Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Posted by 醉茶生 at 08:15 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

Today’s entry is submitted by a guest writer, my good friend 醉茶仕 (Zui Cha Shi or The Gentleman Drunk on Tea):

Solitary drinking, or so I am told, is one of the first signs of alcoholism.  Perhaps that is one of the main differences between the culture of tea and that of alcohol, that the drinking of alcohol is a communal event of large groups and of celebration but by contrast, tea is best shared between no more than two or three friends, and that it is certainly acceptable to drink tea alone.  Although tea may accompany a meal, the appreciation of tea is often also a solitary pursuit; quiet and meditative, the aim is primarily to achieve a stillness of spirit rather than one of celebration.

Tea clarifies the mind, unlike alcohol, which clouds reason and judgement.  Tea may be used as an aid to concentration, whereas alcohol is often a distraction.  Tea calms, alcohol arouses and inflames passions.  Buddhism originated in India and tea is most certainly Chinese, yet the properties of tea means that the fates of both tea and buddhism became closely intertwined in China as well as Buddhism as exported to Japan.  The drinking of tea achieved a spiritual zenith in the Japanese tea ceremony (茶の湯) (Cha-no-yu), the greatest proponent of which was Sen no Rikkyu (千利休).

The story is told of a tea master who offended a samurai by accidentally bumping into him. The samurai challenged the tea master to a duel despite repeated apologies from the tea master.  When the tea master returned home to put his affairs in order, he took the opportunity to visit a sword master in his village.  The sword master agreed to teach him as much as was possible in the limited time leading up to the duel, but asked first that the tea master make him a cup of tea.  As the tea master prepared the tea, the fencing master saw the agitation and fear fall away from him, so that his entire being was focused on the perfect and tranquil preparation of that cup of tea.

The sword master explained to him that he had mastered the tea ceremony and therefore mastered himself.  The sword master then proceeded to teach him only one move; a suicide move that would end in the death of both swordsmen.

On the day of the duel, the tea master drew himself up tall, raising his borrowed sword high above his head.  The samurai realized that although the tea master had left himself open to attack, the tea master’s sword would inevitably fall upon the head of any attacker, and both would die.  Despite feints, prods and pokes, the tea master remained unmoved.  Finally humiliated, the samurai apologized to the tea master and surrendered the duel.

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