About Sarah Tulivu / Fong Yi
Sarah Tulivu hosts retreats and facilitates sessions of Sitting Meditation, Taiji/Taichi and Qigong.
Her Training
Sarah Tulivu, or Fong Yi, (ordained name), has trained in sitting meditation for the past 15 years, and Taiji, Qigong, Neigong for the past 13 years – within the tradition of Taiwanese Master, Waysun Liao.
During that time, about 6 years were spent in monastic training at a Tao Temple, with 6~ hours of practice per day.
Before the Tao Temple, she trained intensively in the Buddhist tradition for two years in Nepal, then India and Thailand.
In 2019, she was advised by Master Waysun Liao and Master Chang to leave the Tao Temple, telling her to learn to make the world her Temple, carry the practice into everyday life, and share it with those interested who cross her path.
While still in training herself, she is currently sharing in retreats and workshops around the world. Lately mainly between Tuscany, Ireland, Vienna, Lebanon, Turkey, and India.
If you’d like to join our Taiji WhatsApp group where live sessions happen, send your number to taijitaosessions(at)gmail.com and our admin will add you!
Photo Credits of photos 2&3: the Syrian kids of the camps in Akkar, check out their full exhibition here.
Work background
Sarah Tulivu has been volunteering over the years in countries like:
Tanzania (with street kids and nursery schools, 2007), Kenya (throughout the 2007-2008 conflict, with street kids), Zambia (with street kids), Kossovo (shortly after independence, in an enclave, 2008), in SWANA countries / Fertile Crescent Regions, aka Middle East (volunteering in conflict resolution and non-violent direct action, through 2008-2009), and bits and pieces in Georgia (after the Russo-Georgian War, in 2009), and Pakistan (working with women, in 2010).
With the many questions that came up through the experiences in these places, she slowly continued moving East by land, until Nepal, where she immersed herself in the practice of meditation. You can read more here.
Returning to volunteer again in North Lebanon, by the Northern border with Syria, during the Lebanese Revolution (2019-2020, and back in 2021 & 2024) setting up logistics for a group of doctors, helping out Mishwar with some hustle and bustle of Syrian refugee camps : ), and more.
And sharing the Taiji practice in 2022 in Lesvos, Greece, with refugees and volunteers.
Studies
Over the years, she has participated in various seminars and courses on non-violent action.
She recently began to specialise in self-care and burnout prevention for people working in conflict areas, through the Academy for Conflict Transformation (ForumZFD) and other places. And is continuing to explore ways of sharing mindfulness, movement, and embodied practice with people in areas of crisis.
Photo Credits of photos 2&3: the Syrian kids of the camps in Akkar, check out their full exhibition here.
What is Taiji (Taichi)?
Taiji, also spelled Taichi, is often translated as “the unlimited, absolute, boundless…” – without boundaries, without separation.
As many other ancient traditions and practices, the Taiji Tao path is a path of going back to the origin, returning to a natural state of wholeness.
Returning to a state of being of harmony, balance, and union of the yin and yang aspects, of the harmonious opposites, like the inner and the outer, I and the other, expansion and compression, up and down, beginning and end, full and empty, and so on…
The Taiji Practice
As we practice, through sitting, standing, moving, reclining, breathing, etc, our mind begins to become more still, spacious, and able to concentrate and be present, our body gradually begins to release it’s tensions, align and open; and our heart too… Over time bringing back our mind, body, energy, and spirit to synchronize and operate together more harmoniously as one.
In the process, we will inevitably gradually meet what stands in the way of that: like meeting our thinking mind’s current condition, how it behaves, relates, reacts, affects, is affected, etc. As well as the many different ways in which our body-mind-heart-energy closes off, clings and attach, resists, avoids and rejects…
So in the setting of practice, while returning the whole system back into a more unified harmonious condition, we gradually find out, intimately and in-depth, about our relationship with experience. And the arduous and wondrous path of investigation into the nature of Self begins to unfold.
What is Qigong?
The Qi (pronounced “chi”) of Qigong is different than the “ji” of Taiji. “Qi” of Qigong is generally translated as: the life force that is moving in all things.
“Gong” is translated as “skill”, “work”, or “deep refinement”.
Through the practice, we will encounter that life force within us, closely, through our own tangible direct experience. Learning how to cultivate and refine more subtle power, looking to reconnect in wholeness.
But the best way to explain is via experience in practice!
Video Interviews
More Interviews and whatnot
- Interview with Awakin (Service Space)
- Interview with Evolve Magazine – English transcript (If you speak German you can read the German version, and sign up to their beautiful platform here.)
- Alternative wedding vows for two Sangha friends – “A marriage to Love itself”
