Three lectures that grounded the soul, the heart and the body (1)

XinHai Revolution Lecture @ Xi Yao

The past two months had been eventful,
in term of my personal improvement journey.
I feel very blessed to be able to receive guidance and education from 3 prominent gurus,
and had my soul, my heart and my body grounded at 3 different occasions.

Here I would like to share my learning journey and
some important pointers I got from the gurus.

Lecture 1: The Revolution that grounded my soul

Early Sep, I was recommended by my friend Peck Yin
to attend an interesting lecture by a modern philosopher/educator,
Prof Huo Tao Hui (霍韜晦) from Hong Kong.

It's an event co-organised by Xi Yao Culture Association
and other Chinese culture academic institutions,
to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of XinHai Revolution.

Prof Huo delivered a solid 3 hours historic lecture in a very lively manner
and I listened enthusiastically to the modern history of China
with mixed sentiments towards the difficulties and sufferings my ancestors went through.

The lecturer was a very good "supplement" to what I missed out in high school
as it was exactly the post 1911 Chinese history that I missed out,
as I skipped my final year of high school (for good reasons).

All these years, (I know somehow weird) I felt "disconnected from my origin"
due to under-information of modern history of China,
until I got the last chapter of Chinese history "re-instated" at Prof Huo's lecture.
It was emotionally and intellectually critical to me.

It was a sad story to listen to, but I felt more "grounded"(settled)
after Prof Huo's lecture.
Especially, towards the end of the lecture,
Prof Huo delivered his philosophical interpretation of
the revolution event and the impact of such a revolution
on the past 100 years of modern China.

One very impressive remark that Prof Huo made was that
XinHai Revolution tho' technically was an event
that seemed successfully overthrowing
the ~2500 years of Imperial System of China,
the Revolution from macro point of view
could be seen either a "failure" or an uncompleted revolution.

The revolution terminated the age of Imperialism
but the very same revolution also failed to create
a Republic (initially intended for and which Sun Yat-sen strived to form)
-- please note that this is a neutral academic view, hope PRC readers do not take offence
According to Prof Huo,
one of the critical factors behind the incompleteness of the revolution
or the lacking element that drag this revolution for100 years
is the need of 'Min De'(民德) -- crudely translated as the moral excellence of the general public.

Prof Huo further illustrated the need to educate public
and uphold the strong moral values,
in order for a country to advance;
quoting vivid examples of the lack of virtue
leading to a lot of past sorrowful failures in modern Chinese history.

Touching lightly on the setback of over-worshipping capitalism in modern society,
he warned that the lack of moral education in nowadays materialistic world
will easily and constantly face huge predicament (hence chaos) when changes come upon.

I was very very touched by Prof Huo's deep insight
and his inner good will to wake us up to rebuild a world with integrity 
through his skillful delivery of the 3-hour lecture.

With gratitude,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


p/s: Xi Yao Culture Association founded Prof Huo is a platform by which he passes on his educational philosophies and intention to rebuild a moral world.
{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}