Around 200 articles about the spiritual connection between tea and ourselves
The Mindfulness of Tea
In mindfulness practice, one of the keys to expanding the ability of mind is to pay attention to the thoughts, feelings and sensations experienced...
Keep Calm and Carry on Plucking
November is the time of year when Hindus the world over celebrate the festival of Deepvali or Diwali. Deepvali is the festival of lights. It is...
Medi-TEA-tion, Part 4
And what about music? We can use the same process here as with tea selection. Don’t just un-pause the iPod from its last outing. Tune in and see...
Medi-TEA-tion, Part 3
Now, back to our tea session: Hopefully, by now we have set aside some time to mindfully tidy up the tea space. We can then use our creativity to...
Medi-TEA-tion, Part 2
What are the Four Foundations of Mindfulness? And what is mindfulness? It never harms to go back to basics from time to time. Mindfulness, in my...
Medi-TEA-tion, Part 1
Over the next few installments, I would like to offer some tips for bringing more of the spirit of meditation into our tea drinking. This could be...
Global Tea Hut on Living Tea
In the first half of the twentieth century, the Japanese were in control of Taiwan and looking to develop the island agriculturally, exporting goods...
Gong Fu Tea Tips
In tea preparation, there is always a lot of discussion of form versus function. On the one hand, it shows great respect to prepare the tea in a way...
Fetching Water
Contribution by: Global Tea Hut The last drop glides off the silver-tipped spout and fills the side handle teapot. The iron kettle stands empty....
Permanent Culture at “Light Meets Life”
Thinking about the beautiful land on which we will grow food at our new center, there are many aspects of the project to consider. In the last issue...
Spirals: Part 4
One of the magical qualities of tea is that it works non-verbally. It seeps into the cracks and joints of our bodies and souls, filling them with...
Spirals: Part 3
Some time ago, I traveled south in Taiwan to a new Vipassana center. Ten days later, I was given a ride to the nearest train station by a kind...
Spirals: Part 2
Article by Lindsey Goodwin, Arthurian Mythologist. Shortly after I made Taiwan my new home last fall, I visited Mr. Xie, an organic farmer. He...
Spirals: Part 1
Article by Lindsey Goodwin, Arthurian Mythologist When you are on a spiritual path, you probably find that your route is often a circular or spiral...
How to Be a Guest
Article by Dan Smith Leave your ego at the door, Wu De reminds us. Take your shoes off outside and leave your ego with them. You will be much more...
Gong fu tea tips
Do you remember the very first gong fu experiment we ever did? It is an important one, and as we have mentioned many times it is important to repeat all these experiments several times. In our first experiment, we poured tea into a cup and then poured half of that into an identical cup, and half of that into a third.
Transcendence
Living here in Miaoli and serving at the Center every day, the only opportunity I have for any interactions with people who aren’t into tea or spiritual work is in the workplace. I’ve been at my current job for one year now, and although I don’t talk much with anyone, over time they’ve reached the obvious conclusion that I’m a weirdo with mixed-up priorities.
Mastery: why tea tastes different when they make it
As a boy, I spent a great amount of time in my grandmother’s kitchen. We would talk about life and she would do her best to teach me how to prepare meals. “As a host, you only need to know one or two recipes really well and learn how to make them delicious.”
Bowl 8: Grace and beauty; gong fu tea
Our tea life isn’t just about a greater connection to Nature through the Leaf, but an attunement with our self as well. We must therefore cultivate both inner and outer harmony, a flow from the absolute into the relative. We learn this flow through the practice
Bowl 7: Connection to the great nature, bowl tea
The Leaf is the highest of scriptures. In tea we read sutras written not in the language of man, but that of the mountain and forest, earth and air, brook, stream, sunshine and moonshine. These leaves contain vast tomes, if we but learn to speak their language.
Bowl Six: healing and community; work and service
The only reason to seek mastery of this tea is in service of our world. Furthermore, it is perhaps paradoxical that the road to mastery itself essentially contains service, for without it mastery can never be achieved. Having cultivated inner awareness
Bowl Five: Physical well-being, diet and movement
t is unfortunate that much of the world has taken to compartmentalizing life: body for the doctors, mind for the psychiatrists and spirit for religion. True healing is a unification of these false barriers. A life of tea is a life, and applies equally to all aspects of truth.
Bowl Four: Cleanliness and Purity
Reverence and purity facilitate a life of tea, and the communication of peace and wisdom through tea. Purity functions on all levels, from the body to the tea room, the spirit and the mind. We must respect the space and being-ness all around us, keeping our homes,
Bowl Three: humility and gratitude, study, contemplation, prayer
All liturgies are in truth consummation and proclamation of a state of being—making the invisible become visible on the physical level. We make altars to our own inner truths. Bowing to the Buddha, I bow to awakening and stillness in me. I learn humility before the Divinity in me, and then begin to learn from the wisdom of those people, places and things
Throw Back Friday: no need for armor
You and I are great souls.
And we come together for a time.
We meet over a cup of tea here on earth.
Shall we leave our shell and join with each other?
Sleep, rest, and the ritual of tea
During a recent weekday morning, I sluggishly climbed out of bed and started to putter around the room, going about my daily routine. “I am tired,” I complained half-heartedly to my husband, lacking the energy to expound any more on that statement…
Bowl Two: Mastered mind; meditation
Without mastery of the mind we shall never walk upright, no matter how wonderful our intentions. The mind is a strong and powerful elephant, able to serve or destroy the city equally. For that reason, our centers and schools will always be places of meditation,
The memorial service for Steven Smith
My dad, born in 1917, was a guy who used handkerchiefs. Along with hats, handkerchiefs were his constant companions. I remember on a bad allergy day, he would wave the hankie out the window while driving the car to help dry it out. One particularly stuffy day in Florence, Italy, we noticed cars pulling over and letting us pass. Apparently a white flag
Tea-ing gratefully
Tea has taken me on a journey to many actual destinations but above all to a place of calm–quiet, restorative, relaxing and solitary. The mere act of taking time to brew a proper cup of tea from fresh, premium quality leaves calms me, centers me, focusing my attentions away from the stresses, intensities
Eight bowls of a life of tea – part 1
Our tradition is based on a life of tea, and whether as tea monks who are committed full time or householders who may only devote a portion of their energies to this Way of Tea, the goal is the same: awakening and presence through tea. This life and practice is to help cultivate our own inner wisdom, and to then share our inner peace with others in the true spirit of tea—leaves and water offered freely in recognition of the oneness of Being, and the healing power in commune with Nature and each other.
Throw back Friday: drink your tea slowly
Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it is the axis
Birthdays
Wu De is fond of saying that with the medicine of one plant, it is possible to tap into the medicines of all plants. I wholeheartedly believe this to be true. I’ve also found that my interactions with various medicinal plants has fueled my dialogue with Tea and that, conversely, my interactions
The Seeker
There have always been seekers. People dissatisfied with the normal view. People searching for more meaningful vantage points. Wandering down the same worn paths looking for teachers, looking for answers. It was like that long ago too.
Teabags: the gateway brew
Whole leaf enthusiasts know the exquisite difference between a cup of carefully steeped whole leaf – part ritual, part alchemy, part spirituality – and half careful attention to detail. We also know how convenient tea bags are. In desperate circumstances, we will buy a
Back seven: green badge of courage
Some of the most neurotic people I know are regular tea drinkers (they also happen to be some of the greatest people I know.) So which came first: The “mentally-fit” tea drinkers, or the neurotics? Is tea-drinking becoming a badge of health, or an acknowledgment that you’re “medicating” or trying to lose weight?
Turkish Delight
There are many perks associated with having a successful tea blog. I think my favorite is the often requested inquiry to review teas or tea related products. When I got the inquiry from Table Rose, I was delighted.
A day in Alishan – revisited
My friend and I arrive in the town of Shihzhuo, Taiwan by bus. The sky is clear and the mountain air tastes sweet on my lips. A small downtown commercial district is situated along the main highway. Across the street I see a western style mini-mart
How to turn a nonevent into an event
While on holidays back ‘home’ in Canada, visiting and getting nourished by family and old friends, my mind has entered sufficiently into mind meltdown phase that I can comfortably waft through a couple of recent tea memories.
Back Seven: A tea song
Dan Chiu was an Immortal
Who cared nothing for rich foods.
But, after picking some tea & drinking it,
he sprouted wings,
And flew to the Abode of The Immortals,
Adding a Family Tradition of Tea!
“Is it time for tea?” Or better yet, “Isn’t it time for tea?” Sadly, in the United States neither of these phrases seems to be predominate in our culture.
Back Seven: times for drinking tea
In idle moments
When bored with poetry
Thought confused
Beating time to songs
When the music stops
Living in seclusion
Tea varietals – continued
Still, it took the visit of a tea friend from America and a session of Purple Tea for all of this to click into place for me. As Kaiya steeped and spoke of Purple Tea’s lineage in a poetic but vague way,
Back Seven: Tea poem
Willow branches graze the grass,
As I sit in the shade drinking tea.
The Transformative Powers of Tenmoku
When I was young, I used to love watching Chinese period dramas that involve an emperor drinking poisoned wine from a magic (usually sparkly) goblet and miraculously not die because of the mysterious properties of the goblet.
Back Seven: LuYu Visits a Tea Water Well
On a cold winter night
A friend dropped by.
We did not drink wine
But instead drank tea.
Tea in Estonia
One thing I’ve learned about love is that it transcends time. When you meet someone that you’ve known from another incarnation, you also know that...
Happy Holiday – a T Ching toast!
May your tea be planted, propagated, plucked, and processed with love for the Earth and all her creatures. May the water for your brew remember its time among the airy clouds, falling as fresh rain, and rushing down a mountain as a merry babbling brook.
December gongfu brewing tips
One of the best Gongfu tips we can give you is to stay open-minded and humble. Always revisit old experiments. Sometimes you may not have noticed anything in the first try, but the results will stand out clear as day the second or even third time you try.
Natural tea farming – Part 3: running in the family
If big profits are not his motivation, what fuels Gao Ding Shi’s dedication to natural methods of tea farming? Indeed, Mr. Gao has great reason to be sensitive to this issue: personal tragedy.
ENOUGH: Growing tea naturally, Part 2
Enough: It’s a concept I came across several times on my recent journey to Taiwan, in meeting small-scale tea farmers and their families: the desire to have just enough, not more.