An excerpt from Tea Here Now, by Donna Fellman and Lhasha Tizer (p. 82-84), as something to consider over a cup of tea.
Mindfulness and Tea: Awareness of the Present Moment
An ancient practice derived from the teachings of the Buddha, mindfulness is the practice of bringing our full awareness and presence to the simplest detail of each component of our experience. When we bring this moment-by-moment attention to meditation, our meditation becomes grounded in the body, as well as in our feelings and thought processes—it’s a holistic attention to life itself. This fullness of being and perceiving cultivates a fine attunement to ourselves and how we interface with the world. It is the ground through which we see clearly in each moment.
Through the application of present-moment awareness, we begin to see the ways we are unfocused and distracted. We may notice that we spend a great deal of time living in our head, caught in thinking about the future or reliving the past, both of which can be stressful and dissatisfying. Being able to see our present situation clearly awakens us to what is possible and what we can do; it’s one of the first steps toward a mindful life. When we relearn to refocus our attention on what is here now, distractions will diminish, our thinking will slow down, and clarity can emerge. The process of returning again and again to what is at hand is a gateway to a life lived completely, without unnecessary stress and suffering.
Living mindfully can be likened to places a magnifying lens on reality. Things we may have been oblivious to, ignored, or taken for granted come into focus. The details of every experience, previously hazy, are now illuminated. We may be walking down a street in our usual “let’s get to where we are going” mode, mentally ahead of ourselves. Yet, if we have chosen to be mindful, we begin to walk slowly and see the environment through which we are passing. Looking around, we notice something glistening. We find a simple rock composed of minute quartz crystals. No longer an ordinary rock, it strikes us as a gem. Has the rock changed our ability to see things clearly? Or has our attention become magnified through the application of present-moment awareness? Mindfulness helps us discover these simple acts of awareness, bringing us great joy and satisfaction.
We can bring this heightened state of happiness to the serving and drinking of tea. The tea etiquette—committing our attention to whatever arises and putting the needs of other before our own—makes us more devoted to the moment, less apt to have a wavering mind, and more engaged in the world.
Tea mindfulness also brings us back to our senses. We see with fresh eyes, hear with receptive ears, smell with unbiased nostrils, taste with all the taste buds, and touch without judgment. Relieved of our preconceptions and free to connect with our childlike desire to explore and discover, now we come to the experience of being most alive through tea. We live the “miracle of mindfulness,” dwelling in a state of joy, awe, and gratitude where all things are possible.
The more mindfully we make our tea, the better it tastes. We slow down enough to savor every aspect of the tea experience and find that we have made a superior cup of tea.
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