The samurai never knew whether they’d live to see the next day. Elite samurai were also tea masters.
This blog explores the possibilities of sadō (Japanese tea ceremony), the way the samurai did it, interpreted in the here and now.
Pursuing tranquility for the mind, body and spirit will always be relevant.
4 - 5 November 2013 Location: Blenders Lane, off Franklin Street, Melbourne (beside the Dark Horse Experiment Gallery) Time: 6pm 4th November - 6pm 5th November (Melbourne Cup Day)
Samurai Tea Master Adam Wojcinski and Zen monk Seikan Cech will conduct a 24 hour tea ceremony from 6pm Cup Eve, to 6pm Melbourne Cup Day, in the Graffiti Mecca of Melbourne, Blenders Lane.
In a cube with no walls, Adam will sit and serve tea and Seikan will sit in Zen meditation, non-stop, for 24 hours. They will be allowed toilet breaks but no food or talking.
Anyone can enter the cube and drink tea in this long-duration art piece. At any time a maximum of 2 people can enter the cube and drink tea that Adam prepares. Absolutely no talking in the cube. Photographer Ryo Yamauchi will document the entirety of the event.
Through this piece Adam and Seikan aim to communicate the mind of Zen and the mind of tea are one and the same. By inviting people into the cube, this long-duration artwork will examine and display the profound meaning in human interaction.
The people of Melbourne are welcome to Blenders Lane to give Adam and Seikan their support. Be one of the lucky ones to receive a bowl of tea in this world first event. Also donate to the Melbourne Zen Hospice. Admire how the mind of Zen, and the mind of Tea, fits beautifully with Melbourne’s cutting-edge graf.
There will be a celebration in Blenders Lane from 6pm Melbourne Cup Day November 5th, at the conclusion of the 24 hours.
How is a chaji like a symphony? A symphony is an extended musical composition usually composed of 4 movements; a chaji is a full-length tea gathering composed of four sessions: charcoal laying ceremony, kaiseki meal, koicha thick tea ceremony, and usucha thin tea ceremony. Each movement of a symphony follows different principles often featuring a different orchestration of instruments. Each session of a chaji has a different meaning that requires different tea equipage. The theme of a symphony unfolds over the whole piece and includes a climax. The theme of a chaji unfolds throughout the gathering with koicha being the climax.
I think teaists (adept practitioners of the tea ceremony) share many skills with musicians. While pondering their similarities I had the idea of creating a teaduet, a tea ceremony that can be ‘played’ by two people at once. My ideas crystallized while watching the Japanese drama ‘Nodame Cantabile’. In Nodame there are scenes of two pianists facing each other playing Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos, and scenes of them sharing one piano playing a duet. From this I conceived two people facing each other performing the tea ceremony while sharing an iron kettle and fresh water container, the ‘keyboard’ of the tea ceremony.
In the standard configuration of tearooms, guests sit to the right of the host performing the tea ceremony. Sometimes the configuration is different and the guests sit to the left. When this occurs the host must use their left hand for many movements in the ceremony. In a teaduet the teasits face each other so the guests are to the right of one teaist, and to the left of the other. This enables one teaist to perform the ‘right hand’ and the other the ‘left hand’ ceremony, just like the bass and treble pieces on a piano. And like a musical duet, it is essential both performers be in time with each other.
While watching me perform the teaduet with a teaist of a different School, Shakuhachi musician Anne Norman alerted me to something fascinating: heterophony is present in the teaduet, as is some musical duets. Heterophony is a phenomenon where each of the performers are essentially playing the same melodic line, but one will precede the other for a while, then they play in unison, and then one takes off on a slight deviation and returns to a staggered unison. It is integral to Japanese music as exemplified in the performance of the jiuta repertoire of the shamisen, voice, koto and shakuhachi. Heterophony has arisen partly due to the fact that the different instruments of the jiuta ensemble all use different tablature, and the players in the ensemble may come from different schools. In the teaduet of two schools, the actions are similar, and sometimes slightly staggered in execution. If we use a musical analysis, they are heterophonous in nature, not in perfect unison as they are when both tea masters are of the same school. A most enchanting texture results, making the fleeting moments of unison all the more beautiful.
This new teaduet can be conducted for a large number of guests to serve more bowls of tea in shorter time. More importantly, I want to perform duets across different Schools of Tea. For example, one person performs the Ueda School ceremony, and the other in the duet performs their School’s ceremony, be it Urasenke, Enshu Ryu, etc. The teaduet is a perfect way to understand your partner’s different School of Tea. I’m looking forward to performing more duets across tea borders.
Reference: discussion with Anne Norman, Shakuhachi Musician annenorman.com
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Bow to the tea bowl and tea, turn the tea bowl once clockwise, change your right thumb to the front of the bowl, then drink the tea.
茶盌とお茶に一礼をして、茶盌を一回だけ自分の方に廻して、右親指を手前に持ち替えて、お茶を頂く
Shima Akito (1934 - 1967) received the death sentence after committing a robbery-homicide in Niigata Prefecture. After being sentenced to death at his first trial in 1960, he lived as a poet on death row until his execution in 1967.
Just as moonlight illuminates all bodies of water, whether people are good or bad, men or women, elderly or young, in all that exists in this world there is nothing in which the Buddha's wisdom does not reflect. This poem speaks this truth with chilling force.
By Harada Roshi, Head Abbot of Sougen-ji, Rinzai Temple in Bizen
曹源寺(臨済宗)ご住職の原田正道老師
Translated and adapted for tea by Adam Wojcinski from the video:
Zen - Introduction to zen practice / full version - Taigen Shodo Harada Roshi
1. Sit in seiza, hankafuza, kekkafuza or in a chair
結跏趺坐、半跏趺坐、正座、椅子、どれかの坐り方に坐ります
2. Your lower back (koshi) should be slightly concave, and your spine straight with your torso is at full height
腰が後ろに逃げて、背中が曲がってはいけません 腰をしっかりと中に入れて、背筋を伸ばす姿勢が大切です
3. Once seated place your left hand on the palm of your right hand and rest the back of your right hand on your lap. The tips of your thumbs touch lightly together so that you form an ‘ensou’ (zen infinity circle).
４．After settling your legs and hands into position, check your posture again to be sure the top of your coccyx bone is leaning slightly forward (your bottom sticks out a little when you do this). By this your spine becomes erect in the very centre of your body’s posture.
5. Stretch your spine straight with your torso at full height again. Tuck in your chin a little and raise the back of your skull as though you’re pointing the highest tip of your skull to the heavens. Your shoulders are perfectly level, your ears parallel with your shoulders, and your nose parallel with your navel.
6. Your eyes follow the ridge of your nose looking down to a spot around one metre in front of your seat. You have no tension in your eyes, but do not let them close - just relaxed and half open. You do not close your eyes during zazen meditation as zazen is a way to develop quietude for the mind, and this must be applicable for your daily life. Your eyes are open during daily life, so in meditation keep your eyes open so you can better transfer the mindstate you achieve in meditation to daily life.
7. Your consciousness centres on the top of your left palm (inside the mudra), or, at the pit of your stomach. Notice the centre of consciousness is not where your eyes are. Your eyes are resting naturally. Your consciousness is at the centre of your being.
8. Allow your being to bask in the ki (chi) energy flowing down from the heavens, and draw up the ki energy from the earth, and for that ki energy to meet in the pit of your stomach.
天の気を頭上に頂き、地の気を下から引き上げ、下腹部で気が一つに出会うような心境が坐禅の要領です
The above is the sitting posture for zazen
こうして、坐禅の形が整えます
No matter how perfect your posture, that means nothing if your mind does not become still.
いくら形が整えていれば、心が落ち着かないと意味はありません
Zazen aims to bring a mind without form into harmony. But how can you bring a formless mind into a harmonious form? By bringing your breath into harmony, your mind falls into harmony with the breath.
形の無い心を整えるという要点は、呼吸を整えることによって、次第に心を整えるように導いていきます
To bring your breath into harmony, release the tension from your upper torso - make your shoulders, neck, chest all free of tension.
Then make a special point to release all the tension from your stomach. If your stomach is tense you cannot breathe deeply. If you cannot draw breath down deeply to the pit of your stomach, your ki energy stays chocked up in your chest and neck. So release the tension in your stomach, and use your stomach to draw breath down deeply into your being.
When exhaling breath, loosen your whole being as you exhale - free up all the tension in your body. Then when you breathe in, breathe in vital energy into your being.
吐く息は身体を柔らかくします 吸う息は身体に活性、活力を呼び戻してくれます
If you breathe out long and slow, this will make the tension fall away from your body. Your mind will become stable. Aim for around 8 seconds on the out-breath. When your reach the finish of the out-breath, your stomach will be flat.
Then when you breathe in, let your body return naturally. Don’t consciously breathe in, after you exhale completely and your stomach is flat, just let your body expand naturally and fill with breath.
When sitting in zazen, continue this breathing for 5, 10, even 30 minutes. However before tea practice, in order to settle your breathing, your mind, and to refresh your spirit before practice, 5 minutes should be a good amount of time.
By counting your breaths as you breathe out slowing, your breathing will become even, harmonious, and your mind will follow. Count 1~, 2~, 3~, 4~, 5~, 6~, 7~, 8~, 9~, 10~ and then return to 1 again. By returning and starting at 1 again, you keep the sense of the ‘now’, of always being fresh and at the height of your focus. Before tea practice by doing this exercise your mind becomes steady, you release unnecessary thoughts, and your attention goes from jumping from one thing to another to being focused. In this presence of mind is the state in which we practice.
When your breath and mind are in harmony and settled, you develop a heightend awareness for your surrounds. You practice zazen and tea not for your own happiness. With the awareness that comes from a calm mind you sense others’ situation with composure. Then you strive for others’ peace and harmony. This is the spirit of humanity we cultivate in both zazen, and in the practice of tea.
Without this understanding your Tea will be shallow, tasteless, and your practice will be riddled with frustration. If you don't understand this now, believe passionately that one day you will grasp the meaning with your whole being. For when you do have understanding, and you execute your Tea with true freedom, your Tea will have a profundity no one can ignore. There are no shortcuts, just practice; practice with reverence.
Upon spending time with Daisetz T Suzuki in Japan, Joseph Campbell attained the following profound insight:
"If you learn FORM you can find a great deal of FREEDOM within the FORM. But if you try to go for the FREEDOM without the FORM you have anarchy."
It's my birthday today. I always get a little more emotional than usual on my birthday reflecting on what I've done, and what I haven't done.
Here's some poems translated/composed today and bits of creative dialogue resulting from them.
Somewhere in there is my truth for today. Possibly truths I will carry with me for all my birthdays.
はじめなく終わりもなきにわが心
生まれ死すると思うべからず
No beginning;
No end to my existence;
Forever here, now;
Of want to forget my birth -
Of want to forget my death.
- Ikkyu, ages ago
悟らぬも悟りも同じ迷いなり
悟らぬ先を悟りぞという
Satori is mine!
Yet satori is not mine!
The same delusions
Attack both states without end
They say sataori comes first
- Ikkyu, ages ago
玄風や
涙おちるる
心経ぉ~
Taste raw existence!
Tears streaming, puddling
Hanya Shingyo~o
- Adam, today
雨あられ雪や氷とへだつれど
とくれば同じ谷川の水
Rain, hail, snow and ice
Call them by different names
But when they all melt
They run, trickle, flow, and drip
As one mountian stream
- Ikkyu, ages ago
Ikkyu:
if there’s nowhere to rest at the end
how can I get lost on the way?
Adam:
if there’s everywhere to run at the start
how can I find a way?
Ikkyu & Adam:
When the morning light spills over the mountain and fills the valley
You cannot see the start of day and finish of night
But you FEEL it is time for living; you FEEL truth
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