The Book of Tea: Taoism [Teaism] and Zennism

A calm heart will cross the worlds – seamlessly, warmly and in peace.

Photo By: Leon Xie  🙂

Zen teacher, Haikujo, was walking through the forest with a disciple.  A hare scurried off at their approach.

 “Why does the hare fly from you.”  Haikujo asked.

“Because he is afraid of me,” the disciple answered.  

“No,” said Haikujo, “it is because you have a murderous instinct.”

Story from The Book of Tea, written by Okakura Kakuzo

 

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The Book of Tea – The Schools (and Virtues) of Tea

 

The Schools and Virtues of Tea

“The tea-plant, a native to southern China, was known from very early time to Chinese botany and medicine…and was highly praised for possessing the virtues of relieving fatigue, delighting the soul, strengthening the will, and repairing the eyesight.” 

“The Taoists claimed it as an important ingredient of the elixir of  immortality.”

“The Buddhists used it extensively to prevent drowsiness during their long hours of meditation.”  

In Japan, “[t]he beverage grew to be an excuse for the worship of the purity and refinement, a sacred function at which the host and guest joined to produce for the occasion and the utmost beatitude of the mundane.”

“The tea-room was an oasis in the oasis in the dreary waste of existence where weary travelers could meet to drink from the common spring…”

Quotations from Okakura Kakuzo’s The Book of Tea

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The Greatness of Little Things

 

“Those who cannot feel the littleness of great things in themselves

are apt to overlook the greatness of little things in others.”

– Okakura Kakura, The Book of Tea

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