What’s in the tea cup

It seems a rather simple question, but it is a question that hardly can get a perfect answer.

To make it short, there are 3 to drink and the primary key words will be

The Taste

Again, there are 3 tastes to explore by individual preferences which is subject to respective willingness and capabilities:

  1. The taste of various chemical or mineral substances in tea
  2. The taste of culture and values behind tea leaves
  3. The taste of truth deep in the soul

So which level do you want to reach when drinking a cup of tea?

The joy

Drinking tea is a pleasant and joyful experience not only to body but also provide satisfactory feeling that everyone can enjoy. You do, however, need to learn the importance of taking time out to enjoy it and are able to listen and respect the choice of own body. Therefore right attitude to understand what and how to maintain balance in body and mind is important for health.

The enlightenment

There is no other alternative than tea that turns a small leaf to become a great civilization culture. Without recognizing the nature in tea, morals represented in tea would be hard to comprehend; without embracing the moral values represented in tea, how can we be enlightened in the learning of Cha Dao 茶道? The essence of Cha Dao in Chinese tea culture emphasize the harmony and balance between heaven, earth and mankind. simply because we are part of the Nature, same as tea trees. Collective existence because of harmony linkaging, that’s the nature in tea and that’s what we hope to perused in life when we enjoy a cup of tea.

The verticle thinking urges us to distinguish high or low in between material vs. spsiritual world. But can we really divide these two in our life? Can we say which is more important than the others? How to prioritize and can we judge which is the right answer? The answer is not far but right in our heart.

Drinking a simple cup of tea,

embracing a moment to be enlightened by the extraordinary wisdom in life.

So, are you ready?

Published
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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