Tea Ceremony & Cha Dao

Indeed movements in tea ceremony, either from Gongfu Cha (功夫茶艺 gongfu cha yi) from China, Tea Art (茶艺 cha yi) from Taiwan or Chadao (茶道)from Japan, looks very Zen, somes even are pretty facy, however, it is nothing but a way of presentation of tea. Even though fancy movements are very attracting and eye catching,particularly to those who participate the tea setting; it, however, still is nothing but a way of tea presentation for us to explore the flavors and tastes in tea.

Often many people thought since the Japanese named it as ‘chadao (茶道)’, so it is same as what Cha Dao (茶道) is, well, the answer will be “Yes and Not quite exact”, and each step does have scientific rationality in the seemed philosophical movement.

Actually Cha Dao is much simplier; it does not emphasize the fancy movements, even though each step still has specific scientific and philosphical meaning but it guides you further into the learning path with tea by disciplining self with ease and calming energy and state of mind.

Movements in Cha Dao are slow, simple and gentle, the essence of tea preparing process focuses on the inner dialogue through tea when enjoy a tea moment.

When your body and mind are in the Chan (禅 Zen) state, the time stands still, the aroma and taste are no longer for appealing but for comforting.

The learning of tea opens a door of life time learning, there are different side doors to enter the path. It does not matter which door you choose to open, it all goes back to the root of tea in your heart.

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Categorised as ChaDao

By Mei Lan Hsiao

Even though her family has nothing to do with tea, but she learnt the importance of consuming tea correctly in daily healthy diet based on the Chinese traditional medicine principles in Yin-Yang and 5 elements from her family when she was very young. She entered the tea learning in Taiwan since 1985, left her root because of marriage in 1991 helped her to expand her learning from original inward-out views to 360 degree. She started to promote the authentic knowledge about tea and wisdom in Chinese tea culture in Belgium since 1995. Tea has always been and will continue be her best teacher. In front of Nature and Tea, she remains as an innocent child, a life-time learning student.

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