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On Saturday, April 13th we will hold a small workshop on tea and meditation. You are all invited...to Bordeaux! At the Zen Dojo in Bordeaux. We know you might already be saying "why don't you do it here in Bari", to make up for it we have written this text which is a bit of what we will talk about and experience in France.
Qi "literally means breath", it refers to energy, flow, movement. Qi is the movement of all things. It is also the subtle energy present in our body. Tea has its own Qi, like all things have one. When we drink a cup of good tea we are incorporating its Qi, which merges with that of our body. But it is not easy to feel the action of this Qi on our subtle body. We must be receptive, drink good quality tea and drink at least 2-3 cups, which are also the ones recommended by science to have the beneficial properties that everyone talks about. A tea bag or poor quality tea hardly possesses Qi. Certainly, we can help develop this sensitivity through training. Tea can become our meditation.
To do this, we must equip ourselves with a commodity that is rare, precious, and expensive today. Time.
We must take at least an hour to prepare ourselves, calm down, and then prepare our tea, savor it, feel it, infuse it again, letting its liquid permeate us and its Qi merge with ours, dissolving where there are blocks. There are some tips to do this:
The tools and space are important because over time they will help us to sanctify the process, the time, and the place where we prepare and enjoy our tea. Therefore, put love and attention into where you prepare tea and with what.
Everything revolves around simplicity, just as the Chinese characters for the word "Zen" mean manifesting simplicity.
Zen and tea are 2 closely connected worlds. Both internally and externally. That is, both in their essence, and in their history.
Historically, the arrival of tea in Japan is attributed to the first Chinese monks who were tasked with bringing the discipline of Buddha to the Land of the Rising Sun. We are around the 10th century. As contacts between Buddhism took root in Japan, more and more monks were captivated by this discipline and went to study it in China. Here they came into contact with tea and were enchanted by it, thus beginning to bring back both the seeds and the leaves to Japan, slowly contributing to the spread of the beverage.
One of the monks who contributed most to its spread was Eisai (but he would need a separate article).
Many words could be spent, with historical references, bibliographies, etc. but just as Zen masters respond with paradoxes, koans, and cryptic phrases when asked to speak about Zen, the same goes for tea. The best thing is to sit down and practice, drink a cup with the right attention and awareness. Drinking tea is also and above all an experience, just as Zen is a state of mind.
The simplicity of a cup of tea can help us enter a more Zen state, to escape from the rationality of everyday life and focus on greater presence.
One of the most common pathologies today is that of filling every gap of time with something, some activity, this is made possible and encouraged by smartphones, apps and games available to everyone, from early years to old age. It becomes increasingly difficult to do nothing, almost impossible, with all the stimuli to which we are subjected. The practice of tea, its preparation and simply drinking it, can be an antidote to all of this. If doing nothing, staying still and sitting with a blank mind is very difficult, doing it with a cup of tea that we have prepared is a little easier. It can help us to disconnect from our phone, from social media, from the news and take us to a more "personal" world, a little more intimate and less sterile. Moving away from distractions, from our goals, from judgment, including from the method we used to prepare this tea. We dive into our cup of tea and its preparation, to rest a little and let some time slip away.
In our courses where we talk about tea, history and culture, how to prepare a cup of tea, we never overlook the part of action and presence. Preparing tea should not be an activity in which we have to become expert teamasters. Of course, we need to know some principles to respect the leaves and extract an excellent liquid for us and our guests. But it should not become an obsession. As in all communities, even in the tea community, there is the constant danger of extremist drift!
But all these words continue to distance us from the true experience, from the true state of Zen. Let's prepare a cup of tea and immerse ourselves in this practice of presence, trying to simply live the experience, without too many thoughts, goals. A practice that serves no purpose! Only to have a beautiful and good practice!
