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Global Tea HutNewsletter #7, August 2012

The new spiritual amilies are without borders, andshare new insights and wisdom with great joy. We areopen to vulnerability as a power, rather than somethingto be eared; or worse yet swept under the rug. And inseeking such an awakening o harmony and conscious-ness, there can be no exclusivity to our organization. Inact, we neednt make an identity o our tradition, butrather allow it to express itsel through all the amazingthings we are doing. Tis expression is apparent in themany Global ea Hut members who are inusing thetea spirit into their music, movies, environmental andeconomic works, their growth and healing o othersand themselves.

It has always seemed as i the darkness was onthe verge o overrunning the world, but thats only be-cause it is noisier than the light. Te news isnt report-

ing the millions o meditators, the smiles and hugs, andthe uplited consciousness that is awakening globally.Tere are a tremendous amount o people cultivatingand sharing spirit with others. ea is also playing a rolein this transormation o consciousness, amongst othermedicines.

ea is an ideal medium or healing the worldand upliting us, as it is adaptagenic, which means itheals whatever needs healing. Like the liquid that con-veys its essence, it slips into all the cracks, wherever itsneeded most. And not just within our bodies, but also

between souls. ea adapts amazingly to the environ-ment it is brewed in: it can be celebratory, awakening,enlightening or encourage a deep and lasting stillness.

I we asked a Christian, Hindu, Muslim andBuddhist to sit in a room and discuss religion, theymight emerge arguing. But i they went into that sameroom and discussed only the tea they were drinking,they would emerge brothers! ea transcends sociocul-tural boundaries. It is the paragon o civilization, andalways has been an emblem o peaceul discourse.

Te wisdom tea transmits is nonverbal and

timeless. Tere are sutras in these leaveswritten in theveins. I we learn to read them, they lead us to higheraspects o ourselves. In walking through the old tea or-ests we transcend the illusory boundaries between our-selves and this Great Nature. It is there that the earth is

rounded again, and without any o the alse and divi-sive lines we draw upon our paper maps.

Tis tradition o Cha Dao (Te Way o ea)is striving to cultivate, promote and express awaken-ing through tea as a part o this global shit in con-sciousness. Our center is a place o solace and wisdom;and though our medium is always tea, we are open tolearn and grow in any wisdom tradition. We use tea asmedicine in the Native American sense o the word: asthat which connects us to the oneness o this universeand our role on earth. O course, this includes havinga healthy mind, body and spirit, as these are the waysand means o achieving such a harmony, as well as theresult.

As the new consciousness emerges, some people will eelcalled upon to orm groups that reect the enlightenedconsciousness. Tese groups will not be collective egos. Teindividuals who make up these groups will have no needto defne their identity through them. Whether they be en-lightened businesses, charitable organizations, schools orcommunities o people living together, these enlightenedcollectives can be a vortex or consciousness that will ac-celerate the planetary shit.

Eckhart olle

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Imagine a winding trail through some ancient orest.

You can only see ahead and behind, as large banks riseup rom the sides o the worn path. Oaks and mapleslean up overhead, dappling the trail with sunlight thatlooks like a map o the stars cast across the ground ahead.Perhaps the leaves are changing, and their reds and yel-lows ll the world with more color than you know whatto do with. O course, youll want to take your timebreathe in the resh, untainted air and nd great joyin the simple act o walking. Eventually, you come toa clearing with some rock terraces crated so long agothat no one knows who made them. In seven neat rows

rising up the mountainside you see rows o ancient teatrees, each about your own height. Te morning is slip-ping away, so you get started: you collect leaves, gentlypinching the juicy bud sets with your thumb and indexnger and placing them into the bamboo basket youvebrought. You wipe the sweat rom your orehead, smil-ing up at the sky. Tis is good work And when yourbasket is ull, you climb down and spread out a blanketat the other end o the clearing where the sun shinesbrightest. You enjoy some ood in the shade as your teadries. Later that aternoon, you will collect the brittle

brown leaves and take them back home to be roastedgently over a re and nish the drying

ry to carry the spirit and power o your vi-sion into your tea room with this months tea and youllunderstand why this is one o our all time avorite teashere at the ea Sage Hut. Sit and imagine those ancientdays, as they are still here with ussteeping ater steep-ing. Quiet your mind as you use your hand to scatterthese leaves into a bowl, and meditate while you waitor your water to boil. Te quiet stillness in this tea isdeep and loud. It reminds you o our place within the

natural cycles and helps cool the summer heat. Sit withit. It wont give up on you, not even hours later when itseems an eternity has passed

Tis months tea is about as close to the mostancient days o tea brewing as we in this modern timecan nd. It is a completely unprocessed tea. You couldsay it is a white tea, and may notice some whitish hairson a ew o the buds in the bag. But it really isnt eventhat. It is tea without the human renementwithoutany ado. It was harvested rom completely wild bushesin the north o aiwan, which are all ty to a hundredyears old. Te tea was most simply picked and then sundried. Tere was no human processing to speak o, onlyleaves.

Our tea ancestors rst started boiling tea andthen processing it because the cell walls o plants arethick and strong. In order to get to the juice in the cells,they need to be broken down. Tis is why less processedteas, like Green and White eas, or example, producesuch a delicate, pale liquor. Tis tea is even lighter. Teliquor is so light and owery that i you approach it

with anything but the quietest o minds, its essence willpass you by like a warm summer breeze.

Tere is something magical in drinking thesimplest o teas. When we begin our tea journey, itis important to get in touch with tea as medicine. So

much o tea is rened and stimulates us with amazingavors and aromas. But tea was medicine or thousandso years beore it was avor. And it has so much heal-ing power. It aligns us with Nature. For that reason, itis oten nice to start ones tea journey by removing asmuch o the human element rom the tea experience aspossible; and learn to communicate with the spirit othis plant. Tat is why we oten spend time teachingpeople to brew tea simply and without artice: leavesin a bowl. And i you are a more seasoned tea drinker,there is still great power in returning to the simplest o

all tea. And there isnt a more suitable tea or this thanone which is completely unprocessed.

ea speaks to us; we have receptors in our bod-ies and souls or it. It speaks o its origins and alignsus with Nature, especially living tea. Our intellectualselves always want to know a teas human story: whereit came rom, who made it and how. But the drinkingo it is more direct, and i you are paying attention you

will see where it is rom. Countless times, we have seenmasters just smell a tea and know the region, mountainand even season it was harvested in. In our workshops,

we have also witnessed more intuitive people describein incredibly accurate detail the home o a particular tea

without knowing anything about it, or tea in generalor that matter. ea gives its essence to us. It wants tobe human, or lack o a better word. It evolved towardus, to meet us. One proo o this is that tea trees thrive

when they are picked by humans, growing more andmore vibrant crowns in response to human pruning(not over-harvesting, o course). Another is the way itcommunicates to our bodies and rests us in our hearts.

Te universe only looks ordered through hu-man eyes. Te boundaries and categories we makearent real; they are conceptual. Tis tea will soon be apart o youwhat was other outside o you will beinside. And the orest it came rom is also a part o the

Your Tea of the Month, August 20122011 Spring Unprocessed ea, Northern aiwan

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tea, as are the water, sunshine and moonshine. Drinkit all in. Set down the concepts, which serve a purposebut are oten our masters. Use the mind as a tool, ratherthan being used by it.

Tere is no way to under or over-brew this tea.You cant add too many or too ew leaves. It can be

steeped and steeped all throughout an aternoon and,amazingly, still shine on. Tere is also no right or wrongwater temperature. Tis tea can be brewed with hot orcooler water to produce dierent brews. It also com-pliments morning and evening sessions both. But you

will have to quit it long beore it quits you. Te avoris delicate, though the leaves are so robust. It has anupliting Qi that lightens your soul rom its terrestrialcage.

I you are going to share this tea with a riendor loved one, why not ll a single bowl with leaves and

pass it around? Tere is deep connection in sharing asingle bowl. And great connection in the presence andstillness you can share together. Let the medicine com-municate an intention and you will nd healing in yoursession.

Here are quite literally some orest leaves toscatter in your bowl. Lets drink them together, all ous. I we nd our way up and back down that ancientorest trail, well all be better o or the time weve spentthere together. Well all get up rom the tea space shit-ed, moving through our days with a bit o lightness and

joy

* As we mentioned last month, we recommend letting thetea get over its jet lag. Let it sit a week or two and becomeacclimatized.

ea o the Month, July 2012

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3

Iwould venture a guess that many GH newsletter

readers would list personal growth pretty high up ontheir list o lie priorities. Serious tea drinkers just tendto be that way. Te leay path o Cha Dao has manyresting places along its way or activities which lead to(using a loaded term) sel improvement: sel-disci-pline, contemplation, seeing onesel clearly, masteringones thoughts, reading, working on mutually bene-cial and non-drama-laden personal relationships, anda host o other practices which nudge body, soul andmind a ew notches upwards rom our samsara-inusedlives.

Yet disciplined practice aside, very oten per-sonal growth has much to do with just being at theright time and place. By being in nourishing circum-stances just when were open and receptive to receivingthe nourishment, we oer a chance to inner transor-mations already in process to just happen by them-selves. Kinda beautiul, huh?

O course, we can take the stance that there areno such things as perect situations, that any situation

we happen to nd ourselves in is by denition the rightone or us; growth happens in how we choose to re-

spond to the present moment in whatever orm it takes do we ght against it, grin and bear it, transorm it orcherish it, surrender to it?

However, there is something proound, evenspectacular about nding ourselves smack in the mid-dle o what eels like the best possible set o circum-stances or a given moment. Tose times always eel asi they were meticulously choreographed by an incred-ible set o coincidences. We smile and shake our headsand think, I couldnt have planned it more perectly!

We think back to that old Police album, Synchronicity,

and wonder i its correct to apply the word to our case.Very likely, though, we did our bit to nd ourselves

just there, just then. Author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyiwould have it that in such circumstances, we are ullyin ow - whether we know it or not. Tis is a process

we are actively engaged in, not a passive recipient o.Te art o personal growth thereore is partially

about just showing up! Having a sense o when andwhere to be, and with whom (and conversely when notto be somewhere) is an art in and o itsel. So too is theability to remain open to that which is oered to us,knowing that to miss an opportunity is possibly to missit orever.

Easier said than done. Tere are clues and signsaround us all the time as to the inner changes our bod-

ies/organisms/spirits eel theyre ready to make, and yetwe can remain astoundingly, willully blind to them.How oten does ate knock at the door, hands gentlyoutstretched with a kind git o, say, insight or experi-ence, and we simply, out o ear, pride, ignorance or justbecause our iPods are on too loud, ignore it?

ea as Lie ransormerIve now twice visited the ea Sage Hut or month-longstays I would describe as nothing short o transorma-tive. Te rst visit especially Id call lie-changing. O

course its true, as my riends note, that I tend towardsheavy usage o superlatives (every week the number o

worlds best tea/chocolate/lm/song Ive ever tasted/seen/heard grows exponentially), and I am oten awash

with the mere experience o experiencing. Te Rus-sians have a great word or this to which the Englishtranslation impressionable doesnt quite do justice:vpechatlitelny (one who deeply takes in each experi-ence). Yet hyperbole notwithstanding, lie-changingis not overstating the eects o such a powerul teacheras tea, especially when its teachings come at exactly the

right time and place.I recently ended my second month at the Hut

and am now back in the saddle o my regular lie obusy-ness, head still spinning rom all o what I learnedand elt there. I wasnt alone in this eeling either. Al-though the Hut is open to casual visitors who wish tostay or a ew hours or days and have a ew seeds plant-ed in their consciousness or later blossoming, it doesseem to attract people who have ound their way thereat just the right time and place. Beautiul souls whohave come with emptied cups and open hearts, open to

learning and growing and to letting tea be their guideon that journey.

I close my eyes and I see one such Cha Ren, allspirit and love, who has selessly turned his own apart-ment into a tea center o sorts in order to spread goodeeling to others in collaboration with the Lea; another

whose personal transormations have blossomed into aseless dedication to arming the earth and soil so thatothers have an opportunity o sharing in unspoiled na-ture; yet another whose intimate, meditative approachto tea underscores his desire to spark positive transor-mation in others via tea drinking sessions; still anotherhas already created a donation-based tea salon at hisuniversity, an oasis or others to enjoy Being, in com-pany o tea.

Taiwan State of mindTe Art o Personal Growth

Article by Steve Kokker

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aiwan State o Mind

4Tese people, and others, are inspirationalmodels o seless living, examples o the good whichcan come o being other-ocused, disciplined anddedicated. Teyve let teapatient, orgiving teatobe their teacher, guide and riend. So here comes thekicker: Cha Dao oers deep lessons about the value opractice, presence, sel-discipline and sharingall o

which are invaluable in the very art o living. How wedo anything is how we do everything; the Way o ea isthe way o living and being, and so much more than

just tea preparation. Making tea becomes the portal toliving a better lie, becoming a better person.

One dear riend o mine here in Estonia whohas ound tea a powerul transormational tool recently

wrote to me:

I am everyday now doing a long tea session.What an inexhaustible well o nuances and inorma-

tion, and in so many dimensions! Each time, its likemeeting with a new character who has something toteach. Some are like old riends, casual and comorting.Others are like strict teachers, hard to please, punish-ing inattentiveness and sloppiness with bitterness anddistaste.

Ive been through many lessons. Some wonder-ul, some rather unpleasant. And not just about taste.

But also smell, lighting, my posture, how I hold a cup,how I breathe, my motivations and intentions

Tat tea can teach us such things is perhaps anobvious lesson, and its a lesson also learned when ap-plying gong u to any activity we choose, but its onethat becomes crystal clear at the Hut.

ea Sage HutSo how does one learn all this at the Hut? Certainlynot in a directed, obvious way. At rst I thought (mymind might have even hoped) that a daily schedulemight look something like this:

*9am - 10.15 Yixing pots: History and SpectroscopyAnalysis o Mineral Composition*10.30 - 12.00 Gong Fu Party ricks III (or those who

have completed Level II)*12.00 13.15 Qi Gong, Feng Shui and Seless Livingin 8 Easy Stepsetc

Structured education is something the mindcan comortably understand; its easier to allow growthand learning via the mind than via the heart or soul

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5aiwan State o Mind

areas which tend to reside outside our mind-delineatedcomort zones. As most o us have already learned, thedeepest and most lasting growth occurs outside o thesecomort zones, and so too do the most meaningul tea/lie lessons occur outside o a classroom-like setting. Asmany benecial discussions at the Hut happened in thekitchen, while laughing hysterically at silly jokes, on teashopping jaunts, or in meditative silence as they did inthe gong u tea room asking pointed questions.

While my rst visit resulted in me connect-ing to an approach to tea that I had unwittingly beensearching or over a long period o time, this second vis-it solidied my dedication to the tradition as practicedat the Hut (all o what you read about in these newslet-ters). Te two main themes which seemed to ollow mearound this time were the need to surrender to onesown growth (that things in lie which make us most un-comortable are just those which can enact the greatestchanges i we avail ourselves to them, an oten painulprocess we need to surrender to); and the need to clearour lives o debris and unnecessary distractions in order

to give room or those benecial changes to occur. (Weoten clutter our lives with responsibilities, object, andpeople in order to sabotage the more difcult process opersonal growth.)

Sure, there is also a loto really useul, practi-

cal tea instruction which happensat the center, but itexactly just happensits not scheduled or orced. Teissues and themes which arise spontaneously tend to be

just those that the listeners are most in need o hearing.In other words, they happen at just the right time andplace like everything does when were in tune with

what our higher selves are trying to tell us.Back here in Estonia, then, I pour a cup or the

brothers and sisters I met who are on parallel journeyso development with tea their spirit guide. Te taste isbitter and oh, so sweet

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Once upon a time in ancient China, all Earthly medi-cines were arranged to orm a great pyramid. At the top

o this pyramid sat a single lea o tea. It was placedthere by a god, and quickly blew away. No mortal eyesdid see it, but or a time the lea was there, and the pyra-mid was complete. Perection is a eeting thing, and

while perection lasted, the hierarchy looked like this:

First was tea, balanced atop ve Peaches o Immortal-ity, which rested on Phoenix eathers, Dragon bonedust, Lingzhi Mushrooms, and so on. Seven Daoistscholars argued many days and nights to reach anagreement as to how these medicines would be ar-

ranged. Tey were very wise, all masters o the realm obooks. Every combination o yin and yang, plant andclay, was careully considered and weighed.

As they discussed the comparative merits oeach kind o medicine, they drank tea.All things under heaven are equal, the seven agreed.Ten by what merits will establish their rank? askedFeiyan. For three hours they meditated on this, untilZiying opened his eyes to speak Tat which is mostsubtle in its eect, shall be considered great. Te sick-

est man requires the most crude medicine. Te perectaction is gentle, and in the proper time and place. Sot-ness is the way o the Dao, so sotness shall be consid-ered great.

With this there was no argument, and thepyramid grew.

On the top they arranged celestial things. TeImmortal peaches, medicine or the most virtuous,that ended aging or those who ate them. Phoenixeathers would return a person to health, i burned asincense during the month they were to die. Dragonbone dust, taken with ood, grants protection tohumans rom the inuence o the ve elements.Tese

were ollowed by herbs, resins, mushrooms and berrieso all kinds. Ten came cannabis, tobacco, coca, andalcohol, which ormed the blurry line between medi-cine and poison. Beneath that were strong intoxicantso every kind, many o which are illegal today. Solu-tions that drive sane people mad, but are also knownto make mad people sane. And venoms rom all specieso spider, plant, scorpion, and snake, rom which an

apothecary may crat an antidote.At the bottom o the pyramid was gold; a pure

poison that corrupts the hearts o human beings.Satised that their task was complete, the

seven scholars sent word to the Yellow Emperor. He

arrived in three days time, along with the entiretyo his court. Te Emperors attendants danced and

celebrated, taking detailed notes on the arrangemento the divine structure. Tey were prepared to study,and to derive volumes o esoteric knowledge rom thegeometries and relationships the pyramid contained.But ater studying it no more than two minutes, theEmperor ordered everyone out o the square. Hemeditated or ve days in silence at the base o thepyramid. On the morning o the sixth day he or-dered all writings on it burned, and retreated into themountains where the seven were instructed (underpain o death) to meet him there or tea.

Tey ound the Yellow Emperor alone. Eightbowls were in ront o him. Te seven approachedcautiously, bowed very low, and allowed him to servethem tea. Ater several bowls in silence, the Emperorspoke, startling them:

Dragon bone dust; what are its virtues?It grants invulnerability to the ve elements, yourmajesty, replied ChengWhat good is that!?Te seven stared in disbelie.

Te Emperor continued. o be invulnerableto the ve elements is to cease relationship with them.In order to interact, one must be vulnerable, so thatone may be moved. Dragons are invulnerable to theve elements because they have mastered them! Forhumans to use them or such a purpose would be thesame as avoiding poor grades by leaving school. Andin time they would ade rom this world, as Dragonsare beginning to.

Te Emperor poured another round o tea,they drank silently, and then he spoke again:

Phoenix eathers; what are their virtues?Tey return lie at the natural time o death, an-swered FeiyanWhat good is that!?

Again, the seven were surprised.

o use the eathers o the Phoenix is to postponea natural end. In order to achieve rebirth, one must

ully die. Death is but a shedding o what is no longerneeded. Sometimes a body is no longer needed. TePhoenix dies ully, and is reborn. Rebirth beore deathis like sowing a eld with last seasons crop still grow-ing on it!

The Pyramid of medicineea Drinks Man

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Te Emperor careully removed all the oldleaves rom his teapot, and added new ones.

ell me the virtues o the peaches o immortality.Tose who eat o them do not age, said ZiyingWhat good is that?!Te body stays youthul orever, said Ziying

Should it always be spring? Should larders never emp-ty? Should we drink tea on this mountain endlessly?Every moment in lie is precious. o remove its transi-ence is to remove its value. It is like inating currency.I my Empire had an innite number o gold coins,the value o one coin would be nothing. Te greatestcurse is to never change. Te goal o lie is returning tothe Dao, not staying asleep in separation without end!

Te Emperor removed a Jade dog rom thetable and added a polished stone. He poured anotherround o tea.

Despite all I have said, the pyramid is nearly perect.Everything is in the proper place. Nothing underheaven is without purpose; and the peach, the eather,and the bone o dragons are divine medicine. But youhave orgotten something which brings everythinginto alignment. Drink tea and meditate on this. I youcannot tell me beore sundown, all o you will be ex-ecuted. I cannot have such stupid doctors in my GreatEmpire!

Hours passed, and the sun ell lower in the sky.Many suggestions were given, but ew things underHeaven were not in the pyramid already. Some o theseven began to wail and cry. A ew were bravely re-

signed to their ate. Ziying was most prepared to die.As the sun began to touch the mountains in the west,he looked straight into the eyes o the Emperor andsaid, I dont know.

With this the Yellow Emperor grunted, andthrew his bowl at Ziyings head, shattering it andsplashing tea on everybody.

And in that moment Ziying became enlight-ened. ea! Feiyan exclaimed.

Ziying, with his ace still dripping, began tospeak.

Drinking tea heals the spirit.Preparing tea allows one to master the elements.Serving tea cultivates selessness.

Teir test complete, six o the scholars wereinvited to the palace to practice medicine. Ziying

moved to the mountains and became a hermit andcalligrapher. He waited out his nal incarnationpainting ten thousand unique characters or the wordtea. Te day beore he died, he gave his last piece toFeiyan. She studied the scroll or many years, neverully grasping its meaning. One day she accidentallyspilled tea on it, and the ink became runny. With thisminor change, she immediately understood the picto-gram.

And in that moment Feiyan became enlight-ened. Tat scroll is impossible to translate, but using

words we might say that it read:

Drink tea until no one is drinking tea.

Te Pyramid o Medicine

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Perhaps a riend brought you to tea, or you were pass-ing by a tea shop on some trip and your eye was drawn

to a certain pot or cup; maybe the Eastern exoticismenticed you to teathe rich avors, aromas and sensa-tions. And nothing has been the same since that rstsip. Te doorway cracked and you saw opened beoreyou a vast and clear world waiting to be explored.

For thousands o years weve been ensorcelledby the Lea: it has built and destroyed empires, been thecurrency o nations and wars, spanning the vast humanspectrum rom greed and selshness to the highest ospiritual states. And when you include the hundreds ogenerations devoted to the arming and processing o

tea, the creation o myriad teapots, cups, whisks andscoops, you can appreciate just how immeasurable thetea world is, as i looking into this new world you rstonly noticed that there were beautiul owers and treesin the vicinity o the doorway, but later looked urtherand saw mountains and rivers, villages and cities be-yond.

Amongst the many genres o tea, there is onecalled Oolong. Continuing our metaphor o tea as aland youve begun to explore, we might say Oolong isa city in this oreign place. Oolong is a great and bus-tling city, one o the biggest in ea. It is grown on sev-eral mountains, one o which is the amed Mt. Wuyiprovince o Fujian, China. Te Oolong tea producedthere is called Cli ea or Rock ea and is one othe brightest and richest o all Oolong teas. And thereare hundreds o kinds o Cli ea, each with its owndistinct bush, avor, aroma, etc. Te point being thatone kind o tea, Oolong, is grown on dozens o moun-tains, and that any one o those mountains produces aplethora o teas, each an adventure in and o itsel. We

discuss this only to demonstrate just how huge the teaworld is, encouraging you to develop an appreciationor the rich history, culture and spirit in tea, as well as apatience in your exploration, since there are lietimes otea to be drunk.

We know that many o you are just startingthis journey into tea and thought it might be helpul iyou had a rough map o the terrain to help guide you.Beore we give you that, though, we thought the morepoetic description o Her grandeur would inspire youto travel on. It is also important to note that the map

is not the terrain, and the categories o tea we are usinghere, and their descriptions, are only general overviews.

Youll need a more detailed map when you get to eacho the tea cities, in other words. Some teas rest near theborders o one category or another, whilst a ew dey all

categorization, especially with all the experimentationthat goes on in modern tea production. Nevertheless,

knowing the dierent tea processing methods and thebasic categories o tea can help start you o in the rightdirection.

Troughout history, dierent tea scholars havecategorized tea into dierent groupssome have ve,some six and some seven. It isnt important how many

we use. For the purpose o this article, well be discuss-ing tea in seven main groups: White, Green, Yellow,Red, Oolong, Black & Puerh.

Especially in the West, we nd that there issometimes a slight conusion in written tea materialsabout the nature o these categories. It is oten said thatall tea is a single species, Camellia Sinensis, and that thedierences in the categories o tea are all to do with howthe tea is processed. Tere is some truth in this, which is

why it is so published throughout the tea world, but itis also potentially misleading as well. Lets clariy someo this beore we map out each o the kinds o tea andtheir processing.

As we mentioned in previous articles, thereare essentially two kinds o tea trees: small lea and big

lea. Te big lea trees are the original tea trees. Teyhave roots that extend very deep and straight down,and have a single trunk leading to their crowns. Smalllea tea, on the other hand, is more like a bush, withroots that extend outwards and many trunks. As teamigrated north and east rom its birthplace in South-

west Chinawhether naturally propagated or carriedby manit, o course, adapted to the new conditionsand climate (terroir) it was transplanted in. Tis move-ment towards a bush with smaller leaves was mostly todo with the colder and colder climates; and in act, you

can see that the leaves actually get smaller and smallerthe urther north tea migrates, until you reach Japan

where the leaves are so small that when rolled they looklike tiny threads or needles.

It can be conusing when tea people say thatthe categories o tea are strictly dened by processingmethodology because the seven kinds o tea werent in-vented at once, but rather evolved over time in responseto the variations in the plant as it changed terroir. It is avery modern, and in many ways unhealthy practice totell Nature what to do. raditional arming was always

about accepting the bounty o Nature with gratitude,rather than coercing her to give certain kinds o oodsin certain amounts. Consequently, ancient tea arm-ers were conversing with their trees and adapting theirskills to suit the tea they plucked. Cli ea processing

The Seven Classes of teaA Map to the Land o ea

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was developed in response to certain bushes, in otherwords. And while you could potentially process any teain the world in the same way you process a Wuyi Clieaand some people are doing that very thing, evenright outside Wuyi provinceit will never be the sameas genuine Wuyi Cli ea. So is Cli ea a kind o treeor a kind o processing? Its hard to say, which is whythe issue is complicated.

In this day and age, armers are more andmore trying to set themselves apart by processing tea inunique ways: taking tea rom trees that have been used

to make Puerh or hundreds o years and processing theleaves like Red ea, or example. And sometimes theresults o these experiments are amazingeven begin-ning whole trends in the industry, like the movementtowards greener ie Guan Yin in Anxi province, as wellas in aiwan, over the last two decades. For the mostpart, however, these experimental teas rarely compete

with the traditionally processed teas o a region. Teact is that the processing o each particular kind otea evolved over hundreds o years by skilled cratsman

who were conversing and listening to the local leaves

and rening their skills to produce the tea in the waythat best suits it. Tere are exceptions, however, andit is important or innovation to continue, especially

when the adaptation occurs in the true spirit o tea.

We wanted to clariy that aiwan Oolong tea,or example, is a kind o bush as well as a processingmethod (actually many kinds o bushes) beore we be-gin exploring the dierent categories o tea. In this arti-cle, the seven kinds o tea we are discussing relate onlyto the processing methodology and thereore do nottake into account all o the regional variations or thedierent kinds o trees there are in the world. We couldeasily have a hundred or more categories o tea, and this

would then turn into a book. We think the analogy o amap is perect here, as you can then think o this article

as the most general o aerial views, showing only majormountains and big cities. As such, it is a good place tostart i you are just getting to know the country, buteventually you will also want to get some more detailedmaps that explore all the roads and lanes o all the bigcities, and even the small hamlets as well.

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White eaWhite ea is the simplest o all tea. All tea starts

oxidizing the moment iit is picked, but white tea is tra-ditionally thought o as the least oxidized o all tea.

Tere is, at least, no intentional oxidation. Te tea ispicked and dried. It is most oten dried in a controlled

way, though traditional White ea was sun dried in theprovince o Fujian, where they say White ea began.Like Green ea, which we will discuss next, the high-est quality white teas are oten all buds, while lowergrades contain a mixture o buds and leaves. Te tea iscalled white because the buds o certain tea varietalshave white hairs on them, which lend the small buds a

whitish silver appearance. As there is no processing tobreak down the thick cell walls, the only way to get at

the real juice o this tea would be to boil it, which noone does these days. Instead, we steep this tea at lowertemperatures. Tis produces a light-yellow, golden toclear liquor that is oten oral and ragrant. Te Qi o-ten enters the body through the aroma and/or mouth.

Green eaGreen ea has a bit more processing than

White ea. It is processed in many dierent ways de-pending on the region. Basically, though, it is picked

and then goes through some orm o heat to arrest oxi-dation. Tis could be steaming, baking or most com-monly pan-rying. It is then dried. Te best Green easare oten also only composed o buds. I the Green eaalso includes leaves, it will be ried and then rolled be-ore drying. Te rolling breaks down the cell walls andoxidizes the tea slightly. Te rolling or a Green ea willalways be signicantly less than or other teas. Te liq-uor o this tea can be clear to yellow or even vibrantgreen, depending on local variations. Te Qi oten en-ters the body through the aroma and/or mouth.

Yellow eaYellow ea is only produced in a ew places and

is thereore one the rarest kinds o tea. It is almost al-ways made o buds alone, requiring much more workthan lea and bud teas. It is processed a lot like Greenea, with the added step o sealing the ragrance. Tisentails draping a wet cloth over the tea and steaming it.ea is very sensitive to aromas around it, so the tea is in

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12essence releasing and reabsorbing its own ragrance, orsealing it in i you wish. Te liquor is golden and ra-grant. Great Yellow ea can be amazing. Te Qi otenenters the body through the aroma and/or mouth.

Oolong ea

Oolong ea is the pinnacle o tea processing.It is the most involved o all the methodologies, andrequires the greatest skill. Oolong is partially oxidizedtea. As it requires the most complicated processing,there are also greater variationsminor and majorrom region to region. Basically, Oolong ea is pickedand then goes through indoor and outdoor withering inorder to dehydrate/soten the leaves and oxidize them.Te most distinguishing eature o Oolong occurs dur-ing the withering, in which the leaves are shaken inbamboo trays to bruise the edges. Te best Oolongs

have a red ring around the edges o the leaves, as a resulto masterul shaking. Te shaking oxidizes the tea in aparticular manner. Te tea is then pan-ried to arrestoxidation and kill various green enzymes that make teabitter. (Since green tea doesnt usually have this kill-green stage, it is oten more bitter and astringent.) Teried tea is then immediately rolled to break down thecells and urther oxidize the tea. Finally, traditional Oo-long is charcoal roasted, though there are many greener,unroasted Oolongs around these days.

Oolong is either striped or balled. I it is balledOolong, it is rolled into tightened balls o three or moreleaves using a cloth wound up into a tight, round shape.Tis tradition began in Anxi, Southern Fujian and thenspread rom there to Central aiwan. I it is striped, therolling occurs across ribbed bamboo mats, which cre-ates long, twisted stripes o tea.

Tere are many levels o oxidation in Oolongtea. It is a vast and populated city o ea. Tere areso many varieties: rom greener to traditionally roast-ed, striped to ball Oolong, and even Oriental Beauty,

which we all drank together two months ago. Oolong isthe most rened and elegant o teas, and best preparedgongu style. It can be light or dark, and the Qi almostalways ows through the aroma and mouth, rising up-

wards.

Red eaRed ea is what people in the West mistakenly

called Black ea. O course, names arent important.ea is called many things in dierent languagesa rose

by any other name But in this case calling Red eaBlack ea will cause you problems as you explore the

world o tea, or as you can see below there is anothergenre o tea called Black ea. And so i you call Redea Black ea then what do you call Black ea itsel?

Some say that the reason or this error lies in theact that Europeans carried the Red ea back to Europeby ship, which took a long time and the environmentin the cargo holds urther oxidized, or even ermentedthe tea. Actually, the primary reason or the conusioncomes rom the act that European traders were onlyallowed within two hundred meters o the dock during

early trade with China. Consequently, they never sawthe tea trees, processing, etc. and all they knew abouttea came rom the broken pidgin o the dock merchantsthat sold it to them. Tis, o course, caused all sorts oconusion.

Red ea is picked and then goes through pre-processing piling. Te tea is withered in deep piles oranywhere between twelve and twenty-our hours. Tisgreatly oxidizes the tea. Ten the tea is rolled or a longtimeup to ninety minuteswhich produces a thickpaste on and around the leaves, urther oxidizing the

tea. Sometimes the tea is re-piled at this point to ullyoxidize it. Red tea can be oxidized to various degrees de-pending on the region, but it is almost always the mostoxidized o all teas, and oten ully-oxidized. Tere areother variations in some regions, like smoking the teato add avor.

Much o the Red ea in India, Sri Lanka andother places outside China is processed by machine in

what is called CC (Cut ear Curl). Tis low-qualitytea is shredded up and oxidized in machines, primarilyor use in tea bags which are meant to release all the teahas to oer in a single steeping. We wouldnt recom-mend buying such tea, though.

Te long rolling really breaks down the cellwalls, which means they can release more o their es-sence. Tis is why Red ea is richer, darker and has amore ull-bodied liquor. Because o this, Red ea is o-ten best drunk in the morning. Te Qi is oten more inthe body.

Black eaUp until recently there werent many kinds oBlack ea let in the world, and only three amous ones:Liu Bao, Liu An and Hunnan Tousand ael ea.Recently, however, a ew older kinds o brick tea pro-cessing rom other regions have been revitalized. Temain characteristic o Black ea is a post-productionpiling. Unlike the pre-production piling o Red ea,this is more like composting and involves bacteria. Itis thereore ermentation, rather than oxidation.Te tea is usually processed by picking, withering, pan-

rying and rolling. Te methods o piling vary in eacho these teas, but all require moisture and temperatureto acilitate bacterial growth. Te liquor o black tea isdark and rich, with a warming Qi that spreads out romthe chest.

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PuerhPuerh ea is sometimes put into the Black ea

category, but it should actually have a category all itsown. raditional Puerh is made rom large-lea, old-growth trees in Yunnan province, the birthplace o alltea. Te tea is picked and then withered to soten theleaves and oxidize them a bit. Tis withering can be

done indoors or outdoors, depending on the weather.Ten, tea is pan-ried to kill the green enzymes and ar-rest oxidation. It is next rolled to break down the cel-lular structure and urther encourage oxidation. Final-ly, traditional Puerh ea is sundried. At this stage it iscalled rough tea (mao cha). Puerh ea is then otencompressed into cakes, but can remain loose as is.

Puerh tea is unique because the trees in the jun-gles o Southwestern China are covered in hundreds ospecies o molds and bacteria beore the leaves are evenpicked. Te relationship Puerh ea has with these mi-

crobes is magical, allowing it to erment over time as itages. All tea can age, and improve over time, but nonelike Puerh. Puerh ea transorms completely over time,changing rom a bitter, astringent liquor to a deep anddark brew that is ull o more Qi than any other kindo tea. Nowadays, tea drinkers mostly eel that eventwenty or thirty-year-old Puerh is ancient. But there

was a time, and not so long ago, when tea drinkers onlydrank Puerh eas that were above seventy!

In the 60s, and then ofcially in 1972, severalPuerh actories were working to try to speed up the er-mentation o Puerh articially. O course they werentsuccessul. How could science ever create the magic oseventy or a hundred years? What they did do, however,

was create a new kind o tea, called Ripe Puerh (shou).

Ripe Puerh is processed like traditional Raw Puerh(sheng) only with the added step o post-productionpiling. Tey moisten piles o rough tea (mao cha) andthen cover the pile with a thermal blanket, trappingheat and moisture and speeding up the bacterias work.Tis is much like composting. Tis idea to articiallyerment the tea post-production came rom the Puerhactory owners and researchers trips to Black ea ac-tories. Because Ripe Puerh was developed out o Blackea production, many authors put all Puerh in theBlack ea category. Te problem with this, however, isthat it ignores all the Raw Puerh (sheng), which is noth-ing like Black ea; and is urthermore the traditional,and by quantity and quality the greater kind o Puerhea as well. It is, thereore, much more logical to givethis unique tea its own category altogether.

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This month we thought we would share three o the basics o all tea brewing, gongu or otherwise. Tese are useultools to incorporate into your tea practice. I you nd you have been doing otherwise, it would be a good idea to rightyoursel so you dont orm habits that will later be more difcult to break. Sometimes we may not understand why themasters suggest a particular methodology, only to realize the important role it plays when weve developed urther. Give

these principals a try and see how they improve your tea brewing.Te rst and most basic principal o tea brewing is to divide your tea space in hal right down the center. Ten

make a commitment that you will do everything on the let side with the let hand and everything on the right sidewith the right hand. One reason or this is that it is impolite to turn your back on any o your guests, which you willinvariably do when you reach across the let side o the table with your right hand or vice versa. Also, it is importantor us to respect our teaware. I you reach across the let side o the table with your right hand, you will be blind on thereturn journey and your elbow or arm is likely to bump or catch on something. Furthermore, it is essential that our

whole body be centered in tea brewing, so we should make a greater eort to involve our strong and o hand both. Tisbrings grace and completeness to our brewing.

Second, all movements o the right hand are counterclockwise and all movements o the let hand are clockwise.Tis is to do with the way our body works, and is a principal o martial arts like aichi as well. ry rotating your arms

both correctly and contrary and see how uncomortable it is when your elbows rotate inwards i you are going the wrongway; as well as how smooth it is to rotate your arms correctly.

Tirdly, its best to keep our kettle on our o hand side. Most o us are right-handed, so this means using yourlet hand to hold the kettle and pour water. As mentioned above, this involves both sides o your body. It is importantthat the tea be poured into cups rom the strong hand, or Qi reasons. I we also use the same hand to pour water, ourtea brewing becomes stuttered and lacks a graceul smoothness. In other words, i you use only your right hand, you willhave to pick up and set down the teapot lid, pick up the kettle and pour the water, set the kettle down and return thelid and pour the steeped liquor. Tis requires a jerky motion o pauses and starts. When the let and right hands workin conjunction, the whole process ows so much more smoothly. Rocking back and orth ambidextrously rom hand tohand, side to side, the right hand grabs the lid, the let adds water, and then beore the kettle is even put down the lidis back and the pot is up and pouring in the right hand.

You can try some experiments brewing in both ways and see the awkwardness o doing it contrary compared tohow smooth it is when you let things ow the way they were meant to. Tese ancient ways werent created, but ratherdiscovered in harmony with the way tea brewing best ows unobstructed...

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Silver Ginbin

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All o us have known someone in our lives who loved toanswer questions without saying anything useul, oten

with a smirk or an evil grin. I your ather was like this,then you might have asked something along the lineso: How do I put together this toy? Ater an assessingglance at the box, the torturous reply would inevitablybe something like: You take those pieces and make arobot! Well thats great and allthe destination is im-portant to knowbut what good is knowing the desti-nation i we dont know how to get there? I realized thismonth that I had done this (minus the evil grin, I prom-ise) with my last article: Humility is very important,so be humble instead o proud. Umm, ok yeah thats

clearly a good idea, but how? Te answer is simple, andthis answer really applies to any and all but how? ques-tions youll ever ask: nd a teacher.

For me, however, even this simple act itsel al-most took more humility than I had at rst, and Id haveto say it was the rst really big hurdle in the beginningo my journey here. Ater all, I had grown up indoctri-nated with ideas o sel-sufciency, independence, thesel-made man, and similar concepts rom a young age,and had taken them to heart. I came to love competing

with others and demonstrating superiority in anything

and everything, always careul to manage my lie well sothat I could be independent and get by without any-ones help. I read tons o books and knew enough aboutalmost any conceivable subject o conversation to saysomething relevant or insightul, and considered theseinsights to be mine, as though I had written the books!I taught mysel almost everything, or so I believed. Tissort o oolishness is a huge part o why the capacity tohumble mysel to a teacher and my capacity or humil-ity in general was so low. When I got to ea Sage Hut,

there were numerous areas o my lie where I had a loto room to grow (I even recognized some o them!) butthe moment my teacher would conront me on thoseaspectssame quality that the day beore I was tellingmysel Id like to grow out oI would rise up in deenseo my own neurosis, or worse deny them.

Even now, its almost as though there is an alter-ego inside me who would rather spend ve, ten, teenyears, (however long it takes!) to gure it out by myselthan to bow beore another person and admit that I havesomething to learn rom them. You might as well admit

hes better than you! Te ego quietly, venomously, whis-pers. Its about as sensible as signing up or a requiredcourse, then reusing to buy the book or go to the lec-tures. o have any chance at all, I would just have to ndanother book or listen to someone elses knowledge on

the subject anyway! Otherwise, there is really no chanceId gure it out at all, especially i the lesson is difcult

and o great value; and even i I did get it one day, Iwould have wasted a great deal o the precious little timeI have in this lie or the sake o something o innitelylesser value: my pride. I might as well open a businesstrading diamonds or lumps o coal.

What a silly game on which to waste this briemoment o a lie weve been given! Tere isnt even sucha thing as by mysel, independently or sel-taught inthe rst place. Even the greatest geniuses o all time relyon all the knowledge o the past. Without all the accom-plishments o past geniuses, using their experience and

knowledge as teachers, the modern genius could neverachieve his accomplishments. I you sent Tomas Edisonback to the Stone Age, he could never have created thelight bulb. And this doesnt even touch the billions-o-years-old chain o universal events that brings us all intobeing in the rst place. A Nobel Prize winners motheris as responsible or his discovery as he is, and perhapsthey would even admit that, though how many live that

wisdom?As Carl Sagan once put it, I you want to make

an apple pie rom scratch, you must rst create the en-

tire universe. I didnt bring my own mind into being,so why should I take credit or its creativity? Tere is noindividual credit because nobody acts without the entirehistory o every aspect o the universe acting with them.So I brewed a perect cup o tea and someone was movedinto stillness, into communion with their rue Sel and

with Nature, and it even changed their lives; wonderul!But beore I start to get giddy with my power, I had bet-ter take a moment to thank rst o all the person I justserved or their willingness to learn and the act that theysat down at all, then the cups, and the pot, and the tea,and the water, and whoever made that cup, and whoeverpreserved it this long til now, and the earth that ormedthe clay or a billion years beore that, and the sun andthe moon and the armer and the armers amily thatpreserved the knowledge to process this tea, and on andon unendingly until I realize I am ar too small a part othis process to start eeling big, though I was no less nec-essary than any o the rest o those pieces either.

Its taken a lot o butting my head against thatwall o not wanting to lower mysel since I got here, a lot

o reverting back to the idea that I can do these things bymysel, though Im okay (maybe) accepting a teachingabout those things over there. Tere is a saying that youhave probably all heard that we are all students, and weare all teachers. Tere is a similar saying in Zen that A

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master can be a student o all. Ironically, these quotesare avorites o both the worst students and the best stu-dents, but or dierent reasons. When I got here, I ellinto the ormer category: to me, quotes like these weregood expressions o exactly why I didnt need a teacher atall.

Tats right, I thought. I am already a teacher,

I teach mysel things all the time, what do I need a mas-ter other than mysel or? But the truth is my lie was ahuge list o people with whom I was and was not willingto learn. Tose I listened to and those I didnt listen to,all o which really amounts to the same thing as i I werereading a book and circling all the parts that enhancedthe belies I already had while at the same time denounc-ing the rest o the book. Ten, on top o that, I was tak-ing credit or those ideas! In line with the tendency tobelieve I could do everything on my own, I was coppingout o bowing to a teacher by pointing to these catch

lines. But I might as well have said, Im going to be amaster blacksmith today. It takes years o hard work andapprenticeship to accomplish such mastery. And there isno mastery o anything without rst mastering our pride.It was with this realization, that I didnt really have whatit took to be a student just yet, and a recognition o theprideul and unproductive way I was really relating to allthose potential teachers, that I nally realized the impor-tance o choosing one teacher, one relationship, in whichI was going to practice bowing all the time. Even i alesson is something I dont need to work on, even i it is

something I have already achieved, its irrelevant to wastetime considering; that simple act o practicing humilityand the opportunity to practice it are o tremendous, in-estimable value in truly learning uture lessons as well.

And now I am nding that it is not only inuencing myability to accept and learn the lessons rom the teacherIve made an intention with, but increasingly all the in-

nite lessons that are available rom the other teachers inmy lie are growing more available and meeting less re-sistance as well. Te more and more I surrender mysel tothe process o being a student in this one relationship, themore I practice and keep my commitment to not deviateinto resistance and the more that habit is spilling overinto my other relationships, to the benet o all.

Lets ace it; how many o us can say that there isnot one single person in the world, not one person whocan push a button that makes us push back? Probably,there are more such people than not. How many rela-

tionships and situations arise in your lie, even on a dailybasis, where you react without thinking about it and areunconscious, or at least a ew moments, i not hours ordays, instead o looking or the lesson this moment is try-ing to teach you and experiencing gratitude toward thatperson or situation rather than resistance?

Te natural question, then, is how to choose ateacher? I everyone and everything can be a teacher, andI need to choose one to practice with beore I can benetrom all o them, who should it be? Well, or one thing,it should probably be someone that has an intention to

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teach you, rather than someone who only teaches youincidentally. Someone with experience and knowledge, as

well as the desire to see you grow. Yes, you could choosea person in your lie who just happens to be blessed withthe ability to push your buttons and make a decision tolearn about yoursel rom that interaction. But then youhave only yoursel to answer to. Nobody is going to be

there to support you or warn you when you deviate ormake a mistake; no one to encourage you and keep youmotivated. Not to mention, i you nd a teacher whointends to teach you, then it is ar easier to maintainpractice simply because you know ahead o time that thisperson is only pushing your buttons because its in yourown interest, never out o a genuine desire to hurt you.

An intentional teacher pushes you because they love you,so its not as difcult to remember to be grateul as it is

when someone is trying to hurt you. Tis is the dierencebetween a teacher and a teaching.

Tere is a saying that when the student is ready,the master appears. I you are truly ready or it, you

will nd that the perect teacher or you is already readilyavailable. Teyve probably been knocking on your dooror some time, and will continue to do so in one ormor another your whole lie until you recognize them. Imissed out on the rst such opportunity in my lie, myather. A master carpenter, he oten sought to teach me

what he knew, but I had a dozen reasons why Id ratherdo nothing instead, and here I am a decade later only

just now learning many o the same lessons through teaI could have learned then through carpentry. And thatsthe point: all the time wasted in reusing to have a teacherdoesnt accomplish anything besides putting o the mo-ment when you will accept one and get to work. In the

meantime, you have to live with the unpleasantness o allthose unlearned lessons in your lie, so in act the easiestthing you can do is to start working!

I suppose that ultimately, my advice is that i youhave a teacher, rst recognize that you indeed need the

water o wisdom in your lie. Ten start digging yourwell wherever you are with the shovel you already have.Beyond the tendency to deny the need to dig in the rstplace, there is a tendency to criticize the shovel and con-vince ourselves that we have to go nd a dierent shovelto dig with. But this is just the same game weve been

talking about dressed up in another outt. I am readyto be a student, but the trouble is all these teachers areno good, goes the reasoning, when in reality any o theshovels will take you down to the water i you just stopmaking excuses. Te act o the matter is that we all needthat water in order to live, so start digging; the sooneryou dig, the sooner youll quench your thirst!

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Tere is always a bowl and a bed waiting or you.

These simple words uttered at the end o a tea sessionwould turn out to be some o the most inuential in mylie.

Like many o us, my journey into tea began witha chance meeting over tea with Wu De. I was in VeniceBeach, CA at emple ea and was just coming to drinksome new tea and check out what a Chinese tea ceremo-ny was like. I was sitting at a long wooden table cut roma single tree and I experienced my rst Puerh in years.

I had orgotten my rst experience with Puerh,thinking only o the tea rom years o Chinese restaurantsand the ew dates long ago with girls and agendas. ea

was then just an excuse to get together, spend time witha pretty girl and pretend to be interesting, or to washdown some Kung Pao Chicken. Te experience o losinga whole day to one tea session with a girl was buried deepin my memory. But now sitting, and sipping rom mybowl, I remembered the mystery that began to blossomin me. What is going on in this bowl?

Te world dropped away, my body started tohum and buzz, arms and ace tingling, a calm excitementgrew, and a clarity revealed itsel. As I continued to drink

bowl ater bowl a peace and stillness grew in my heartand the words Wu De spoke seemed to sound more orme and less like just another thing I was checking out. Asthe session ended, I heard him speak right to me Tereis always a bowl and a bed waiting or you. In that mo-ment I knew he was inviting me to come to aiwan.

I have received invitations beore, and many lessoutlandish and more reasonable, but this was the rstand I hope not the last, that stirred something inside meand had me thoughtlessly answer, Yes. Ater that yesmy lie started to shit and things that normally would be

dismissed out o hand were now shining brightly in myeveryday lie. A riend expressing their enjoyment o tea,a gig that paid the same amount as a ticket to aiwan, mygirlriend talking about how I always wanted to travel the

world. Tat simple yes would go on to alter the well-grooved path o my lie and lead me to spend two weeksat the ea Sage Hut in aiwan. And while these changesin my lie were visible on the surace, it was the othersdeep within that truly altered me had me, in order tobring the spirit o tea back to Los Angeles in my heart.

Te rst two days in aiwan, I went through the

expected transitions rom changing sides o the globe,struggling to keep my eyes open during lunch, wakingup at 3 AM, and a general sense o conusion. However,even through my jetlag I was still experiencing somethingdierent than I expected: Te center is open to the pub-

lic, and many times a day several dierent aces would

wander in or a bowl o tea or two; or just to check outwhat was going onrom a pair o French Canadians,to students and riends, to an incredibly oul-mouthedhermit. Each o them had their own stories and reasonsand issues, but each o them was served a bowl with asmile and given love and space. My tired body was slowly

waking to the realization that there is something specialhappening in the mountain town o Miaoli, down a littlealley, just waiting or anyone to stop in.

As the days continued and my body woke tothis new lie, Wu Des smiling ace, the aroma o burn-ing incense, the eel o a hot bowl o tea in my hands, itall started to melt the hardness and cynicism around myheart that I had spent many years orging. I ound mysel

joining in discussions, meditations, weekly outings, mov-ie nights, tea reviews, and tea lectures. I was surprisedby how much joy came rom all o these activities. Hadyou asked me beore, I would have only authenticallybeen interested in movie nights and would never havethought I would sit through a three-hour lecture on teain aiwanese untranslated, let alone nd deep peace and

wisdom in it.I came to love seeing each person who lives atand runs the center coming day and night, living theirlives in service to tea. I couldnt help but join in. At rstI lived out my secret antasy o being a monk and livinga lie o quiet servicepraying and meditating and be-ing at peace with everything. However, this antasy wasquickly interrupted by the most amazing thing: the stu-dents problems and complaints were no dierent romthe ones I brought rom LA and was hiding under myantasy. roubles with their loved one, not enough time

in the day to do what they wanted, things going wrongand things not turning out the way they wanted. Howcould they be at peace and continue to serve with all othese things going on? I was pretending to ignore myproblems but the others were voicing them and discuss-ing them in each moment and meeting. Seeing themdeepen their journey into themselves and into tea was sointoxicating to me, as were their victories and setbacks allplaced on the altar and burned up in their service to tea.Each moment a teacher, each experience a chance to look

within, each interaction a mirror o themselves. I started

to share more about mysel and my lieaster than Ihave ever knownand as I shared my true concerns andears, the center seemed to grow warmer and more com-orting, the people more caring and loving, and the tea

wiser and more proound.

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I then remembered a major reason or coming

to aiwan was to travel, so I set o rom Miaoli andjourneyed into the heart o aiwan, bringing with methe warmth and love o the center. As I visited aipeiand the museums and tea houses there, I got a sense othe pride the aiwanese have or their homeland. But it

wasnt until riding a scooter into aroko Gorge that I tru-ly understood the beauty o this island. I sped along thevalley roads occasionally glancing up. I elt I was ridingthrough an ancient Chinese scroll painting. I would stopand wander up a path and see dragonies, butteries,crickets, birds I could not even begin to place, monkeys,

misty clis, lone trees creeping out o the side o a rockace; it was all there. I elt enormous connection to thesages o old, viewing what they had meditated and livedhundreds o years ago, and experiencing what I imaginemust have been the same reverence and humble joy be-ore such vistas.

As this connection pulled me deeper into thegorge, my old ears and concerns began to loom onceagain, as clouds approaching the ull moon, threateningto block out all the light and beauty rom beore. Whatam I doing? How am I going to get back? I dont

know where I am going or even how to speak the lan-guage. I searched or the warmth and love o the center,only to nd more clouds. I had let Miaoli with two bagsand a desire to travel, but little in the way o plans or anyidea o how to go about it.

Once again, it was a thoughtless yes that

brought the answer. A yes to a aiwanese mother anddaughter rom New Jersey that helped me nd a place tostay, a yes to a retired aiwanese English teacher whooered to drive me over the highest mountain road inaiwan to the beautiul and amous Sun Moon Lake, ayes to a Beijing graduate student who oered to sharehis hostel room and day with me, a yes to the lunch,tour, and interview with the owner o Sun Moon Lakeea Company who opened his actory to me. Te kind-ness and generosity o every person humbled me greatlyand was as great a teacher as the many hours I had spent

at the center with Wu De over a bowl o tea.Now, back in Los Angeles, my previous lie has

gripped me all over again: Deadlines, riends, my an-c, work, and amily. Te clouds once again seem to bethreatening to block out the beauty and serenity o themoon. How do I bring the peace and joy that resonatesand lls the walls o the center back to my apartment inthe City o Angeles?

A thoughtless yes

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The moon rose over the monastery, dripping silver lightall along the ying roos, trees and even on the gardenstones Chen was walking along. He couldnt sleep, so hemeandered through the garden, looked up at the moon

and remembered his breath coming in and going out.His mind knew all the reasons why such excitement wastrite; his lie would only return to simplicity ater the cer-emony was over, but he couldnt help but eel that beingully ordained rom a novice to a true monk was the big-gest event o his lie. And there was still the last teaching

with the abbot himsel. Some said it was like a test. Hehad been warned that he would only be ordained i and

when he ully understood the most important o lessons.He wasnt as worried about meeting the abbot, hed al-

ways liked the old man, and Chen was a great student i

anything. He knew he wouldnt have any trouble memo-rizing, reciting or understanding whatever was needed toimpress the abbot. And yet, the whole transormation wasin his nerves, moving with enough orce to get him outo bed. Te beautiul ull moon and the neatly trimmedgarden, stones, river and koi sh were quickly calminghis body down to where his mind knew it should be.He knew none o this was important, knew that it was

just another changing moment in a great and uid oceano experience, but knowing and being arent always thesame thing. I guess thats why Im a novice, he thought.

Ater the morning meditation and chant, Chendecided to eat his breakast alone. He took it out into thegarden. Dew glistened on the grass and the owers andbushes vibrantly contrasted with the darkness the placehad oered the night beore. He couldnt stop the nervouseeling that was shaking his porridge, and didnt bother.He lited his gaze to the horizon and allowed himsel todraw in some o its beauty. A ew minutes later and thesummons came or him. He was asked to meet the abbotin his quarters.

Chen cleaned his bowl slowly and meanderedthrough the monastery with slow determination. He re-membered when he was rst brought to the monasteryas a boy. He had hated the whole idea and cried duringthe entire trip. He remembered looking out at the distantmountains rom the back o the jouncing ox cart as hisather rubbed his arms and spoke gently o the great or-tune and honor he was bringing to his amily. Not every-one was accepted into this monastery. Once a monk, thevillagers thought, he would bring merit to all their house-holds. His parents reputation would be established and

his younger sister would have a better marriage. He un-derstood much more o this now, but the sting o parting

with his mother and ather still bristled inside him. Noneo that mattered. He wasnt here or them anymore, any-

way. He wasnt nervous on behal o the distant village,

lost in an emotional well that he drew rom less and lesseach year, he was nervous because he wanted this morethan anything.

Te abbot was kind and gentle. His wrinkled

esh seemed to mirror his inner sotness. He smiled andgestured or Chen to have a seat on one o the cushionsthat surrounded a knee-high table hewn rom a boul-der long beore this abbot took up residence here. Chensat down and put his palms together in greeting. Hebreathed deeply and looked at the abbot. Te old manssmile slowly withdrew. He placed an old, worn clay ket-tle onto a charcoal stove to heat up water or tea. Placinghis hands together on the table, he pursed his lips andlooked Chen over or some time. Te silence seemed tostretch outwards and pull apart the moments, allowing

extra time to ow in. Te old abbot cleared his throat,Chen, when you have come to understand your nallesson, you will be ordained. It was this way or all themonks that went beore you into silence. Tis ordination

wont be a celebration, but a bridge over which you willpass. From now on your only words will be those thatare chants o the spirit; your only thoughts o peace anddepthyour very being will ocus the serenity and teach-ing o the masters beore you. He paused and smiled.Chen relaxed a bit and smiled back. But rst, you willneed to understand the most important lesson youvelearned until now. More important than the Precepts orthe Noble ruths; more important than the ancient textsand all their commentaries. Te abbot reached underhis side o the table and pulled up a small wooden box.He ipped the latch and opened it. Inside, on a yellowcushion, there were some dark leaves. He gently pickedthem up and put them into the small teapot that rest be-ore him. He raised the kettle rom the stove and poured

water into the pot. His movements had all the grace othe dancers Chen had seen as a child. Te water seemed

to stroke the leaves and the pot, raising banners o steamaround in spirals just as the dancing women had. Teabbot closed his eyes and ared his nostrils with a deepdraught o air beore pouring the golden liquor into twosmall cups. He placed one o these beore Chen and ges-tured with his hand.

Chen looked down at the reddish-golden brewand watched the steam swirl o the surace, carrying thesmell o blossoms upwards to his ace. He inhaled the per-ume and shut his eyes in pleasure. It was one o the bestsmells o his lie. He sipped the gorgeous tea and enjoyed

the sensations it caused in his mouth and throat. Te teaseemed to pour upwards through his head in waves oenergy. It was bliss. Te abbot poured one more steepingand then relaxed his back into a straighter, more medita-tive posture. Chen ollowed suit and began meditating as

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he had been taught since he was a boy. First he ocusedon the space between his upper lip and nose, eeling theair as it passed in and out. Ten he began to ocus on thesensations in his body, the quieting thoughts in his mindand the peace that began to drit through him calmingand slowing the world down. Te tea seemed to ampliyhis meditation and resonate through his body in waves.

Over the course o a couple hours, the abbotpoured steeping ater steeping and the magical leavesnever lost their darkness or avor. But Chen had long agolet behind all the tastes and smells the tea had to oer,driting on its current to deeper meditations than he hadever had beore. Finally, when the gong or lunch rangthroughout the monastery, the abbot looked up at Chenand raised an eyebrow in askance. Was this a question? Atest? Should he describe what he had experienced? Teconusion jolted him back to the present. Te abbotseyebrow slowly released its question and he smiled. He

reached over and patted Chen on the shoulder. Comeback again tomorrow, he said. Had Chen ailed? He puthis hands together, bowed and let the room quietly. He

was a bit shocked. What had just happened?

Chen spent the next day in contemplative si-lence. Novices were technically allowed to speak, buthe had lost all interest in chatting with the other hope-uls. He wondered i the abbot was somehow readinghis mental state and judging his readiness or a lie odevotion. Again he asked himsel i he had ailed. Per-haps the abbot was just asking him to be more mindul

so that he could ask him a question. Chen meditated allnight, without rest.

Ater breakast the next day, the summons onceagain came. Once again the wizened old abbot put thekettle on the stove. Tis time Chen noticed more aboutthe room than he had beore: the warm wood smell othe charcoal stove, the golden crevices in the abbots sothands that spoke o kindness, the veins in the ancientsstone table and the view o the garden out the small

window. Te abbot brought orth the leaves, made ob-sequious gestures to them once again and then set about

brewing the tea just as he had the day beore. Te teatasted richer today. Chen noticed many other avors,smells and sensations than he had the day beore. Be-neath the owery smell there were hints o loam and

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earth. He also noticed the way the tea aected his breathater he had swallowed it; and as he slipped into a medi-tative state, more graceully than the previous day, he alsonoticed the way the teas energy owed through his bodyupwards and downwards, leaving out the extremities.

Te two sat our a ew hours, this time beyondeven the gong or lunch, which reverberated through

Chen in an odd way. Finally, the abbots smile had re-turned. It was the rst notice he had taken o Chen. Un-like yesterday, there had been no greetingjust straightto the tea. Chen wondered i the question would comenow, or i perhaps the abbot was gauging his meditation,his awareness, to see i he was t to be a monk at thismost prestigious o monasteries. He umbled or an an-swer, looking at the abbot in quizzical embarrassment asthe old, white eyebrow once again rose in a gesture o

wonder. Chen obviously wasnt seeing what he was meantto do. Te abbot was gentle though. He smiled and pat-

ted Chen on the sleeve, patiently asking him to returnagain the next morning.

Tis time, Chen spent the entire aternoon andevening in meditation. Te tea had seemed to inspire analertness in him. He stayed in the meditation hall, recog-nizing time only by the increasing shadows through theslit windows, the moonlight and then the bright rays odawn. At sunrise he rose and strolled through the garden.He ound, to his surprise, that the questions, ordinationsand test had all drited away. It didnt matter ater all.One didnt need a ceremony, a robe or even a monasteryto live a lie devoted to enlightenment. A simple oresthut would sufce. He even began to pack his bags andprepare or the journey mentally. He knew he would beno more or less comortable by himsel in a hut than herein the garden. During the past months he had alreadybegun to withdraw more and more rom the communityo novices. He thought this had been because his studies

were increasingly difcult, or because o the upcomingvow o silence, but he now realized that in a lie o spir-it none o that mattered, only his own meditation did.

He vowed that today when he went to see the abbot hewould make it the last trip. He wanted to just enjoy thepowerul tea and the quiet it instilled. I he had to leavethe next day, or i he was ordained, it was o no conse-quence really. He also knew that this was perhaps whathad been expected o him all along.

When he arrived to the abbots quarters he satand observed his breath as the water heated up. Whenthe abbot bowed to the tea leaves, Chen also did andmentally thanked them or helping him to understandall that he had come to realize through the past ew days

meditations. Again, he ound that he was able to experi-ence much more o the tea this time. A stray thoughtpassed through his head, wondering whether it was justa amiliarity with the tea or an increased sensitivity. Tistime he noticed a slight bitterness in the atertaste that

wasnt unpleasant at all. He also seemed to be aware othe entire room, every movementevery breath swellinghis being until he could eel the water pouring over theleaves, their essential oils dispersing into the pot, cup andeven his body.

Ater a ew hours o tea drinking and quiet medi-tation Chen bowed to the abbot. Tere was no question

or test, just tea between riends. Te abbot smiled pro-usely. Now you understand, my brother Chen hadntailed to notice the term reserved or ellow monks. Tescriptures, teachings and methods are all secondary to thelie that lives them. Even this lesson, about being peacerather than thinking iteven this is not as important asthe lie and experience you live, the tea you drink, the

water that prepares it and the gentle steam that unurlsrom its liquor. Te abbot paused and held Chens handgently. Now you are truly ready to live such a lie.

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I recently had the opportunity o meeting someone

again who I had not seen or some time, and it re-minded me o the way in which we can change withoutrecognizing it. Such meetings are almost always a bitstrange. I the encounter is brie and supercial, youmost likely will only notice the physical changes: lost orgained weight, children, hair, wrinkles, style o clothes,and so on. I the encounter leads to lunch or dinner orsomething else, (tea perhaps?) then you have a chance todig a bit deeper into the more personal changes theyveundergone. In this case, I had a chance to witness both;rst the surprise at the physical changes, and next, over

tea, the discovery o the deeper internal changes.Now in this case, although there were some

very apparent physical dierences, the time-rame wasshort enough that these were pretty supercial, nothingto inspire a double-take. But as we got to talking andspending a bit o time together, I quickly realized thatthis person had changed tremendously on the inside,and urthermore that they didnt seem to be aware o it.It is always easier to see something in someone else thanit is to see it in yoursel. Tis is almost the only goodreason to spend any time looking at anyone other than

yoursel at all. I try to make it my practice that when-ever I spot something in another person, I then lookor it in mysel, and this is exactly why this practice isimportant. When something is within me, that meansI live with it every day, and the things I see every dayare easily overlooked; but when you look at someoneelse, or havent seen someone in a while, their qualitiesor changes really stand out. Tis is important because

without recognition o our own changes, we not onlystagnate in a delusion o a constant identity, but we arealso limited in our ability to empower ourselves and

make the most meaningul contribution to the worldthat we can.

I realized that when I look in the mirror eachday to brush my teeth, without a thought there is thisrecognition happening: Tats me, Im the same as I

was yesterday! Or maybe sometimes there is a specicthought there. I notice that pimple rising on my nose orthat my hair is doing something unny it wasnt doingbeore, but these tiny physical changes never amountto me thinking: Wow Im a totally dierent person!

And this isnt even touching the deeper, inner aspects omysel that are also developing and building too slowlyto see. Yet there can be no doubt; I am growing, I amchanging, and just as I see so clearly the changes in an-other, i I pay closer attention I should be able to nd

the changes in mysel. But where to look? Where to

nd a mirror that can peer into those depths? Why tea,o course!Tis is one o the many beauties o tea as the

great connector, the bridge between the spiritual andthe mundane, the Earth and the Heavens. With rootsdrinking in the power o one and leaves outstretched tobask in the power o the other, tea touches both sides,giving each cup the capacity to reect either one in itsdepths, depending only on our desire to see. And lookI have. As it happens, gauging my progress in tea is re-ally easy, because I have a Wu De around. And I have

noticed that whereas initially he used to do things likepoint suddenly behind me and scream, MY GOD!LOOK OU BEHIND YOU! and toss the tea overhis shoulder, he later progressed into actually drink-ing it while appearing to struggle painully to achievea deep meditative state. Nowadays, Ive nally risento the level where he merely grimaces and turns greenrom time to time! But since this is too easy, I suppose

we should take a look elsewhere as well.Now on the surace levelthe level o pimples

and haircutsI rankly cant see the dierences in my

tea. Tis is the tea that I make or mysel. It seems to methat Ive always made it about this well; I know I dontenjoy drinking my own tea any more than I did beore.

And i I was learning about tea only at this level, thelevel o making it or my own enjoyment, this wouldbe the limit o what I could get out o it. But this isa tradition oservingtea, and I think Ive just realizeda new aspect o why this is so important, literally justnow. Because it is only in serving tea to others that Ican really witness the deep and meaningul changes mytea has obviously undergone when I wasnt paying at-

tention. It seems so obvious now, but serving tea is theinsight into the proound side o tea I was looking or!

I can remember when I rst started making tea,admittedly with no intention o service at all, and the

way the tea sessions would go. For one thing, the teaceremony itsel was just one drawn-out procession o

whatever I wanted: the cups I wanted, the tea I wanted,the pot, the music, and so on. Tere was not even aninkling o the idea that these decisions should be made

with the tea (my only guest at rst) in mind. I didnteven recognize the tea as a guest at that time. I was veryortunate that I spent almost no time at all in this phasebeore nding the school here and beginning to learnthat tea had something greater to oer, i you were will-ing to in turn oer it to others.

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when someone has newly arrived in a oreign countryseeking something. Ater some time spent in the silentcommunion, I had grown comortable in my capacityto serve, so I oered to teach our guest how to hold hisbowl. Tis simple and practical lesson then naturally de-veloped into a deeper lesson about our practice o treat-ing our bowl with respect and care, listening to how it

wishes to be picked up, set down, lled and emptied, isimportant because eventually this practice will spill overinto the way we relate to all objects, and beyond. Tats

just a paraphrase, but the point isnt to try to convey thatlesson here. I remember how at the time, the words justspilled out o me without thought, and later I realizedthat I had listened to the same lesson in almost the same

words many times over the last ew months at the center.But the truly miraculous thing about that session wasthat ater the lesson was given, our guest was completelytransormed, and not just or a moment.

Its not so unusual or a group o people sittingdown, at one o our outings perhaps, to listen to suchan instruction and handle their bowls more careully orone, two, maybe three steepings, then go right back tothe way they were doing it beore, or some haphazard

way more oten than not. But not only did our guestproceed to pick up his rst bowl ater that lesson withevery cell o his body straining to be in tune with it, heset it down that way as well. Ten he did it again, andagain, and againI watched in amazement as he visitedus or nearly two weeks and not only did he never onceail to pick up and set down his bowl in this way, but Icould see he was doing his best to practice relating toother objects in his lie instead o using them. Dur-ing his visit, he asked us to perorm a ceremony or himsymbolic o his desire to be a part o this tradition andmake it a part o his lie even where he lives now onthe other side o the world, and he is one o our dearestbrothers today.

Even more incredibly, as recently as two days ago,I was present to witness the continuing repercussions o

that tea session. Te third student who was drinking teawith us that day, another resident here who had alreadyheard the same teaching given almost as oten as I had,

witnessing the impact that taking in and living the les-son had on our guest, began practicing it or the rsttime as a result! Weve been drinking tea together or aew months since then, and neither o us, I must admit,have picked up every single bowl with that same level oreverence each time. But every once in a while I have wit-nessed her reach or the bowl, then stop and rememberas the hand slows down its approach, grasping the bowl

gently like a baby bird, or setting it down as such aterdrinking. In those moments I always nd mysel trans-xed, as I realize that this act has not only carried on andchanged the lives o those two people in a way that is asclear as day beore my eyes, but it has come ull circle and

impacted me as well. I too slow down and reach gentlyor that bowl, eyes moist in the recognition o the powero tea. And all this is really only a small microcosm o

what really came out o that session and that whole visit.It may seem such a small thing that we overlook

it; someone changing the way they pick up a bowl, whichthen changes the way someone else picks up a bowl, so

on Tis is like tea served to someone who was angrya moment ago and nds their anger dissipating; or teaserved to someone who loves to talk endlessly about trivi-alities now nding themselves in silence or a ew min-utes o communion with themselves. Perhaps the ormer

will get angry again later and the latter will be chatteringaway again. But the truth is always deeper and vaster,stretching ar beyond our ability to see in linear time.Its important to remember this and have aith that even

when we cant see the impact o a tea session that theimpact is there. Its also important to remember to polish

our mirrors and deepen our practice so that we can bettersee the impact we are having, ever reevaluating ourselvesand our practice.

Above all, dont sell yoursel short in an aectedattempt at humility. Tis does nobody any good. I wedont recognize our own growth, how can we put ourabilities to work? And never let yoursel be convincedthat your tea isnt making a dierence. iny changes addup, good or ill; they are drops in a jar. Given enoughtime, a person, a community, a society, a culture, the

world, the galaxy and eventually the whole Universe aretransormed

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When you begin down an Eastern path, and Cha Dao mostly heads East, you quickly realize the impor-tant role language can play in our thinking, and consequently our insights. For the most part, we come to lovethe ancient spiritual words in languages like Sanskrit and Chineseor their subtlety and breadth. Tere is oneEnglish word weve come to like better than i