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🍃 How can we truly brew a good cup of Tea?
🤍 By using our Heart to brew Her so that she could shine at Her very best.
Humility dissolves the Ego. It gives prejudgement the room to step way back right before we take our first sip. We can then observe from the space of no judgement and simply coexist in love and gratitude for this moment in which we all have to sit together and share Tea.
Think about it. Out of billions of people in the world, we have crossed paths in this moment in time, in this very space, to share Tea. I don't know how you feel but I certainly am mindblown every single time at this miracle. What a gift!
We learn not to drink Tea with our Mind and Eyes. Sometimes, even, not so much with the mouth or palate or taste buds, but with the Heart. We do not need labels or names.
Metrics and methods are important, but I always tell my honourable guests and students that without a spiritual connection, without first understanding the language of Tea, these are merely filters that can cloud our hearts, blur our intentions. However, when that connection and understanding is established and continue to be harnessed with a Beginner's Mind, Tea Spirit lives and thrives on. This is the spirit and heart of Cha Dao.
We do not ask to be served only by a "master". And even if we do find ourselves one fortunate day sitting before a true, venerated master, we count our blessings just as much as we would when we are served by our friend from a supermarket teapot, or someone who cannot differentiate Puerh from Liu Bao, simply because we feel that heart-centred stillness and sincerity to do their best emanating forth from the Tea he or she brewed for us.
In this case, whether we call it a Tea Ceremony, a gongfu Tea experience, a teahouse teatime experience, does it really matter at all?
My heart knows what matters most － and that is that Tea is honoured and given the best possible chance to take centre stage, that Tea Spirit can come forth in Her most authentic self, just as we all naturally do in Her presence.
Henry, fellow chajin and teahouse owner here in KL doled out wisdom that brought clarity to some thoughts I have had for days 🙏