TaoShan is a network initiated by Snježana Zorić
TaoShan was a dream, in which the place revealed itself to me. From then on, I knew intuitively that the place existed somewhere, and it became reality when I found it in Sveti Križ, Croatia.
First I created the “Orchard of Longevity” and decorated it with heavy stone lanterns. Then followed the “Garden of Buddha”, which symbolizes the first seven steps Buddha took immediately after birth.
As there are “many ways to perform the Way”, there is no intention of being consistent in style or coherent in structure when shaping the space of TaoShan. Each inspired moment and each inspired person can contribute to the creation of the space differently.
Similarly, the “House of Bliss” also came into being following its very own inner rules. It was meant as a retreat and a place of silence, but also as a place of anything but silent encounters in pleasant atmosphere that would bring joy to the visitors through various forms of artistic and musical performances or meditating activities.
The House and the Garden mirror a set of attitudes towards life that refuse inflexible and awkward intellectual ‘seriousness’. In other words:
If you want knowledge, read books. If you want wisdom, listen to life.
It is not worldviews or lifeworlds that we wish to share, but to experience life moments in the spirit of togetherness felt as a belonging, not as an attachment.
TaoShan cultivates the Zen Way of Tea, and the Way of Tea has no gate, as we learn from the motto of the Panyaro Institute in Seoul, a place that promotes and studies green tea. And further:
“The Great Way has no Gate. A thousand roads enter it. When one passes through the Gateless Gate, he freely walks between heaven and earth.”
What is the Tao?
Nan-chu’an answered: ‘Your everyday mind is Tao.’
In TaoShan, we are interested in all kinds of journeys, from life’s journey through art, performance, music and dance to ‘travelling in love’ around the world.
We want to explore how journeys through our mind, senses and heart, beyond our limits and within the frames of “non-moving”, shape our being-in-the-world.
We don’t intend to be precise and complete but to cultivate Emptiness and Suchness in a way that everything is left unfinished.
TaoShan consists of a small orchard we like to call “Orchard of Immortality” and a retreat tea room named “House of Bliss”.
Sharing experiences in acting and performing and avoiding any kind of intellectualization is our main practice.
“We find pleasures not in writing about all those “ways which are merely performing the Way” but in living within them, creating from them deep encounters from “face to face” and “soul to soul”, and creating marvellous images of unrepeatable moments.” - founder, Snježana Zorić
Retreat tea room named “House of Bliss”
