Cha Dao: The Way of Tea
By Solala Towler
My partner Shanti and I often invite friends over for tea. We find it is a more simple offering, yet one that allows us to drop deeply into conversation. We have tea Using one’s intuition and soul to and snacks and often spend hours experience tea fully, as both an visiting. Yet our tea party is a little artistic expression and a Tao, is different than what most people what “gong fu” tea is all about. Aaron Fisher (Wu De) think of as a tea party.
yes, gongfu martial arts.
The simple act of serving tea and receiving it with gratitude is the basis for a way of life called Chado, the Way of Tea. With a bowl of tea, peace can truly spread. The peacefulness from a bowl of tea may be shared and become the foundation of a way of life. Shiatsu Sen XV
Another name for what we are doing here is pin ming lun dao or “savor tea, discuss Dao.” Usually, when we talk about drinking tea we would say he cha but here we use a different term, pin. Pin means something more than just drinking tea. The character for pin is made up of three squares, which represent three mouths, as in the three sips we take at the beginning of the ceremony. Not only that but it has a quality of savoring or going slowly or really letting not only the flavor of the tea but the energy of the tea enter our being in a deep way.
The Empty Vessel — Page 14
Our type of tea is called gongfu cha. Gongfu (goong foo) is one of those misunderstood terms in Chinese that most people associate with martial arts (called wushu in Chinese). Gongfu actually means anything that you study, practice and get good at. It can be gongfu gardening, gongfu painting and
