Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Posted by 醉茶生 at 08:09 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Categories: Tea Related

The Tang Dynasty Zen master, Zhaozhou Congshen 趙州從諗 (778 to 897 AD), was himself disciple of the Zen master Nanquan Puyuan 南泉普願 for twenty years. He espoused a school of Buddhism that taught that enlightenment can be attained through the careful attention to everyday activities 「平常是道」.

The following conversation is recorded in the Buddhist classic of Five Lamps《五燈會元》:

「師問新到：『曾到此間否?』
The Master (Zhaozhou) asked a monk who has just arrived, “Have you been here before?”

曰：『曾到。』
[The monk] replied, “Yes, I have.”

師曰：『吃茶去。』
The Master said, “Go drink tea.”

又問僧，僧曰：『不曾到。』
He then asked another monk the same question, and the monk replied, “No, I have not.”

師曰：『吃茶去。』
To which the Master said, “Go drink tea.”

後院主問曰：『為甚麼曾到也云吃茶去，不曾到也云吃茶去?』
Afterwards, the lord of the manor asked him, “The monk had been here before, and you said to him, ‘Go drink tea.’ The second monk had not been here before, and you said to him also, ‘Go drink tea.’ Why is that?”

師召院主，主應諾，師曰：『吃茶去。』
The Master beckoned the lord of the manor to come nearer, which he did;
then The Master said, “Go drink tea.”

Zhaozhou believed that the way to enlightenment was through motion and action, not through discourse or argument.  Zhaozhou believed that when you encounter tea then you drink tea; when you meet rice then you eat rice 「遇茶吃茶，遇飯吃飯」: discussing the why’s and wherefore’s of these simple actions is meaningless.  By discarding these distractions, one takes the first step towards enlightenment.  The simplicity of Zhaozhou’s idea caused the Qing dynasty scholar, Shen Yu 湛愚 to exclaim, “these three words, ‘Go drink tea’! So direct! So joyful!” 「吃茶去三字，真直截，真痛快！」.  Zhaozhou’s pre-eminence as a Zen master did much to make the drinking of tea a central part of the practice of Zen Buddhism.

Zhaozhou Congshen (in Chinese)