Chinese Korean & Japanese aesthetic cultural practices at the altar
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From the Lion's Roar article entitled "How to Drink a Mindful Cup of Tea" by Joseph Emet, dated July 22, 2021:
If you have ever watched one of Thich Nhat Hanh’s talks, you have probably witnessed elements of tea meditation. Halfway through a talk, Thich Nhat Hanh will pause and pour himself a cup of tea. Then, as several hundred listeners watch his every move, he will slowly raise the cup to his lips and enjoy a few unhurried sips. He sometimes holds the cup with both hands as if to illustrate that his whole attention is on it.
Thich Nhat Hanh truly takes a break when he drinks his tea. He is not using the time to prepare his next topic. Paradoxically, taking a true break is more effective than using the time to think of your next move. As you disengage even momentarily from your surface mind, you access deeper layers of your self to include in your discourse or journey. That allows you to talk, move, and act more authentically as a whole person.
The rest of the article provides some guidance about tea meditation or tea mindfulness by famous Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, who is also founder of the Plum Village Tradition.
And also the excerpt "Pouring Tea" by Thich Nhat Hanh himself in Lion's Roar would be interesting. This was excerpted from the broader article "The Miracle of Everyday Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh also in Lion's Roar.
From "Pouring Tea" by Thich Nhat Hanh:
When I pour tea, I like to pour the tea mindfully. When I pour the tea mindfully, my mind isn’t in the past or the future, or with my projects. My mind is focused on pouring the tea. I’m fully concentrated on the act of pouring tea. Pouring tea becomes the only object of my mindfulness and concentration. This is a pleasure and it also can bring many insights. I can see that in the tea there is a cloud. Yesterday it was a cloud, but today it is my tea. Insight is not something very far away. With mindfulness and concentration you can begin to develop the insight that can liberate you and bring you happiness.
There are more tea quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh in this blog entry (by Justine Warne):
Tea is an act complete in its simplicity.
When I drink tea, there is only me and the tea.
The rest of the world dissolves.
There are no worries about the future.
No dwelling on past mistakes.
Tea is simple: loose leaf tea, hot pure water, a cup.
I inhale the scent, tiny delicate pieces of the tea floating above the cup.
I drink the tea, the essence of the leaves becoming a part of me.
I am informed by the tea, changed.
This is the act of life, in one pure moment, and in this act the truth of the world suddenly becomes revealed: all the complexity, pain, drama of life is a pretense, invented in our minds for no good purpose.
There is only the tea, and me, converging.
If we’re not mindful, it’s not tea that we’re drinking but our own illusions and afflictions.
If the tea becomes real, we become real.
When we are able to truly meet the tea, at that very moment we are truly alive.
Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.
Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.
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