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