One Time, One Meeting

“How do we find our own place in a complex political world,” asks the American Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, “and find a way towards peace?”

For some, the way might be a studied indifference, a turning away from politics altogether. For others, it might be engagement: social activism in the cause of peace. But for Kornfield, the appropriate initial response, and a prerequisite for wise and effective action, is first to “stop the war within.” “Our first task,” he observes, “is to make our own heart a zone of peace.”

The great spiritual traditions offer many ways of doing that, but one proven way is the time-honored practice known as Chadō, or the Way of Tea. Rooted in sixteenth-century Japan, this practice has long been associated with Zen meditation. Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591), Tea master, Zen practitioner, and codifier of the Japanese tea ceremony, established four basic principles for practicing the Way of Tea. Guidelines for everyday life as well as the shared enjoyment of tea, these principles have endured to the present day.

Harmony

In Rikyū’s time and for centuries afterward, tea gatherings were held in rustic, sheltered tea huts. Guests walked down a garden path, and, after cleansing their hands and mouths in a stone basin, entered the tea hut by crawling through a small, low doorway. Humbled by this experience, they found themselves in an alcove, where a hanging scroll, chosen by the host and often composed by a Zen master, established the theme of the gathering. That theme accorded with the rhythms of the season, as did the flowers in the alcove, arranged by the host “as they are in the field.”

These aspects of décor contributed to an atmosphere of harmony, both between the human and natural worlds and between the host and guests. As Sōshitsu Sen XV, a descendent of Rikyū and retired Grand Master of the Urasenke School of Tea, explains in his book Tea Life, Tea Mind, “The host interacts with the guest, both thinking of one another as if their roles were reversed. . . . The principle of harmony means to be free of pretensions, walking the path of moderation, becoming neither heated nor cold, and never forgetting the attitude of humility.”

Respect

When elite samurai warriors came to the tea gatherings, they left their swords outside. They also left behind their exalted social rank. According to the principle of respect, every person in the gathering is of equal importance. Each possesses his or her inherent dignity and is to be treated accordingly. This principle informs the strict etiquette of the traditional tea ceremony, extending beyond the human to the inanimate environment—the utensils used in preparing the tea; the tea bowls, chosen in keeping with the season. All are to be regarded with openness, reverence, and sincerity. In the words of Sōshitsu Sen, “this principle presses us to look deeply into the hearts of all people we meet and at the things in our environment. It is then we realize our kinship with all the world around us.”

Purity

The writer Peter Matthiessen once noted the “fierce cleanliness” of Dai Bosatsu Zendo, the monastery in the Catskills where he practiced Zen. That same spirit applies to the Way of Tea. The garden path must be swept, the utensils kept immaculate. Less literally, the principle of purity applies to the state of mind of the guests, who are enjoined to leave their worldly attachments and the “dust of the world” outside the tea room and practice with single-minded concentration. Together with rigorous cleanliness, physical and spiritual, the principle of purity also implies a meticulous sense of order, both in the immediate environment and in the minds of the host and guests. “When the host is cleaning and arranging the areas that the guests will occupy,” writes Sen, “he is establishing order also within himself.”

Tranquility

Unlike the first three principles governing the Way of Tea, the fourth cannot be attained through conscious effort alone. Rather, the cultivation of harmony, respect, and purity establishes, over time, the conditions in which tranquility of body, heart, and mind is most likely to manifest. “[A] person making and drinking tea in contemplation,” writes Sen, “approaches a sublime state of tranquility.” And, paradoxically, this sense of tranquility is deepened “when another person enters the microcosm of the tearoom and joins the host in contemplation over a bowl of tea.”

Green tea is unique. Its combination of mild caffeine and the compounds known as catechins engenders a state of mind that is at once calm and alert. But whether or not one enjoys green tea, the timeless principles of the Way of Tea have much to recommend them. Called to mind through the course of the day, they can positively influence the way we look at others. Faithfully observed, they can indeed create a zone of peace.

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“How do we find our own place: Jack Kornfield, “Dharma & Politics.”

As Sōshitsu Sen XV: Sōshitsu Sen XV, Tea Life, Tea Mind (Weatherhill, 1979), 13-14. For a deeper understanding of Japanese tea culture and its roots in eighth-century China, see Sōshitsu Sen XV, The Japanese Way of Tea: From Its Origins in China to Sen Rikyū (University of Hawaii Press, 1998).