Tea Ceremony Is The Pursuit Of Balance

Continuous training in the tea ceremony is the pursuit of balance.

You begin to train your body to execute the motions without hesitation.

This is only possible when a sound understanding of the reasons and background behind the necessity of the steps has been obtained.

This intellectual understanding is again guided by an emotional understanding of WHY you would want to take these actions, and how they fuel beauty and gratitude in your gestures and hospitality towards others.

Balance in all 4 areas

In the end your physical efforts, and intellectual and emotional understanding orients your energies and focus in a single direction that brings balance and peace to your entire being.

And when this state of being is achieved, you will not only put down an elegant execution of the service of tea as if it were a show or performance, but you will exert an energy that will create a strong atmosphere, which everyone in the room will be pulled into.

The purity of your spirit alone will cause the energies and emotions of the participants to align as well!

Ichiza-konryu

This is what is called 'Ichiza-konryu' in Japanese. By cultivating a pure and genuine energy within you, filled with gratitude and love, you will start to affect the energy in the tea chamber.

Your energy will set the tone of vibration, or atmosphere in which your guests will tune into. And they too will start to add to, and multiply the level of positivity, gratitude and happiness in the tea chamber.

It is similar to when you visit a temple and you feel the energy of peacefulness and quietude there immediately when you enter its premises. The atmosphere invites you to become meditative yourself.

It's a sacred space, but not because someone labeled it that way. It is, because, the meditative energy at the temple is maintained through diligent meditation and the positive contributions of all visitors.

Your energy has an impact on your environment.

Through the tea ceremony you can actively learn to focus and direct your energies in a way that will affect your life, and the lives of the people around you in unimaginable ways!

And that, all the while you are engaged in an enjoyable, beautiful and relaxing pursuit that enriches you in all four areas of attention!

• Physically; practicing elegant motions and composure.
• Intellectually; study in more areas than you would have access to in a university course.
• Emotionally; cultivating gratitude and respect with every movement you make.
• Energetically; becoming meditative as a result of a pure and deep balance in the above three areas.

And all it takes is to simply immerse yourself in the practice of tea.

In my next post I will tell you more about how you can bring the practice of tea into your life. This is the most exciting part! Stay tuned.