October 12, 2010

Starting off the day by meditating for a half hour or more calms the mind and lets you connect with your breath. In realization that this breath is the rhythm of the universe and runs through everything, we step a little closer to the Infinite. We sit down and are quiet to ground ourselves, hear some joy in the birds singing outside, wash off the dust of the world and discipline our bodies. It’s also a reminder not to take our study of tea too lightly. We focus a little bit before we have that first cup and start discussing tea. We ought to taste the Zen in our surroundings and ourselves a bit before we think we can taste the Zen in our cups.

Our first cup was a Puerh, and we were once again trying to determine its type and approximate age. It was sheng with some younger characteristics, like a strong astringency. It was about 6-8 yrs old. Aaron describes this as a kind of awkward phase in the aging of Puer Tea. It’s starting to transform but still hasn’t mellowed or transformed very much yet. Adam felt it was very clean with good sensations but Eli and I couldn’t say it felt real good. Aaron said maybe Adam was able to feel the Cha Qi a little more clearly this morning. A nice tea to start with and open our discussion.

We discussed last weeks lesson a bit, reviewing and redefining reciprocity. We will continue our effort to take a deeper look at ‘reciprocity’ in our relationships. This is the first level of relating to others. It isn’t exactly equivalent to the ‘Golden Rule’ of Christianity: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Reciprocity is not as simple as maintaining a functional balance in the world, simply trying to guard ourselves from harm. This is closer to the business-like give and take that we want to distance ourselves from in human relationships. We want to get closer to our fellows and erase the assumed lines that separate us. If we always think of what we will get in return, can our hearts really open very far? I don’t think so. The second level is beneficence. In beneficence, we can remind ourselves that we are no different from others. We have to promote the success of others if we want to be successful ourselves. Another way to look at this concept is to step beyond good and evil. The real peace is the peace that can contain violence within it; true love also loves hate.

Our second tea was a fine aged Baozhong Oolong self-stored by one of our friends in Taipei–a wonderfully elating and pleasant feeling tea. My choice to not say anything about the flavor of this tea is conscious here as I am trying to move away from this level of tea. Of course it tastes ‘good’ but what will my descriptions of its flavor really communicate? Only what I like about it, and that is all subjective to my personal tastes. We are focusing on the feeling more in class–the mouth feel and body sensations. This led us into a lengthy discussion of the effects of antique porcelain and good zisha yixing on tea.

We get on the topic of priorities in purchasing tea-ware quite often. What should I get first? What do I need? What will help me the most? What will help the tea I make the most? Lately Aaron has asserted that tea-ware should come before tea because we all have plenty of tea to drink now. Why have an excellent tea and then not let it shine the way it wants too by brewing it in mediocre or crummy tea-ware. There is a place for simple tea drunk from a bowl- just some leaves in a bowl with hot water. But we need to refine our tea equipment so that we can see the tangible effects it has on tea. Then we can learn more as well and develop our skills. Musicians may start out with simple instruments but they always grow out of them and move on to more finely crafted ones. That way they can become more skilled and make better music. It’s the same in tea. Aaron doesn’t want to teach us things we need for their aesthetic value. We all like nice looking things, and that can improve the tea in another way as well, but its just more objective opinions. He is strongly recommending certain things for their functionality in making better tea. The pot is the father of the tea we drink. It is the first on the list of must-haves in tea-ware. It is commonly claimed that yi xing clay teapots are the best for making tea. There are different designs, sizes and colors of them but one type is miles above the rest- Zizha or purple ore clay. This clay is extremely rare, don’t think that just because the teapot is brown, it is Zisha. The best pots made with this clay date from the Qing and Republic periods of China. The clay was very refined at these times and most of the mines were closed up later. Some is still storage now and a few craftsmen know how to work with it. You can look for a genuine antique amidst an ocean of fakes but you will have to pay thousands of dollars. You can also find a source for a decent one made in more recent times. They are out there too. Why is this clay so amazing? I am still learning but I can already see obviously that it smoothes out the water to make it have an incredible silk-like feeling in your mouth. It just goes right down. Then it also effects the qi of the tea and water to make it feel very clean and full of life. It can make good water excellent and decent tea great. Sometimes we learn more about the universe with some scientific attitude. We are traveling the known and unknown universe without moving an inch. We are connecting with people we have never seen, in the present, future and the past. Our ancestors were more advanced in many ways. We are learning to feel again. We are doing yoga and tai chi. I’m talking about magnetic fields and they are in and all around us. Perhaps genuine Zisha purple ore clay carries the perfectly tuned magnetic field for preparing tea.

After the teapot comes the cups. Clays differ in many degrees. Just as Zisha is much different than river clay, so is good porcelain different from bad porcelain. Porcelain is a paste that is prepared in a special way with a specific combination of minerals. It is stoneware. The formula was kept secret for centuries before Europeans and Japanese figured out how to make copies. Theirs were never as fine as Chinese porcelain. The best porcelain was made in the Yuan Dynasty. This is a relatively short period in which China was controlled by the Mongolian Empire. Chinese culture went on uninterrupted though, though perhaps a little underground. Art and Craft is culture. The Chinese have been developing porcelain since at least the Eastern Han Dynasty (200-100 BCE). Cups surviving from the Yuan Dynasty are next to impossible to find as there are only a handful left. This perfect recipe continued to be used in to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The composition of the porcelain paste as well as the glaze of modern made porcelain is different. Some of the raw materials just can’t be found any more. When you look at old porcelain next to new porcelain, it is pretty easy to see the difference. Tea drunk from antique porcelain tastes better. The tea liquor sits on its surface and rolls off of it differently. Its like it flows off it seamlessly with just the right energy to be absorbed by your body. So, we are looking to acquire antique porcelain tea cups.

This approach to understanding the way that materials affect the tea we drink is one of the most fascinating things that I am learning of during our tea sessions. We do various experiments and can see the way that the tea feels different due to different pots, cups and even coasters. I then go home and continue the experiments in my home. It is immensely refreshing to be reminded that everything around us is living in a way. Everything is energy. We don’t have to see the man as ‘smart’ and the tree or rock as ‘stupid’. Some things have a distorting and obscuring energy. We want to keep those things out of our tea space. Everything matters and nothing is discounted. Magnetic fields, alchemy and love can help make better tea and they certainly are not out of reach!

Calming our minds and cultivating our hearts is the foundation of our approach to tea. The spiritual efforts that we discuss during class carry over into my attitude and choices in daily life. In just this brief period of learning with Aaron, I am feeling many improvements in my tea making skills- big improvements. I may cave considered that my computer being on my tea table was having a bad influence on my tea but I needed him to tell me to get it away from there. I was interested in the effects of different waters on tea but I needed him to urge me to treat it with more respect and teach me how to care for it as well as cleanse it. We need to learn from a teacher. A teacher passes on knowledge that took thousands of years to realize. It is an immeasurable beneficial gift when we are lucky enough to have a teacher come into our lives. If we look the other way because of trivial matters, it is a grave loss.

Also shown in the photo above is a sheng puer tasting we helped Aaron with for a review he was asked to do. Its good to be able to experience all the different teas at one time and see their differences. Unfortunately most of these teas made us feel quite uncomfortable. The bad ones really overshadow the good ones for Adam and I but Aaron was able to pick out a few that were at least OK. Its nice to know that we are becoming more astute at differentiating 'good' from 'bad' teas or 'alive' from 'dead' teas.