A YOGI'S WAY

ARTICLE: March 2008

"Tea As Practice"

Taking tea, and being with tea and people, has been a practice in the culture of humanity for much of recorded history.  My personal love of tea has been a great way to transition from the often introspective practices of seated meditation and yoga asana to a more social mindful life.  However, not until more recently has the art of tea revealed itself as a true method and expression of residing in sustained satsang, or community of truth - with other people, but also with nature, art, and beauty of all kinds.

Why is this?  In any experience there is an opportunity for appreciation.  I've heard it said, "Where the subject meets the object, be the most mindful."  For myself, this is exactly what the act of taking tea offers; it offers the opportunity to awaken not only to the experience of enjoyment, but to also awaken to the experience of the experience itself.  When an experience is subtle like taking tea can be, then it teases the taster to raise their level of not only knowing, but also asks of them to look at how they come to know what they do in fact know; and how do they know what they know?  How do you know what you know about all of your experiences?  What is the measure that you actually do know what you know?  In the subtle, we are all faced with the opportunity to mature our humility, our relationship to uncertainty, our love of mystery, and the joy of discovery.

My own 'tea practice' began as a very informal daily ritual of drinking tea.  Part of me intuitively knew that tea meant more to me than taste, warmth, and routine, but I was also more than happy to engage with tea in this way.  Only until recently has my relationship with tea taken a turn towards more directed practice - my first 'steps' towards directed practice were to begin relating to tea in a refined tasters way, similar to how one may approach wine, cheese, and the like.

Tea as meditation has recently unfolded for me as I've begun to study chado or chanyou, the art of making tea from Japan's, or Zen Buddhism's, perspective.  There are four major schools of this Japanese tea ceremony - I am studying omotesenke, which I've heard roughly translates as 'front of the house'; from what I've gathered, the other schools refer to other parts of the house as well.  The practice is detailed, beautiful, and specific, yet freeing in the way of the Tibetan saying, "Outer discipline, inner spaciousness."  I've just begun this practice, but I've already begun to have 'rumblings' of its far reaching applications, both inwardly and outwardly.

I've also begun to engage in the practice of Gongfu Cha, or the Chinese art of making tea.  This ceremony is more about the art of tasting and socialization than the beauty and refinement of the Japanese ceremony.  Chinese tea is also very much grounded in 'origin', the natural setting and cultivation of the tea bush itself.  This fact is very much reflected in the way Gongfu Tea is offered and conducted.

Of course anything can be a part of your personal practice, and truly all that it takes to make this so is to focus long enough to deepen.  Long ago I attend a gathering on Sufism, or mystical Islam.  At this time in my 'practice life' I was doing a lot of sampling of various paths of practice.  I arrived at the gathering quite early and there was one other person there, an old man of about seventy.  I told him of my 'sampling method' and he said, "If you want to dig a well to get water you don't dig several two-foot deep holes, but rather you need to dig one really deep one."  I took this to heart and I left before the gathering even began, as I had decided that yoga and seated meditation had already become my focus.

Focusing is so very important, but it does not imply 'closing off' to new experiences in any way.  This in itself is a practice, as often when we find what works for us, our mind makes a leap that we are unconscious of - 'if this works, then everything else must not work'.  To find what works for us - in that it helps us live in ease and freedom - is a gift of unmeasurable beauty; and I look forward to how taking tea can support and serve my established practices of yoga and meditation in a way that allows me to reside in a life consciously lived.  Live well.