On Sunday I went to a tea ceremony. I'm consedering either a calligraphy or tea ceremony class for the new year. The teacher was a small, grey-haired lady in a beautiful black and red kimono, who spoke proudly of zen, the seasons, and Japanese culture. She seemed very nice and even tried to speak English a little bit. We communicated very well, stumbling only on ceremonial words, names for certain tools, and old Japanese words. But all in all, it was a beautiful experience.
I sat Japanese style for about an hour and couldn't feel my legs by the end. I didn't even try to stand up because that certainly would have been impossible. But I'm getting better at sitting seiza style. When I got here it was hard to sit on my knees for more than 15 minutes.
The sensei explained that tea ceremony was a kind of past time for the ancient Japanese people. They didn't have TV or radio so they used to sit together and have tea. Here's what makes this different from English tea:
The room is small, there's a hanging scroll on which a beautiful haiku is written about the season. (In this case "Slide open the door to see blowing leaves".) You can hear the rain in the garden all around, and the smell is one of incense burning beneath the pot of water. The cups are themed to match the red leaves of fall, the migrating birds, and the rice harvest. Everything is a perfect microcosm of nature. Like being in a tea ceremony you feel at once part of nature and outside it. It may be the perfect zen paradox. The ceremony with all it's rules, creating the spontaneous sensation of the natural world.
It was beautiful.
Sorry no pictures...
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3 comments:
isn't zen paradox an oxymoron??!?
anyways, have you read any kawabata novels? sweet goddamn that man loves him some tea ceremony action. i read 1000 cranes. i think you'd like it. although it extinguished any desire i had to go to one... but, shogenai.
i have a book called "zen and the art of the tea ceremony". i feel i should revisit it.
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