How ancient Daoist wisdom can help us live our best lives

Please join us for our next OCI Public Talk where we're delighted to welcome the leading expert in the field of American Daoism, Professor Elijah Siegler, who will deliver a talk on how ancient Daoist wisdom can help us live our best lives. 

Please register for the talk here on Eventbrite.  

Note: when you receive the Eventbrite confirmation email after you register, go down to the very bottom of the email to find the MS Team’s meeting link. Please do not click Go to My Ticket.

About the speaker: 

Elijah is Professor of Religious Studies at College of Charleston, a public university in South Carolina, USA, where he teaches classes on Religions of China and Japan, The Ancient Chinese Secret to Happiness, The Daoist Tradition, Asian Religions in America, New Religious Movements, and many others. He is the editor of Coen: Framing Religion in Amoral Order (Baylor University Press, 2016) and the author of New Religious Movements  (Prentice-Hall, 2006). He is the leading expert in the field of American Daoism, and has lectured and published widely on that field, including the award-winning book Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and Predicament of Modern Spirituality (University of Chicago Press, 2017, co-authored with David A. Palmer). His research on American Daoism has been cited in venues such as Andrew Henry’s YouTube series Religion for Breakfast and Stephen Prothero’s best-selling textbook Religion Matters.

About the talk:

Complied during the Warring States period (475-221 B.C.E.), the Daodejing (道德经）by Laozi and the Zhuangzi （庄子）by Zhuang Zhou are the two best-known scriptures of Daoism, perhaps the least understood of the major world religions. This talk, meant for the complete beginner, briefly introduces the historical and cultural context of these two texts. Then it suggests ways we may use these ancient classics in our own lives — as manuals of meditation and to personal conduct, as political and social commentaries, and as guides to living and dying. Feel free to bring your own copies of these texts!

We look forward to seeing you there!