Activities
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Candlelight Night
2008 Candlelight Night
Our Candlelight Night celebration will be held on December 6th 2008 at the San Francisco I-Kuan Tao temple staring at 5pm.
This year's theme is "Embrace the Change". We didn't intent to copy the newly president-elected Obama's campaign theme, but we did want to deliver the teaching from Lau Tze about "changing" and how we can deal with "change" as a Tao cultivator. Yes, this is a spiritual gathering, but it won't be "boring". We are working very hard to make sure it is a night for loving, caring, laughing and inspiring!
PS: For your convenience, we have also reserved the parking lot from St. Anne Church located at 14th AVE @Judah Street. It is within five minutes walking distance to the Tao temple.
For RSVP, please contact Jin Chen at 415-338-0196 (direct line).
2007 Candlelight Night
We held our annual Candlelight night on December 9 at the San Francisco I-Kuan Tao temple. It was an evening where English speaking Tao members came together to reflect on our spiritual lives and enjoy a spiritual bond with each other. It was an event where our cumulative daily reflections during the past year could be shared with others for making all involved to be even stronger in the Tao. In the weeks leading up to this night, the temple masters and leaders slowly weaved and organized our group together with ceaseless spiritual strength and devotion so that we may unite in great holy harmony for the occasion. It was with recognition of this that the holy spirits descended upon us that evening and blessed all our activities. Through the grace of God, we were allowed to come together and honor the Tao and at the same time, honor ourselves through the Tao.
At the start, we signed in and introduced ourselves to new and past Tao members. As we converse with each other while others were arriving, we feasted on tasty little snacks. Our friendly conversations stirred delightful spiritual memories of the past and provided openings for future Tao fellowship.
We then moved to the grand temple to perform the ceremony of the daily ritual. To the delight of some Tao members, it was done in English and this resulted in their better understanding of the sacred procedures. As always, the daily ritual brings each Tao member closer to God through the devoted practice of bowing for worship and spiritual purification. Each performance of the daily ritual ever so slowly heightens out our innate sense of desiring to be always with God.
After performance of the daily ritual, a small little glass bowl with a lighted candle in it was provided to each of us. We carried this little candle from the grand temple to the main dining room in a procession of one follow another. This candle was symbolic in representing each of us. All the candle flames represented our unity as true spiritual brothers and sisters coming together. As we gathered standing as a large circle, each of our candles burned ever so brightly. Through the dancing candle flames, we perceived our spiritual lives unfolding beautifully before us. During these meditative moments, a Tao member sung a joyful song while playing the guitar. Thereafter, we sat down at the dinner tables and listened to the keynote speech.
The theme for this Candlelight event was “The Wisdom of Water”. The scriptures of Lao Tzu states “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water. Yet, nothing can resist it.” The essence of water is that nothing can hurt it. We have this same essence of water once we are connected with the holy divine. Before continuing on this theme, we took time to enjoy eating the deliciously prepared buffet style meal. Each food dish was presented very artistically and our tasting confirmed what we saw as most delightful and pleasing.
Dinnertime allowed some more opportunities for us to meet and know new Tao members and renew spiritual friendships with others. After dinner, we watched a special powerful picture video created by a Tao member. This video presented a majestic showing of water images demonstrating the extraordinary powers of water. After viewing this video, we then discussed water and its symbolic relationships to the Tao. Many perceptive comments were made and some of them are presented as follows:
• Water is the Tao because it is changeable.
• Water flows to the lowest point because it follows its nature.
• Water is changeable in form like from snow to steam but always has the same nature.
• Water represents a person flowing to the origin of God.
• Water is quiet just like our nature to be humble.
• Water does not conflict and cause blame.
• Water is constantly changing and shaping our lives and the world.
• Water removes dirt and purifies our lives.
• Water is soft like a raindrop and hard like an ice hammer.
The highlights of our exchanges of thoughts were the audience presentations of their respective dinner table discussions. Short summaries of their presentations are shown below.
• Water provides many benefits to us. We should be like water providing benefits and services to society.
• Water is constantly in process and change. This reminds us that we should strive to be in a continuous process of change for the better.
• Water is clear, gentle, soft, calm, and willing to compromise. It becomes a good example of what we can be when residing in the Tao.
• Water reflections connect us to visualizations of our true selves. Personal reflections allow for the continued practice of kindness, compassion, and gentleness toward others.
• Water is resilient and we can be just as flexible when dealing with others in complex and difficult situations. We are not to avoid conflicts but to deal with them in an easy flowing manner like water going around a hard rock in a middle of a stream.
• Water is soft but also has enormous power. To be in the Tao is to be soft on the outside but spiritually powerful within yourself.
Truly, when the Candlelight night was completed, we achieved a better understanding and became more aware of the Tao through the element of water. Lastly, a heart of devotion never goes unnoticed by God. An individual always receives what that same person gives. Even at that, we still want to wish a special thank you to all the organizers and helpers of this event.
Tao Te Ching Discussion
About the English discussion group on Lao-Tze's Tao Te Ching.
SCHEDULE:
DATE: Every Third Sunday of every Month
TIME: 10:00AM - 12:30PM PST
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA, USA (http://taoism.net/ikuantao/locations.htm)
AGENDA http://www.iktfoa.org/english/images/5/5b/Tao_Te_Ching_Adgenda.pdf
MATERIALS: [1] http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/taote-v3.html
I-Ching Study Group
About the English study group on I-Ching.
SCHEDULE:
DATE: Every First Sunday of every Month
TIME: 10:00AM - 12:30PM PST
LOCATION: San Francisco, CA, USA (http://taoism.net/ikuantao/locations.htm)
MATERIALS: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching
Tao Tea Time
An informal discussion about Taoism at the home of our members.
This is : An Example Discussion of a recent Tao Tea Time discussion.
References
To find out more information about Tao Te Ching, check out these links.
TrueTao.Org / Taoism.Net, a website innitiated by Derek Lin, the author of Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained.
