January – April 2026
By Rutger Tamminga
In the past three months Gurukul Taiwan has had non-stop activities.
Welcoming the New Year
Every year we welcome the new year with a parents and kids activity in Ananda Dhara. Families share some dishes for lunch and we enjoy a day in nature with kids yoga, storytelling and craft activities. Forty people attended, and we had a very joyful day with beautiful weather.
This day was also special because we had our first weekly activities for blind children, and some children with physical challenges. Especially for this purpose we had built a toilet convenient for wheelchair use. They have been growing veggies beyond expectations! We hope the children and their families can find more joy and love through nature’s environment!
Also, on the occasion of the New Year we had a camping program with adults, discussing Vision 2050, what we want to realize in the coming 25 years.
Old People Yoga Teacher Training
Taiwan is an officially aging society. The health of elderly people is a real concern. In cooperation with an association promoting yoga for the elderly, we hosted a four weekends yoga teacher training in the Juei-Ai yoga center. The training included nutrition, Chinese medicine and yoga psychology.
Winter Vacation Children’s Camp
During the holidays before Chinese New Year we organized our annual winter camp for children. Every year we choose a new subject. As the children range in ages, that is sometimes not so easy. This time I had prepared many ‘Pourquoi’ tales and asked the children to analyze the emotional aspects of the stories and write the emotions on their ‘emotional thermometer.’ Subsequently they told their own ‘pourquoi’ stories. Mohamukta conducted a singing bowl meditation for the children, something they enjoyed deeply.
Mela
Every few months we have a mela, with up to forty different groups or individuals setting up their stands promoting microvita soap, clothing, art, music, massage and other new age concepts. The program is always well attended with many people supporting these ‘dreamers.’
Kids Yoga Teacher Training – Taoyuan
A Kids Yoga teacher training workshop was held in Taoyuan, with twelve attendees. To learn to playfully use Yoga concepts is a real art, but also joyful. We are glad that kids yoga is now being practiced more commonly all over Taiwan in kindergartens and elementary schools. Yoga for teenagers is something that requires more effort from our side as the emotional needs of this age group are serious.
Three-day Baby’s World Workshop –
Harbing, Xiamen and Changzhou
In China, we had three workshops this period, one in Harbin, another in Xiamen and a third in Changzhou. These workshops are always well-attended with a minimum of two hundred people. They use Baby’s World books, a series written by me, which includes kids yoga, quiet time exercises and Neohumanist songs. I am very thankful to the owners of the publishing company for promoting these concepts in China. Currently the books are being used in over 700 schools in all parts of China.
Fasting Camps
Every two months we have a fasting camp in different places. I would like to share with you from the one held in April. People come for different reasons to fasting camps, but usually there is something in their lives that is not moving smoothly and they would like to have a ‘reset’ – a new beginning, or a slight shift in their lives. For the past ten years we have been very fortunate to hold activities in Ananda Jyoti, Shimen, in the northern part of Taiwan. Ananda Jyoti has eighteen hectares of forest land with armadillos, mountain deer, monkeys, skunk-like mammals, mountain pigs, blue jays and so many other beautiful creatures. The environment is simple, but brings us back to basics. To distract our participants from the feeling of fasting we walk in the river, climb the mountains nearby and of course do regular kiirtan, meditation and yoga. It is a real blessing to live in this dreamlike world with the heart naturally drawn towards the purest self.
In Other News
During these few months a lot happened – many outstanding achievements for the Neohumanist movement which I am glad I can be part of: the training at Zonnelicht in Den Bosch, organized by the Lotus center, an online storytelling training with the NHCA with attendees from all over the world, and AMAYE’s yoga psychology discussion. The Neohumanist vision is powerful and inspiring more and more people!