Dao of Flow Podcast

"I definitely felt like tea is a meditation practice that can really help us. A lot of meditation can be difficult because when you first started you get so distracted by your thoughts it can be really challenging, but if you suddenly have the water & the leaf this moment, there you are, you kinda have a 'distraction to your distraction'. It’s almost like a koan, you know." ~ Jade

In this 9th episode of the Eco Flow Podcast, Sherab Jin interviews Jade an author, entrepreneur and tea teacher about her journey of tea exploration across Asia, tea meditation, and her relationship with tea.

Jade's bio:
Jade is a certified Meditation Instructor, Health Coach, and Tea Practitioner. She is the author of Tea, Remembering the Essence of Life A book that illuminates tea from both a traditional and creative perspective. The idea of this book was to explore the essence of the 5 elements (Water, Wood/Wind, Fire, Earth, Metal) and adapt it to the practice of tea meditation. Jade is also the founder of the project WAOTEA, an online tea store, and community, offering consciously-sourced tea, teaware, and accessories, a variety of tea offerings, and experiences. She teaches the practice and ritual of tea privately through her course “way of tea”, offers ceremonial tea meditation in events and retreats. Wao'' stands for “We are one”. The intention behind her project is to encourage conscious community circles, self-healing rituals, sustainable living, and environmental healing. Her practice is about creating space to celebrate life, to honor presence, community, and Nature. “
Jade's website: https://waotea.com/

"If you can't bring educational resources to the rural kids physically there's got to be some other way, and that's when education technology (Ed Tech) comes in because if you can get it to them virtually and have a local teacher trained to implement it, then there's a chance that it can be effective." ~ Cody Abbey

I believe this is an extremely important conversation with Cody Abbey from the Rural Education Action Program (REAP) on the #EcoFlowPodcast. In this first half of the interview, Cody and I discussed his work in REAP and why Ed Tech is important in rural China's education as well as for the rest of the world. Stay tuned for the second half of the interview in which we discuss whether the current Ed Tech is narrowing or widening the gap between the rich and the poor, what's he's learned from REAP so far as well as his advice for parents during this pandemic lockdown. The video interview can be found on my Youtube Channel (Eco Flow with Sherab Jin).

Cody's Biography:
Cody Abbey is a project manager at the Rural Education Action Program, which is a collaborative research organization by Stanford University that aims to narrow the urban-rural gap in China by identifying and solving rural China’s education and health problems. Before REAP he was part of the inaugural class of the Yenching Academy at Peking University and completed his bachelor’s degree in public policy at Princeton University. With a long-held interest in education equity, he previously earned a teaching license in Mandarin Chinese and took part in a Princeton Asia fellowship.

"These days, I only practice something intensely for a maximum of 15 minutes, and then switch to something else, because I want to be fully focused." "When you practice really hard, the way will reveal itself to you." ~ Alexis Charrier

I have the honor of bringing my Shaolin brother Alexis Charrier on to the #EcoFlowPodcast, in which we reminisced about the past and discussed about our martial arts training routine, how he started learning Shaolin/Saolim kungfu & became a musician as well as his relationship with mentors like Master Ming Thong and his grandpa. I've also included a short singing performance by Alexis from 23:13 - 27:01
Song title: "Ordinary". The full podcast video interview can be watched on my YouTube channel.

Ps: We used #Shaolin & #Saolim interchangeable. " Sao Lim" is the southern min dialect pronunciation for Shaolin (standard Chinese mandarin)

Alexis Charrier's Full Bio:
Alexis is a French-Canadian Musician who has been training and teaching Shaolin martial arts in Canada and France for the past two decades since his days as a music student at McGill University. He first studied under Sifu Ong Ming Thong, a master of Shaolin, Taichi, Xingyi, and Baguazhang in Canada and later frequented Penang to learn from our common grandmaster late Sifu Png Chye Kim from Penang Sao Lim Athletic Association. Alexis has mastered all fundamentals of Saolim, including iron fist, iron shirt, and various forms of internal and external forms of martial arts. He is also a certified Acupuncturist from the College of Chinese Medicine London under Dr. Don Stevens and currently practices in his cooperative clinic Assistance Clinicale Thérapeutique (ACT16). Besides that, he actually works mainly as an international musician, touring the World and played with artists such as Corneille, Thandi Klaasen, El Hadji, and Karim Diouf, Martine St Clair, Thierry Arpino and has also composed music for Universal Pictures and Dreamworks video games such as Shrek 4 and Iron Man 2. Alexis loves to harness the power of music and art creation with a broad audience of fellow music lovers and passionate musicians alike.

“What I’ve seen though is that a lot of rural kids are are actually quite satisfied with the way they experience life.” ~ Cody Abbey

This is the second part of my interview with Cody, on lessons we can learn from rural education work in China. We touched on China’s effort during this pandemic lockdown, the “two teacher system” and what it means, the question on whether Education technology is narrowing or expanding the urban-rural education gap, spiritual and material civilization and finally, advice for parents during this pandemic lockdown. If you missed the first part of the interview, check it out here on my Youtube Channel (Eco Flow with Sherab Jin).

Cody's Biography: Cody Abbey is a project manager at the Rural Education Action Program, which is a collaborative research organization by Stanford University that aims to narrow the urban-rural gap in China by identifying and solving rural China’s education and health problems. Before REAP he was part of the inaugural class of the Yenching Academy at Peking University and completed his bachelor’s degree in public policy at Princeton University. With a long-held interest in education equity, he previously earned a teaching license in Mandarin Chinese and took part in a Princeton Asia fellowship.

"People say that prostitution is the oldest profession in the world, without realizing the fact that "pimping", or pimps who were living off the living of prostitutes are the oldest profession as well" - Aika Sato

During this pandemic lockdown, I got a chance to catch up with one of my best friends in university, Aika Sato in this random conversation. We touched on a few fun interesting facts about Aika and delved into her current research paper about comfort women. Aika is currently a Yenching Scholar in Peking University and an aspiring academia.