The importance of Communication and Terminology
Rebecca Benoit Cragg © 2018
Tea flavours in your mouth.
A bowl on your counter.
Tea whisked under a tree.
This is the tip of the iceberg.
The vastness and foundation that comes from pairing not “tea with food” but rather:
“tea with antiquities”
‘tea paired with seasons’
… A tea gathering is: “tea partnered with elaborate hospitality”..
Ultimately, it’s not about being a “tea snob”.
Tea Culture is about a richly symbolic community of like-minded souls who come together in aesthetic appreciation. Who understand the significance of tea utensils, their history and value. Who agree to conform, for a time, to a similar set of movements, of conversation, of comportment. This harmony of movement is not about ‘being mindful’ or ‘moving meditation’. It is about learning, through intensive study and practice, a muscle memory that becomes instinctive, so *that* we can experience ‘being in the moment’, ‘living the present’, ‘becoming mindful’.
Sitting in a tearoom with good intention is not ‘mindful’, in and of itself.
Making matcha on its own, without guests, or with ‘unknowing’ guests, is not ‘tea ceremony’.
Call a thing, what it is.
Make a drink:
1. Llet’s have Matcha” (let’s have a ‘drink’ of something; enjoy a ‘beverage’)
Practice the Tao of Tea (Chado; Sado)
2. “Come for a tea Gathering” (matcha is secondary to the Gathering, its theme, utensils, Zen expression used for reflection etc etc etc; formality, it should be noted, will fluctuate depending on the relationship between the guests and host).
Practice the Art of Tea (Chayi), or making ‘tea ceremony-inspired performance art
3. “Watch me do a tea performance” where I’m on top of a Mayan pyramid, or in the Ocean, or at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, or taking this cool photo for my Instagram feed, or burning the tea stand to be mega dramatic, or wearing creepy ghost clothes, or sitting in cube of sticks, or …. Or…. Or…….
We get tangled in a web of words.
It’s very appealing to ascribe terminology that means something more than a thing is, to elevate our own practice through association. We do this all the time, sometimes innocently, other times, deliberately. In academic circles, we call this ‘plagiarism’, or ‘not referencing the source’ or all sorts of other things. In anthropology we call this ‘appropriation’.
It seems so ‘strict’ or ‘rigid’ or ‘inflexible’ or … ‘mean’.
Really, it’s just being specific.
Call art, ‘Art’. Call the Tao, the ‘Tao’. Say you’re ‘striving to practice and understand’, not ‘I’m a Master of Tea’ or a ‘Tea Sommelier’, or ‘I need to impress you with a title’. Or, I need to impress upon you and your decades of practice, than my non-practice and training is superior in its non-training.
Stop the comparisons, that merely lead to discord.
Tea is about harmony, right? So leave those who practice ‘tea drinking as a beverage’ in peace. They are doing one thing. Taoists are doing another. Artists are doing another thing.
It’s difficult to mix these people together:
We wouldn’t mix the ballerina with the drunken bar scene dancer.
They are both ‘dancing’
They are also in totally different hemispheres.
We wouldn’t mix the *understanding* of what it *means* in terms of the focal point:
… of a classical musician trained to sing Opera in multiple languages, and ask them to have fun in a karaoke bar. It’s not their setting (they might choose to ‘play’ there, but it’s not their regular ‘setting’.
So mixing people who drink tea to talk about ‘flavour notes’ and mix ‘tea and food’ etc, or are obsessed with the perfect teapot etc. have difficulty understanding or appreciating the focal point of traditionally-trained ceremonialists who have spent many decades training in patterns of movement, studies of history of objects, tea utensils, calligraphy, the finer points of Zen philosophy and spirituality. To these people, the ‘flavour’ of the tea is nearly secondary. The focus is in a totally different place.
It doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy tea with tea bags.
It doesn’t mean the ‘beverage drinker’ can’t develop a certain appreciation.
But it requires both sides to have a certain openness.
Risk and Rewards: think about these!
This week, I had two experiences of ‘tea ceremony’ where my guests brought their own tea bowl.
Brought their own tea bowl. To my lesson. To my demonstration.
On the one hand: innocence and good intention only.
On the other hand: ‘you might not have a good enough one/enough, mine might be better; you might be bored of your collection, I might be bored of your collection, I don’t trust your taste, so I brought my own.
On the other hand: ‘look how devoted to my tea practice I am! I’m collecting things! ‘Hey, you like tea bowls, so you will probably be one of the only people who can appreciate this with me! Hey! Check this out! Fun! Happy! Nice!
It is respectful to do these things, is it necessary, is it well-received, is it enjoyed, no, no, no, and no. But, on the other hand, is it charming, sweet, lovely and beautiful? Yes, yes, yes and yes.
A tea sister once said to me:
“I’m often asked to teach tea ceremony. But how can I do that? They would have to spend years reading classical Chinese literature and poetry to first approach the mindset required to appreciate the tea. Are there people who have the dedication to do this anymore?”
No. and Yes. They can, I believe, be cultivated. Because there are musicians, elite athletes, academics and many others, even video game-players devoting tons of time and energy over years to their chosen Paths.
It just might take more work, more education, more acculturation to help someone not coming from an Asian background or upbringing to ‘get’ that aspect. And we run into tons and tons of movie-produced stereotypes and frankly untrue, widely-circulated myths that take time to ‘undo’. And many don’t want those myths ‘undone’. They are attracted to ‘tea ceremony’ *because* of those myths.
What can ‘we’ do?
Of course tolerance, but also education. And speaking up, and out, and ‘correcting’, which is really just about ‘informing’. And to do that, to take that ‘responsibility’, because there are many in the ‘live and let live world’ who I frankly believe are shirking their responsibility to ‘inform/educate’, because of their fear of appearing ‘rigid’ via ‘correction’. You’re inhibiting people from even knowing there is something beyond the tip of the iceberg! What are you afraid of them finding out? That the ‘tip’ you display to them is actually just a superficial aspect of what can exist?
Insecurity, fear of judgement, these can lead to tremendous mediocrity.
I do not shy away from this: If my student makes a wagashi that is, quite plainly, ‘ugly’, I call it that. “Feelings” are to me, less important than “excellence” and more importantly, “the capacity to grow and be/become even better”.
We hide behind ‘sensitivity’ feeling that it makes us a better ___ but all it accomplishes is enforcing pre-existing low(er) standards of what can be.
It is not about being a ‘tea snob’.
It is about knowing what you’re aiming for. And calling that thing, what it is; and at the same time – acknowledging that other Paths exist, for those so-called to explore.
Once a tea ceremony student of mine was offended that a colleague was ‘making his own tea ceremony up’. The student wanted to bring this person to Camellia House so they could be ‘informed’, or ‘rehabilitated’. What I think ultimately he really wanted, was to be respected for the practice and training he was undertaking.
How different it would have felt if they other person had said:
“I know how much more than I you have experienced and studied in tea ceremony culture. For me, I’m just interested in doing my own thing. I don’t have the _______ in studying in a formal setting. It doesn’t suit my character somehow. So I hope I don’t offend you with my experimenting. In fact, maybe we can experience each others’ ‘matcha ceremony’ and delight in the fact we enjoy ritual with matcha together, even if it’s different!”
Wouldn’t this have shown understanding, humility and respect? This would have led to greater harmony between them.
It’s often (conflict in general) I notice, less about the ‘practice’ itself, and much more about the ‘naming’, or the ‘specificity’. In other words, it is about flawed communication.
It’s more than about the matcha, whisked at your countertop. Tea culture is transformative and vast, and like anything worth being moved by, imagine how the orchestral piece, accompanied by dance, enjoyed amongst refined guests who know the value of the conductor’s approach to the composer’s piece. To experience art at that level, alongside others who ‘get it, this is on aspect of tea culture.
No one is a moved by ‘twinkle twinkle’ played with one hand when they know of the way music can move us.
Tea *is* a beverage.
Tea is also a *culture*.
The beverage is an extension of the culture.
There are many, many, many tea cultures.
No one is ‘better’ than another.
The are incomparable, because the motivations by those practicing them is different.
To deny the roots of the culture and lay claim to its ‘tip’ only is just absurd.
Tea, enjoyed in the context of ceremony is more than a beverage. Whisking tea devoid of the context of its foundation, and calling that ‘ceremony’ is misleading, and confounding.
Call a thing what it is.
Ceremony is one thing.
Matcha-whisking is another thing.
