The Story of Zen part 2
The Story of Zen part 2
Hi. I’m Yukako who lives in the northern part of Europe, and teaches and tells people about Japanese traditional culture such as tea ceremony, kimono, etc. offline and online.
In the previous article, I briefly explained where Zen came from to Japan, what it is, and so on. There I also mentioned that Zen has a strong influence on the tea ceremony. Today, I would like to talk about it more precisely.
How Zen influences on the tea ceremony?
Ideas from Zen are applied for everything relating to the tea ceremony. When entering the tea hut, you go through the pass called “roji”, which literally means “a bare area”. Guests are expected to cast off the superfluous things, and walk into the tea hut with purified mind.
The tea ceremony performance is also created according to what Zen teaches. Japanese Buddhism teaches the attainment of detachment by the removal of your self-consciousness through spiritual concentration. A technique for this is the repetition of a kata (form), which is just like used in the tea ceremonies, the flower arrangement, and other Japanese martial arts and performing arts. In the time of repeating the same kata or same movement, you lose the self-consciousness, and come into contact with our true nature. This is the ultimate goal which Zen is aiming at, and people are truly “here and now”. In the tea ceremony, we learn how to prepare, serve and finish a tea. There are various kata forms, but the basic is all same. We repeatedly practice this basic form until you can do without hesitation. It is because your mind is not still “here and now” unless it hasn’t gone.
To be continued…