Book of Tea (eBook)

Introduction Inone of the most often quoted passages in Japanese literature, the poet Bashowrote at the beginning of his KnapsackNotebook: Saigyoin poetry, Sogi in linked verse, Sesshu in painting, Rikyu in the teaceremony—,the spirit that moves them is one spirit. Achieving artisticexcellence, each holds one attribute in common: each remains attuned to naturethroughout the four seasons. Whatever is seen by such a heart and mind is aflower, whatever is dreamed is a moon. Only a barbarian mind could fail to seethe flower, only an animal mind could fail to dream a moon. The first task foreach artist is to overcome the barbarian or animal heart and mind, to becomeone with nature. Atfirst glance it may seem peculiar to the Western mind that one of Japan'sgreatest poets would equate the simple tea ceremony with the best classicalverse and painting. It's not exactly like comparing a perfect latte with anexquisite painting by Morris Graves or Van Gogh, but the comparison serves topresent Zen mind at its best. One may address any art form by considering'right mindfulness' and 'right practice' essential to anyart, thus, the art of making coffee and the art of painting are directexpression of mindfulness and practice. The 'simplicity' of the teaceremony is as complex as the richest painting or poem, and like painting andpoetry, the ceremony draws upon centuries of tradition in order to arrive atwhat is fully present. Nearly a hundred years ago, Okakura Kakuzo wrote: Thoseof us who know not the secret of properly regulating our own existence on thistumultuous sea of foolish troubles which we call life are constantly in a stateof misery while vainly trying to appear happy and contented. We stagger in theattempt to keep our moral equilibrium, and see forererunners of the tempest inevery cloud that floats on the horizon. Yet there is a joy and beauty in theroll of the billows as they sweep outward toward eternity. Why not enter intotheir spirit, or like Liehtse, ride upon the hurricane itself? He only who haslived with the beautiful can die beautifully. To'die beautifully' is to makes one's life a part of a greater work of art.'Beauty and ugliness have origins,' Lao Tzu warns, and they are less a matterof received opinion than a consequence of acting upon whatever is alreadywithin each of us. While Western materialist culture declares that certainpaintings are worth millions of dollars, Zen reminds us that the masterpiece istemporal, and that Hui Neng (638–,713), the sixth patriarch of Zen,expressed his enlightenment by burning an image of the Awakened One. Zen mindrings with quiet laughter. 'Have a cup of tea!' Or, 'Paint the sound of thewind in the pines!' Speakingof art appreciation, Okakura writes, 'Our mind is the canvas on which theartists lay their colour, their pigments are our emotions, their chiaroscurothe light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as weare of the masterpiece. The sympathetic communion of minds necessary for artappreciation must be based on mutual concession. The spectator must cultivatethe proper attitude for receiving the message, as the artist must know toimpart it.' The artist, the painting, and its audience are not three things,but one. Thefounder of the Shingon Buddhist sect and one of the earliest importers ofChinese tea seeds, Kukai (774–,835), taught that Buddhism contained all ofthe essential elements of both Taoism and Confucianism, and he made the teaceremony an expression of nature in an evanescent existence. Yet despite hisinterest, the tea ceremony remained an obscure...