Deep Appreciations from Meijun and Zhihe

 

Dear Friends,

Many thanks must go to you for taking your precious time to participate in yesterday’s special event, “International Summit Forum on Ecological Civilization and the Second Enlightenment & Celebrating Dr. Cobb 96 Birthday.”

It was really a great event. More than 180 Chinese and non-Chinese process scholars and friends participated in this event via zoom and more than 10700 participants watched this Forum via the live video streaming arranged by our new Chinese partner, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.

The oldest participant of course is Dr. Cobb of 96, but the three youngest ones are 4 years old Miaomiao, 5 years old Amy, and 7 years old Molly. Plz see the photos attached here.

It was really an international conference. Speakers were not only from the US and China, but from Italy, Russa, Korea and Hungary. A special thank you must go to Dr. Attila Grandpierre, Dr. Dariya Zikovich, Dr. Edoardo Monaco, and Dr. Han Yunjeong for their wonderful speeches.

It was also a trans-disciplinary conference in the real sense. Centering around “Ecological Civilization and Second Enlightenment”,speakers contributed their insights from different fields such as Second Enlightenment and ecological civilization, Second Enlightenment and organic agriculture, Second Enlightenment and global knowledge, Second Enlightenment and ecological community, Second Enlightenment and eco-posthuman, Second Enlightenment and comprehensive worldview, Second Enlightenment and organic education, Second Enlightenment and education reform, Second Enlightenment and organic linguistics, Second Enlightenment and rural community flourishing, and Ecological Civilization from the perspective of Constructive postmodernism, etc.

We feel very grateful to Carol Long, Provost and Senior Vice President at Willamette University, Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, Philip Clayton, President of Institute for the Postmodern Development of China(IPDC), John Fahey,President of the Cobb Institute, Luo Yi, Founder of Laotu and China’s Greta Thunberg, Wm. Andrew Schwartz, executive, Director of the Center for Process Studies (CPS), and Liu Xiaoting, a representative of Chinese scholars, Philosophy Professor of Beijing Normal University for delivering remarks at the opening ceremony on behalf of the cosponsors.

Honoring Dr. Cobb is the cause and one of the themes of the event. He is the man who rekindled the inner light of many people’s souls as John Fahey pointed out. He not only “rekindled” John Fahey and many Americans, but also enlightened many Chinese. Like Korean people who call him “Saint”, Chinese people call him “eco-sage”. Besides both “Cobb Working Station on Ecological Civilization in Liandu” and Cobb Working Station on Ecological Civilization in Pu’er sent their very warm congratulations, female students of Harbin Normal University and Bai Ethnic Ms.Rong Hu and her two daughters expressed their love for Dr. Cobb thru music, songs and dance. Also, two Chinese young female scholars showed their respect to Dr.Cobb by donating 5666 (RMB), they called it “red envelope” for his birthday.

According to Chinese lunar calendar, this coming New Year is the year of ox; Dr. Cobb’s zodiac is ox because he is 12×8=96. This is the reason why Chinese participants said that this coming New Year is Dr. Cobb’s year.

In Chinese, ox’s pronunciation is Niu, and another character,扭, also pronounces Niu. Therefore, in Chinese, 扭转乾坤 (means turn the universe around)，now becomes  “牛转乾坤”，it means it will turn the universe around by ox. This is power from ox. Dr. Cobb is such a person who has the power to turn things around from the old civilization to a new one.

Let’s embrace this new year which can turn things around and wish all of you and your family a very happy Chinese New Year of ox!

 

P.S. plz click on the link below which is the new year voice greeting by Dr. Cobb, Mei, Susan Jain, Daria, Kevin and Jay from The 4th Global Chinese Voice Spring Festival Gala Program:

You can begin from 2nd mins since the first two mins is the voice by the host in Chinese and plz don’t miss the lovely song in Chinese by Jay in the last part.

 

Your sincerely,

Meijun and Zhihe