Message

Town Grožnjan is already an Eden.
It is a place disconnected from the noise of the world?a place that feels truly safe.
Our own children have grown up here, in this old town. You can let them wander even after midnight.
There are no school exams to weigh them down.
They are free to be whatever they were meant to be.
There’s one special rule in this workshop: you can bring your children.
Since 2013, we have continued this tradition. It’s been twelve years already, though we missed one due to COVID-19.
The original workshop began in 1989, and we’re honored to be part of that long legacy.
As I mentioned, our children have grown up here every summer?and some professors have done the same.
Grožnjan is no longer just a summer retreat. It has become our second home.
I hope that some of you will return in ten years’ time, as professors, bringing your own children with you.
This year, Boris brought his newborn baby. I asked him, “Which university do you think your daughter will go to?”
Time flies. You’ll know what I mean soon enough.
This year, I want you to create a door to Eden.
No need to open the Bible?
The concept of Eden has existed long before Christianity.
It predates even Ancient Egypt.
It has gone by many names, but the longing has always been the same.
You are meeting students from many different countries.
Before COVID-19, we had participants from France, Austria, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, China, and Japan.
This reminds us that Grožnjan?as an Eden?is open to the world.
This Eden is Śūnya.
It is not about enclosure. It is a ring that connects the world.
There are no borders. The walls do not divide?they extend outward to continuity.
Fuji Kindergarten is also an Eden.
Children are protected, but not enclosed.
The space belongs to them, yet its shape does not symbolize containment.
A Chinese monk once visited and said,
“This building must have been designed by someone deeply versed in Feng Shui.”
He believed that every element and every opening corresponded perfectly to Feng Shui.
In fact, at the time, we knew very little about it.
What he sensed was Śūnya.
Śūnya is a Sanskrit word?one of the oldest Indian languages.
It means zero, and the meaning spans both philosophy and mathematics.
It gave birth to the concept of zero, opening new frontiers in human thought.
In Japanese, Śūnya is known as Ensō.
Ensō means void. There is nothing at the center?
and because of that, there is no center at all.
Everyone standing on the circle is equally different.
This is the idea of “Infinite diversity in infinite combinations.”
It’s a phrase used in Star Trek?representing the philosophy of the Vulcans?
and has nothing to do with the nearby Istrian peninsula of Grožnjan.
But here too, that spirit lives.

https://gssa.com.hr/this-year-2025