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.

Was Buddha a Buddhist? My understanding and discovery of Taoism...

Tea Tao —

Often it feels as if waking up in medias res on the path to illumination. It also feels as though some backstory might be helpful or informative, but remains unavailable. Perhaps it got lost somewhere, along with the keys to the vamana.

I prefer not to self-identify with a particular brand of religion. That being said, most of the inner work I did was in Asia and all happened to share the common element of Taoism.

Taoism appeals to me because of its decided lack of rules, and general resistance to labeling thing and preconceiving much of anything. The name of this path or Way is a handle tag when dealing with others, outsiders; otherwise it is often simply referred to as “that thing” — or even better not referred to at all.

In the ancient world, to give something a name (or to know the name of a deity for example) is to have power over it, to possess it in some way. This requires a rather disproportionate view of self — at least in the context of the great game.

Considering this for a moment while the kettle boils, I’m reminded of the notion that Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist.

He walked the Way, his way, as opposed to following that of anyone else. It reminds — again — of one of my early instructions of tea, one which I misinterpreted in various ways for many years.

It was a question: ‘Are you a steward or are you a king?’. If the game is total sovereignty of the self, then the path becomes clear; all that remains to do is to walk it.

On that note I’ll have another cup of tea.

Erick from Cloudwalker Tea

Tea as Tai-Chi for the mind

Part 1.

Gentle Path Walker:

I had some Great Mystery for breakfast this morning, the resulting internal shower created space for that balance you speak of with Tai Chi. The spark of life, that thing that sometimes leads to a blaze of creative yang insight or into the depths of the yin.

What is the energy of this and of that? I feel like its this question which lies at the core of Tea & the energetic arts.

My Qigung teacher said "The more relaxed you are the more energy you have." Well, most people know that the simplicity of sitting with Tea in general will often induce some level of relaxation. Turn that into a simple, wild Puerh and combine it with a basic Zhan Zhuang standing posture for example and suddenly the potential for tapping into & harmonizing with the apparent energy is amplified tremendously.

Through our commitment to practice & developing our own unique relationship with our own energy and that of Tea we become a clear channel for Tea & the Tao to flow through.

A lifetime of seasoning our own unique vessel in furthering the wisdom of nature, "the energies of this and that" or in other words the subtle nuances of change in the ebb & flow of life.

Erick:

I never did much Taichi, though often found it easier to say Taichi than take the time to explain the style I did practice. There is also the added benefit, that if you’re in a bar anywhere in Asia and say you do Taichi or Qigung this is relatively safe. Mentioning even casually Kung fu almost guarantees that by the end of the night you’ll have to practice on someone.

Though Taichi can be a venerable and advanced fighting system, it is much more commonly associated with elderly people in parks, valiantly trying to stave off death for another year. I respect Taichi, but my interest is primarily in the goal of Taichi.

This goal is shared with all internal styles of martial art, with meditation, and Yoga. Simply put it is the union with the divine, the Tao, or the Great Ultimate in the case of Taichi. My personal favourite name for this state of being is credited to Zen and translates as ‘that thing’. That thing is what we’re after, it justifies the massive commitment required for the attainment of it.