Spellbound — in search of Cha-Dao

Here is the next installment in a Dialogue between Ucluelet B.C Tea shaman Kevin Hartwell and Erick Smithe of Cloudwalker. It is offered in stacato form, as something postcards back from the journey into Tao with tea.

K. Hartwell:

Another amazing Tea Ceremony of 8 guests last night. '15 Raw, Inspiration & Guest of Cloud. It was a dance between deep stillness & silence, deep sharing, laughing and perma-grins setting in by the time we reached Guest of Cloud. "Joy" was one person's description of how they felt. This made me curious as to the grades of Tea outlined in Cha Dao - I see Joy is level 3. I suspect the Tea may be a higher level though. Evenings like this really allow the Tea, the guests and myself to shine. I remain incredibly grateful & honored to be a part of this way of serving Tea and furthering the energy of nature in the world. Thanks again for sharing this Tea and that love that shines through you too, I felt it here. Cheers Erick.

Erick:

Your most recent email about the tea session was well done. You're capturing the essence of the process well. The tea tells me you're doing great work. I would remember that it is being sensed through the whole cosmic chain of causation that is tea -- from what we drink/store back to the trees of Yunnan.

It knows somehow, etherically or by some subtle energetic means I don't have a word for. This is where the statement "...good tea is also looking for you" becomes even more meaningful. The more of this we do, the deeper our alliance with the plant grows.

Perhaps this is the nature of all things, but as far as positive and illuminating plants go tea is the most loving -- for me anyway.

K. Hartwell:

Throughout the day yesterday I sipped a thermos full each of Guest of Cloud, Reishi & Inspiration and delved into some melding of energies in the forest yesterday afternoon. Headed into town and played a live show at the Ukee Night Market, dissolving into dreaming awake it seemed. Quite the spectacle. Sat this morning with Tea & quickly realized these old Teas remain with us far past the session. Only a bit of tea & presence led to what felt like another Guest of Cloud session. grateful.

Also seems checking in with the guests the next day is quite a good idea. Always interested in hearing how there night went and how they feel in the morning - insights, energies, dreams, gratitude, etc.

How to survive a nuclear winter—

E.S — Cloudwalker

Tea makes me better at everything. This was the original title, which admittedly would have made more sense. But, non sequitor is an integral part of the ethos of tea, of zen, music and other advanced disciplines. Non locality and linearity may be the reliable companion to the drinkers of coffee. Coffee having the quality of speeding up what is already present, already apparent. Tea enters into the realms of the possible, the uncharted, the non-local, and the creative in the purest sense of the word. Some individuals are content to follow along, while others exist entirely incapable of it.

I drank coffee until a couple of weeks ago and acknowledge its usefulness as a tool for certain types of jobs. The predictability of certain types of experiences, is inherently boring after certain point. Tea, of the kind which some of us are devoted to, is a touchstone type experience. Good tea is different at each moment, and form every angle of approach. It is new and fresh in every instant — even when it is a century old.

We must do our part in order to receive the experience of a tea honestly. Busy minds generally make rather unapproachable tea. Busy in body having nothing to do with the state of one’s mind. Meditation practice is often recommended, but not required. Some people come to meditative states much easier than others. Some might arrive at it by a gust of wind, while others need to be locked away before the desired result takes hold. I’m of the second group, though I take to it willingly — mostly — like Odysseus tied to the mast of his ship.

To listen to the sound, the rhythm of the tea (茶韻). It dampens the Siren song and leads to safe harbors — the return to the true nature of the self. That one for which all things are before you and all things are at once both possible and complete.

Kevin Path Walker

Tea makes me better at everything

Tea is Qi

Good Tea = Good Qi

Good Qi = Good me

I was never good at math.

This type of intellectual pendantry seems to bring out the best in me…It helps that I’ve had about 10 pots of tea from my little 100ml teapot. I’ve just sat down from a Heaven and Earth qigong practice between a fork in a small stream on the edge of Kennedy lake — on Vancouver Island.

The stream continues on unimpeededly and I’m reminded of the strong dredging of my energy channels have undergone over the past hour and a half. I’m sitting here sipping a wonderful raw puerh from my friend Erick.

Although the practice of qigong is one of opening and closing the gates of the body. At the moment it feels like a time for remaining open, affirmative. The “yes” statement is clearly felt. It suggests that everything we apply tea to will be applified ever more in the positive direction. Even contrasting experiencing, the negative — the yin — is experienced differently. It is appreciated, and it’s sting softened by welcoming openness.

The context of the experience doesn’t seem to matter, in light of the Naturalness the Tao brings to it. Whether ushered into deep states of cultivation or simply being reminded to slow down, breathe and come into presence — to be a more conscious participant in the act of life. this is what tea brings to me in this moment.

Tea will ultimately make our own experience of life, and the experience of those whose lives we touch, better.

Here’s to good tea and all the words of Love that it has the potential to express and broadcast into the world.

Freeflow

Gentlepathwalker:

Glad to hear about these insights of yours and training. I've also been playing a bit with how my posture lines up at the Tea table, seems that keeping to toned openness in the body as in qigong would be a natural crossover with Tea and something I haven't applied much in the past. Seems worth practicing.

ES:

Really great stuff.

As for posture, it’s all the same sort of thing. As we talked about before, the qigung will influence all movements. Everything we do then becomes a moving meditation, as per the zen/Taoist principles. I do slip out of it at times. Wonderful that the tea helps me to remember posture (even if it’s a collapsed posture). Making us more aware of the currents of energy in the body, it also guides the hand in how to pour for channeling the best of our energy into the tea.

Gentlepathwalker:

To be honest, Ive been getting rocked lately. Funny how letting go is usually not my first response. Sitting with the unsettled and learning a lot about myself thru the process. Detachment. Letting go again and again it seems. Dying every moment. Getting to know death and learning to be self fulfilled. Time on my own & I know it's where the deepest learning comes. Life seems so bitter sweet for me. Spending time with friends tonight playing music was refreshing and still the feeling of impermanence never seems to leave my awareness. Feeling it all I guess and, all things considered doing just fine :)

ES:

There’s not a lot more. It was mostly being led to notice certain things and be more aware. Following breadcrumbs of coincidence, to get some inside joke with the universe. It’s been a while since I’d felt that sense of play and direct interaction with the world around me. A dialogue with both animate and inanimate things.

Of course having my mind well oiled with tea helps.

Gentlepathwalker:

"I had the best sleep! Like on a cloud" - reply from my tea guest when I asked how they slept the night of the Tea session they attended with me.