Background and History
Overview
The project was officially announced at the November 2019 Retreat in Rotorua, with the support (& excitement) of Yuan Tze & Melissa. The project was announced there by Catherine Alker, Natalie Meijer, & Trina King. Leslie Van Gelder was introduced to help facilitate within her role as strategic advisor to the Ren Xue organisation. The news was shared that a large anonymous donation had been offered to start the project.
A visioning session was held & Leslie took the role of "Dream-catcher" to receive emails with the visions & ideas of the community. Eighteen people from the Ren Xue community shared their vision with her – some were about the location, others about what things they hoped to find there, and others filled with questions about the practicalities of how the centre might function and what role they personally might play. When the retreat centre team got together in January the foundation of themes that arose from all of the individual dreams, helped the Visioning team to think about the questions that they needed to ask, and understand how to move the project forward. A summary of the key themes shared with us is available via this link.
The project was officially announced at the November 2019 Retreat in Rotorua, with the support (& excitement) of Yuan Tze & Melissa. The project was announced there by Catherine Alker, Natalie Meijer, & Trina King. Leslie Van Gelder was introduced to help facilitate within her role as strategic advisor to the Ren Xue organisation. The news was shared that a large anonymous donation had been offered to start the project.
A visioning session was held & Leslie took the role of "Dream-catcher" to receive emails with the visions & ideas of the community. Eighteen people from the Ren Xue community shared their vision with her – some were about the location, others about what things they hoped to find there, and others filled with questions about the practicalities of how the centre might function and what role they personally might play. When the retreat centre team got together in January the foundation of themes that arose from all of the individual dreams, helped the Visioning team to think about the questions that they needed to ask, and understand how to move the project forward. A summary of the key themes shared with us is available via this link.
The Visioning team met in January 2020 in Golden Bay with the following goals: - to investigate Golden Bay as a potential site for the Centre; to discuss roles of the team and what other skills were needed, to identify the mission and goals of the project and plan next steps. These were the Guiding Questions we used:
Guiding Questions for January 2020 Dreaming
1. Is this retreat centre the Ren Xue retreat centre in New Zealand or one of potentially many retreat centers that may emerge over time (some being more nature-focused, others perhaps as urban centers) each having a different purpose and feel?
2. What are the criteria we would like to apply to potential locations so that we can feel confident in choosing a property that ticks the boxes (i.e. what are those ticky boxes?)
3. By what process will a location be chosen?
4. What would be the best financial structure for developing this project (a Trust? Under RXI? A separate entity altogether?)
5. What kind of governance system might we want to develop so that members of the community can be involved in an equitable way and be productive?
6. Also, thinking ahead to the ways in which multiple funders can be involved in the project in a way that allows for them to be deeply connected, but that the project doesn’t keep changing course to accommodate many visions (which often happens in these sort of things!)?
7. What are the short term and long term roles we envision needing for this project to succeed?
8. What roles might each of us want to take in this?
9. How do we want to think about the ways in which we ask other people into roles? (How do we find the expertise we need?)
10. How do we want to develop ways that members of the community can be of help and contribute to realizing the vision, but also insure that they are the right person for the job (and all of the complexities that often arise between volunteer and paid work…)?
11. What are some of the ways in which the center could be financially sustainable? (Each idea creates a trajectory so it’s really good for us to envision a few scenarios that could be explored)
12. What are the potential ‘elephants in the room’ or our own patterns that we need to be aware of and try to acknowledge and address all the way through our work together?
By the end of the meeting the hope was that we could emerge with a strong qifield that will serve as a foundation for the whole project, more clarity around roles, clear next steps, timelines, and potentially a mission statement, or at least a mission direction.
The meeting was guided by Yuan Tze’s Voyage to the Shore description and also the idea in that we need to think in a 100 year timescale for this project. A key belief of the team is that if we start with the vision of what will the retreat centre will be like in 2120 it will really help us to do all of this work in such a meaningful way for being a gift to the future.
1. Is this retreat centre the Ren Xue retreat centre in New Zealand or one of potentially many retreat centers that may emerge over time (some being more nature-focused, others perhaps as urban centers) each having a different purpose and feel?
2. What are the criteria we would like to apply to potential locations so that we can feel confident in choosing a property that ticks the boxes (i.e. what are those ticky boxes?)
3. By what process will a location be chosen?
4. What would be the best financial structure for developing this project (a Trust? Under RXI? A separate entity altogether?)
5. What kind of governance system might we want to develop so that members of the community can be involved in an equitable way and be productive?
6. Also, thinking ahead to the ways in which multiple funders can be involved in the project in a way that allows for them to be deeply connected, but that the project doesn’t keep changing course to accommodate many visions (which often happens in these sort of things!)?
7. What are the short term and long term roles we envision needing for this project to succeed?
8. What roles might each of us want to take in this?
9. How do we want to think about the ways in which we ask other people into roles? (How do we find the expertise we need?)
10. How do we want to develop ways that members of the community can be of help and contribute to realizing the vision, but also insure that they are the right person for the job (and all of the complexities that often arise between volunteer and paid work…)?
11. What are some of the ways in which the center could be financially sustainable? (Each idea creates a trajectory so it’s really good for us to envision a few scenarios that could be explored)
12. What are the potential ‘elephants in the room’ or our own patterns that we need to be aware of and try to acknowledge and address all the way through our work together?
By the end of the meeting the hope was that we could emerge with a strong qifield that will serve as a foundation for the whole project, more clarity around roles, clear next steps, timelines, and potentially a mission statement, or at least a mission direction.
The meeting was guided by Yuan Tze’s Voyage to the Shore description and also the idea in that we need to think in a 100 year timescale for this project. A key belief of the team is that if we start with the vision of what will the retreat centre will be like in 2120 it will really help us to do all of this work in such a meaningful way for being a gift to the future.
At this meeting we defined our role as the facilitators or ‘midwives’. We recorded as the Aoteoroa Retreat Center Midwives Mission:
- Stewardship of the Project
- Being a Driving Force Behind It
- Establishing the Core and Foundational Values
- Communications to Everyone
- Holding Space
- Creating Direction
- Aiding in the stewardship of the land
- Caring for relationships
- Inspiring passion and inspiration in others
- Creating openings for others to step into
- Providing/creating clarity
- Integrating the center with Yuan Tze and Melissa’s vision
- Holding and supporting Cat and James
- Unifying our hearts to continue the seed of harmony that we have planted together
- In following the mission, following the Dao
- Learning through the process so that it becomes nourishing to each of us in helping us to grow (and in that shifting the usual paradigms)
- Connecting to each other with our hearts
The Vision
This is taken from the vision expressed by Yuan Tze in Voyage to the shore Book 3. We used this vision to guide our steps.
This is taken from the vision expressed by Yuan Tze in Voyage to the shore Book 3. We used this vision to guide our steps.
- At the initial stage the centre will be a venue for holding events - programmes to cover all stages of life - childhood, pregnancy, old age and for specific purposes such as healing.
- A focus will be the training of professional teachers.
- Later stages will include Ren Xue in existing disciplines and a scientific research department combining medical care and Ren Xue medicine.
- This centre will be a prototype for living according to the laws of health and life and can become a societal model for the future - a 50- 100 year vision.
- The centre will be sustainable in all ways - financially and environmentally. The land will allow for food production and will have its own source of water and energy. Land of around 60 hectares would be most suitable - 20 hectares minimum. Land that has been developed for a centre or similar may be suitable.
- It will follow the principles of being simple, basic, healthy.
- The centre will be non-profit, charitable.
- The centre will be a base from which Ren Xue can reach out to everyone in Australasia (and the rest of the world until other centres are built) and a vehicle for Ren Xue to become an effective tool and realise it’s value.
- Once the centre is established, a Ren Xue community will be established.