artwork by Magda Cabrero
Monday, May 29, we will meet online.
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(support available before sangha starts)
This Monday evening, Magda will facilitate and we will meet online and you can join us by registering through the Zoom link above.
Magda will guide us in exploring the meditative qualities associated with drinking tea. You are invited to drink a cup of tea (or any other beverage of your choice) during sitting meditation and dharma sharing. We will also listen to a joyful dharma talk to children by Thich Nhat Hanh about the connection between mindfulness and the tea drinking experience.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DRINK A CUP OF TEA?
Drinking tea has become an early morning ritual for me. The first thing I do when I wake up, ideally at 4:00, is to make myself a cup of chai tea and slice an apple. I then proceed to my zen space to begin a series of mindful rituals which take me to my inner island of meditation.
While drinking tea feels so natural nowadays, it is far from the coffee drinking practice I grew up with in Puerto Rico. The first thing that my father did when he woke up, also at 4:00, was to brew a cup of café tinto (black coffee) for himself. A couple of hours later he made another cup of coffee for my mother when she woke up. I am the only person of Puerto Rican descent I know who drinks tea. Once while visiting a Puerto Rican bookstore, I ordered a cup of tea. I had to wait a long while until the server finally found one box of tea. When I returned the next day, he immediately greeted me: “You are the lady who drinks tea!”
The first time I heard the beautiful question “Would you like a cup of tea?” was about thirty years ago when I first visited the home of an American lady of British background who quickly became a dear friend. Even as my English fluency was still developing, we immediately entered into deep conversation. We would end up doing this almost every week for decades. Eventually, we also blended our ritual with my coffee-drinking tradition.
I believe that drinking tea creates interbeing between those who drink it together. Drinking tea has also helped another dear friend and me transcend national, cultural, religious and generational barriers, even the line between life and death. Every visit, we pour hot water from a hand-made Polish tea pot I gifted her and honor our adored ancestors: her Polish Jewish mother and my Venezuelan Catholic grandmother, both of whom passed the year we met.
MINDFUL TEA JOURNEYS
Some of my journeys have made me much more mindful about the meaning of tea. When I attended a retreat in Japan, my visit to a Tokyo tea room that was surrounded by a bonsai garden paradise was an invaluable aesthetic and meditative experience that will stay with me forever. I also learned that in Japan’s nature-reverent Shinto and Buddhist traditions, the green matcha tea symbol is a ubiquitous reminder of mindfulness in everyday life.
More recently, I participated in a tea ceremony in the land of my ancestors, in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees. This retreat was strongly influenced by the traditions of Plum Village, located not too far away, on the other side of the Pyrenees. My illustration depicts this ceremony, and below I offer a description of my mindfulness experience:
The sun is about to peek from behind the mist-drenched mountains. And the full moon has only just passed from view. In this peaceful twilight space, the hidden sun and moon come together to dimly illumine us. I feel immersed and absorbed by sensory effects, like the steam from boiling water that is glimpsed in a prism.
The lady who facilitates the ceremony invokes Thich Nhat Hanh's description: “When we drink a cup of tea, we drink a cloud.” Here these words feel more true than ever. Through the glass windows, the steam inside seems to intermingle with the clouds outside. Water, steam, mist and clouds are all one.
I sense the Earth elements: fire in the heating of the water, in the candles and incense; earth in the nest of the Pyrenees, the tea leaves and clay cups; air in the steam, the scents that fill the kitchen, and light that is carried through the room; water in the mist that surrounds the house.
She explains how to hold the cup: “Prostrate the cup at the base of the non-dominant hand and hold it with the thumb; prostrate the fingers of the dominant hand in front of the container and use them to tilt it towards your lips. Drink meditatively, subtly, little by little.” We drink to our fill.
I feel a strong sense of interbeing and connection with the ancestral home of my father, and my spiritual home on the other side of the Pyrenees.
THE MEANING OF TEA AND ITS CONNECTION TO BUDDHISM
In the dining room of Plum Village’s New Hamlet, I smile as I read some of Thay’s calligraphy on the wall: “Smile to the cloud in your tea” and “Arrête ta penseé bois ton thé” (“Stop your thoughts, drink your tea”). I have arrived feeling sick with allergic complications but hopeful that I will quickly heal thanks to the abundant tea on offer at Plum Village. Two days later - with the help of the wonderful soup prepared by the nuns - I start feeling better. When I leave, I feel like a new person.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s joyful descriptions of the interconnection between tea-drinking and his mindfulness practice - a connection that inspired him to add tea to his calligraphy ink - have led me to dig deeper into the meaning and nature of the tea-drinking ceremony. After I read a few books, I came to appreciate just why Thay treasured tea so.
I learned that the tea drinking ritual has been with us for millennia, having begun in China about 3,000 years ago. Over the years the tea ceremony has been elevated to an elegant and reverent art form that is tightly connected with the elements of nature. Every detail of a tea ceremony, and every step taken in preparation for it, is fully intentional and mindful: the cultivation and choice of tea plants and leaves; whether water is sourced from the earth or sky; the brewing time; the temperature of the water; the amount of steam or smoke; the appearance of the bubbles on the surface; the use of carefully selected, elegantly glazed tea cups; and the choice of accompanying light foods and decorations like the ones in a Qing-gong painting.
Tea has been referred to as a “magical infusion” and an “elixir of longevity.” Chayi is a valued Chinese word that means tea art. Drinking tea is considered a way to cultivate the poetic mind - which reminds me of Thay’s poetry - and tea is typically drunk during poetry recitals. Boxes of tea, beautifully decorated, are treasured gifts. Ideally, tea should be savored in a tranquil, natural setting surrounded by a landscape suggestive of mountains and forests, with an arrangement of potted plants, furniture made from natural materials, and earthen or porcelain utensils with naturalistic decorations. It is considered appropriate and desirable to drink tea abundantly throughout the early morning, day and evening.
JUST SIT DOWN AND HAVE A CUP OF TEA
The core lesson I have learned in my reading is that the tea-drinking ritual is intimately connected to mindfulness and to Buddhist thought. The meaning of Zen is to manifest the simple, and I cannot think of a more simple mindful act than drinking a cup of tea, whether in solitude, with a friend or sangha friends. In the traditional Zen practice, tea is considered the one last truth. The insight of equanimity is elegantly conveyed by the idea that, no matter what happens, we should simply sit down and have a cup of tea.
Inspired by Thay’s joyful dharma talk, I would like for us to do any of the following while drinking a cup of tea (or any other drink of your choice):
Share whatever brings joy to your life
Share a poem or a song that brings you joy
Share what the ritual of drinking tea means to you
Share how drinking tea enhances your mindfulness practice
Or
Simply enjoy drinking your cup of tea (or any other beverage) in silence.