events

East Connects with West in this Meditation, Philosophy and Dialogue Workshop

with The Rev. Dr. Thandeka and Dr. Zhenbao Jin

At your deepest level, you know you are connected to all beings in the world, to your families and friends, to your neighbors and to people on the other side of the globe, to all animals, plants, mountains and rivers, planets and stars.

But these connections are conditioned by your connection to your body, and by the relationship between your body and mind. Those connections get blocked in today’s world.

The Rev. Dr. Thandeka and Dr. Zhenbao Jin help people cultivate those connections.

Thandeka in the West and Zhenbao in the East.

You’re invited to participate in this exciting new workshop. We will Zoom together across the globe––4 Chinese participants and 4 American participants––to connect using a powerful combination of philosophic and meditation practices formulated by Thandeka and Zhenbao.

The group is small. The goal is global: a bridge connecting the divides between individuals, classes, societies and cultures, between religions and science, and between mind and body.

Would you like to participate?

The workshop takes place March 31-May 1 in the West and April 1-May 2 in the East. We will meet via Zoom Monday and Thursday evenings (6-7:30CT) in the West which will be Tuesday and Friday mornings (7-8:30 Beijing Time) in the East. Tuition is only $300 for this world-engaging workshop!

Register here:              As a Chinese participant                As an American participant

Dr. Zhenbao Jin has a PhD in law from China University of Politics and Law. He was a lawyer, law lecturer and his law-related research focused on philosophy of law. Since his diagnosis of lymphoma in 2012 (which he healed through his meditation practices), he has shifted his focus of research to Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and related branches of science, as well as philosophy, especially process philosophy as developed by Alfred N. Whitehead (1861-1947) and John B. Cobb, Jr. (1925-2024).   He has developed an integrative approach to meditation which is undertaken as a practice of philosophy rather than religious belief. It focuses on the flow and circulation of life energy or Qi and maximizes your potential as a living being in healing yourself from various mental and physical problems, while providing a promising path for each individual to explore the infinite potential of oneself and humanity.

Dr. Zhenbao Jin have translated 5 books from German into Chinese: Einfuehrung ins Recht (Introduction of Law, by Prof. Reinhold Zippelius, Chinese version 2007), Juristische Methodenlehre (Methodology of Law, by Prof. Reinhold Zippelius, Chinese version 2009), Rechtsphilosophie (Philosophy of Law, by Prof. Reinhold Zippelius, Chinese version 2011), Was ist Anthroposophie (What is Anthroposophy, by Heinz Zimmermann, Chinese version 2015) and Wo Stehe Ich und Wo Geht’s Jetzt Hin (Where am I now and Where am I Going: Biography Work in the Light of Anthroposophy, by Dr. Med. Susanne Hofmeister, Chinese version 2018), all of which have been published in China. His work on meditation——The Power of Quietness: the Philosophy, Methodology and Practice of Meditation is going to be published in China in 2025.

The Rev. Dr. Thandeka, PhD, is one of America’s leading theologians and a student of one of the fathers of process studies John B. Cobb, Jr. Thandeka is the creator of the Love Beyond Belief™ initiative for moderate, liberal, and progressive congregations and the founder of Contemporary Affect Theology, which studies how traumatized emotions get transformed into life-affirming feelings of interconnection revealing something universal: humans are inextricably interconnected with all of life and have an innate capacity to experience our interconnectedness––affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every person across partisan, political and religious divides. Thandeka’s insights and contemplative practices led her to create a meditation strategy and philosophy aligned with the affective philosophic of Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)—the father of modern theories of human understanding and the father of liberal theology. As a result, Thandeka freed herself from the trauma of her early childhood experiences. She creates Universal Connections groups so others can gain access to a liberation practice of freedom.

Thandeka is author of:

 The Embodied Self: Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Solution to Kant’s Problem of the Empirical Self (1995),

Learning to be White: Money, Race and God in America (1999, German edition 2009),

and Love Beyond Belief: Finding the Access Point to Spiritual Awareness (2018).

Her essays include work in The Oxford University Handbook on Feminist Theology and Globalization (2011), and The Cambridge Companion to Schleiermacher (2005).

Her books and essays have helped secure her place as a “major figure in American liberal theology”，as Gary Dorrien notes in The Making of American Liberal Theology: Crisis, Irony, and Postmodernity, 1950-2005  (John Knox Press, 2006).