courses,” Wen said. “It’s a form of mediation that dates back to the Buddha, with the focus on the connection between the mind and body. A lot of us have done retreats like that and we decided that there was a need [for some kind of meditation retreat] here.”
“People are so stressed these days, life is going so fast, people can’t slow down,” Wen said. “This gives you a chance to step back and learn something.”
“A two-day retreat like this is equal to a five-day vacation in Thailand,” she said. “You are learning tools like relaxing your breathing, five-minute meditation, things you can really use.”
For more information on the retreat, or any of the classes and activities, contact the group by e-mail at info@eastwestcultureproject.org or, for the retreat only, by calling 0983-339-901. More information about the Khenchen Rinpoche Center is available at khenchenrinpochecenter.org.
This article has been updated since it was first posted.
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