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.