Tea Meditation is a form of meditation while drinking tea. Tea Meditation can be practiced by everyone, of all ages, and of different cultural and political backgrounds. It is a method of engaging ourselves in silence contemplation. Essentially, during the tea meditation, one looks inwardly to see one's mind as it is, without any effort to interpret or judge. Whether our mind is pure or polluted, clear or confused, we only need to witness it. Once free from making judgment and blame, we'll spiritually be open, understand ourselves deeper, and become more receptive to embrace others and their points of view.

The Philosophy

Symbolic meaning of tea and tea cup

The cup symbolizes our body.
Tea symbolizes our mind.
Like a cup filled with tea, our mind can be filled with either random thoughts of a confused mind, or with the clear, unwavering focus of an enlightening mind.
The challenge is to recognize and accept both as they are and become aware of one’s inner states. Enlightening mind or the confused mind…..what will you see in a cup of tea?

The confused mind and the enlightening mind

Confused mind defined as a mental state filled with all random thoughts, images, sounds, and emotions that completely absorb one’s attention and cause one to lose self-awareness.
Enlightening mind is the open-mindedness, the mind that constantly stays open, uncluttered, unbounded, free, and clear. When the enlightening mind appears, one finds oneself at peace; unmoved by the ebb and flow of sensations, urges, thoughts, and worries in one’s daily lives. By practicing this enlightening mind, we will eventually unfold the Enlightened Mind, the non-dual mind. Non-dual mind transcend all forms, all conceptualization.
This state of non-duality is symbolized by the emptiness in the cup. In the tea meditation, regardless of what states of mind, either enlightening or confused, when we drink up the tea, we’ll see the emptiness in the cup, or metaphorically, see the true emptiness of the mind. The challenge is to see and experience this emptiness, instead of just see the empty cup.
The silent and disengaged, but yet very attentive mind in the drinking tea ceremony is particularly well-suited to the training of meditative awareness. As we go through the motion of drinking tea in the calm and relaxing space of the tea hall, we simply watch the states of mind arising within our awareness. The object of the awareness, either the confused mind or the enlightening mind, is not the focus; the awareness itself is.

Tea Meditation in a global context

Tea meditation can help us see ourselves clearer and connect with our deep spirituality. In silence we can reflect inwardly to see our emotional blind spots and shadows. Then, by sharing that spiritual experience with other tea guests who have different cultural background with us, we can connect with them in the most humane way, transcending self-creating borders and man-made boundaries. Thus tea meditation is a means for cross-cultural communication and conflict resolution. 

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"Tea Meditation - Master Heng Chang"

Tea Meditation and Universal Tea Ceremony

There are similar conceps in both Tea Meditation und Universal Tea Ceremony. Water and tea leave mix to become the tea. Water represents the True Mind. Tea leaves with their multitude of flavors and colors represent the mundane life. The life that is defined by the illusion of the „self“.

As long as there are tea masters to offer serenity through the serving of the tea, we have Tea Meditation Universal Tea Ceremony, however, only happens at the end of the year when the tea guests have the opportunity to rewiew their conducts and life event throughout the year. In Tea Meditation, the guests only drink tea. With Universal Tea Ceremony, besides tea, the guest are served five special kinds of treat representing five different kinds of life experience as follow:

 1. Sweet treats – Belong to the Earth element, i. e. mochi cakes.

 2. Pungent treats – Belong to the Metal element, i.e. ginger candies.

 3. Salty treats – Belong to the Water element, i.e. any kinds of treat that have a salty taste.

 4. Sour treats – Belong to the Wood element, i.e. fruits like kumquats or strawberries.

 5. Bitter treats – Belong to the Fire element, i.e. 70% cocoa dark chocolate or bitter melon candies.

The tea guests will not be drinking tea immediately after the tea master serve the tea. Instead, they will be offered the treats in a sequential order of the five mutually supportive elements, starting with Water and ending with Metal. Why ist that? It is because each taste expresses a different sentiment or feeling and salty treats (water element) symbolize the most deeply hidden emotion – fear. The sequential order of enjoyment is as follow:

• Salty taste – When tasting the salty treats, recall all the fearful experiences throughout the year. Then drink the tea to remind us that we should accept then let go of all these feelings to welcome the new year!
• Sour taste – When tasting the sour treats, recall all the angry, flipping, swaying moments of the past year. Then drink the tea to remind us that we should accept then let go of all these feelings to welcome the new year!
• Bitter taste – When tasting the bitter treats, review all the happy, joyful, warm moments. Then drink the tea to remind us that we should accept then let go of all these feelings to welcome the new year!
• Sweet taste – When tasting the sweet treats, recognize all the worries and concerns for the future. Then drink the tea to remind us that we should accept then let go of all these feelings to welcome the new year!
• Pungent taste – when tasting the pungent treats, take note of the painful times when we were grieving. Then drink the tea to remind us that we should accept then let go all these feelings to welcome the new year!

In this way, take the time to enjoy the tea, do not drink all in one sip! If you run out of tea, just raise your hand to ask for more.

The tea masters who serve at the Universal Tea Ceremony therefore have the harder job. They have to continue serving every time the guest ask for more, not just one time.

When we do Universal Tea Ceremony, can the guest share all their different feelings and experiences? Generally, we would welcome this kind of sharing, but with Universal Tea Ceremony, we do not do so. In Tea Meditation, the guests meditate first before drinking the tea. Conversely, in Universal tea Ceremony, the guests enjoy the treats and tea first, then relax and sit in quietude to examine their hearts and minds.

The goal of Universal Tea Ceremony ist to dissolve past experiences with the understanding of an open mind to welcome and make changes in the new year!

Thay Hang truong