Pu-Erh Tea — Steeping Time

The clock still moves, though we fidget less as we relax into our seat. Hours can pass like minutes, or minutes like hours, depending on the company we keep with the tea. Our teaware matters, and matters not. Our surroundings matter , and yet matter not. Great tea sessions can happen anywhere — or nowhere, if the mind is furtive and restless. Good tea can guide us in this process of settling down — of setting down of all but that which is most essential. It can, that is, if we let it. What then is good tea? It can be seen in the bright, moon-like faces of host and guest. It can tap you on the shoulder from across a crowded room. Good tea sits in stillness; it moves with aplomb. Good tea cares not for status, name or fame. It looks only ever back at us from that mirror of the infinite self.

E.S

Cloudwalker

How Do We Cha-Dao? Part 2

The power of the practice of tea is within your grasp...

Listen to the silent speech of your tea.

Listen to the silent speech of your tea

No matter how modest the leaf, so long as it's pure and unadulterated it will speak to you -- sometimes quietly, other times boldly, direct to the heart. To overthink, over-intellectualize the process is something akin to’ too many cooks in the kitchen -- it spoils the soup’.

To be an expert or to practice what is called Tea Art (茶 藝) may require some training, research or study. That being said, to fully appreciate -- in the manner which approaches a Dao -- requires none of these. (Personally I've had tea made by children which surpasses some of the well known pundits of tea).

My teacher of Tea eschews the academic approach to the process as it will be difficult to dismantle those scaffolds once erected. There are many stories I could use to corroborate this statement, however it simply pulls us further from our purpose.

The path to proficiency in Tea Tao (Cha-Dao) is relatively simple. It can be summed up as follows: first gain exposure to what quality tea is, then drink it with attention, reverence and free of distraction (preferably in silence at first). Listen to the silent language -- the song -- of the tea itself. Allow the tea to be your teacher -- for the teacher within surpasses what is communicable in any (other) language.

Such is the Cha-Dao, the Way of Tea, communicated -- transmitted -- since ancient times. It has been passed down steep by steep, cup by cup, from antiquity to the present moment. And, once affected, the remembrance of such experience will last a lifetime -- and beyond.

Erick Smithe - Cloudwalker

How to Cha-Dao

Your state of mind while brewing tea is of immeasurable importance. That the mind (heart-mind) rules over matter is increasingly accepted within the popular consciousness. Explaining the details of this seems pointless to anyone who has discovered this website, or more importantly Pu-Erh tea.

How to Cha-Dao

The principle of creating one's reality by way of the mind annoys some people. It is, at times, deemed pseudo-religious mumbo-jumbo -- or perhaps offends people who had difficulty integrating such wisdom into the physical (note 'The Secret' fad).

We ask you to let go of any preconceptions, ignore price, no notions of tea snobbery. This is not our concern. Embrace fully the total you, abandon all theory and thoughts surrounding tea -- for this is not that.

What is required for progress within the Way of Tea?

What is required to enter Tao through tea is relatively simple. In fact it is a condition of complete simplicity. What's needed, apart from some good tea, is an open heart and quieted mind. The result of your practice, in this way, will be richly rewarded -- in time -- as you discover for yourself the true magic of fine Pu-Erh tea.

The power present in the practice of tea ritual is within your grasp.

Erick Smithe - Cloudwalker Tea