Friday, April 25, 2008
Posted by Miss Neddy at 11:21 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related Teapots

Bodhidharma (also known in Chinese as 达摩 Dá Mó) is traditionally acknowledged to have brought 禅 Chán Buddhism (more commonly in its Japanese version, Zen Buddhism) from India to China. Especially in Japanese art, Bodhidharma is shown to have his eyes wide open, even in meditation. The legend goes that while in meditation, the venerable monk fell asleep for a brief moment; angered by his own weakness, Bodhidharma cut of his own eyelids and threw them to the ground. Later the eyelids grew into a bush, and Bodhidharma, tasting the leaves of the bush, found that they gave him great alertness and clarity of thought. Thus was the first tea bush born.

Incense burning traditionally is conducted with meditation, but also with tea-drinking, so teapot craftsmen may also turn out incense burners in clay as well. A Bodhidharma inspired incense burner is both elegant and apt for the Buddhist tea-drinker. The round ball in the middle of the burner is represents the head and torso of the meditating Bodhidharma, and also serves to dissipate the smoke emitted by the burner, which emerges from a hole beneath the ball. As Bodhidharma discovered and advocated, tea is a good accompaniment to Buddhist meditation, which can sometimes take hours at a stretch, as tea bestows both calmness and alertness.

As mentioned in an earlier entry, tea and Buddhism are tightly intertwined, especially in China and Japan. Teapots, sharing cups and tea trays frequently carry Buddhist aphorisms or phrases. One early favourite of mine was a blocky teapot that had the entire Heart Sutra etched in its side. Other phrases may not be explicitly Buddhist, but convey concepts common to both tea culture and Buddhism.

The sharing cup behind the teapot bears a fairly literal phrase 茶香 Chá Xiāng, which can mean either “Fragrance of Tea” or “Tea is Fragrant”. The teapot itself bears the words 清心 Qīng Xīn, which can mean “A Clear Heart” or “To Clear the Heart”. 

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