Tea & Chan (茶禪一味)
What is Tea & Chan? Tea & Chan also referred to as Tea Dao Chan or Tea Shi Chan, a method which a Chan master uses to assist with meditation for enlightenment.
Chan is in a cup of tea! Tea becomes a method of teaching and a tool for expounding the Dharma. Chan becomes the theory guiding the purification of the mind through tea, and also the Dao of elegance. Master Hui Neng, Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism said that
Eternally, you don’t give rise to any thoughts when faced with any good or evil situation, this is called, Zuo. Internally, you see your self-nature unmoved, this is called Chan.
This means, in our daily lives, when we can practice Chan in the walking, standing, sitting and laying down, and we are not be affected by the good or evil situation, we’d be able to be spontaneously inspired and we could enjoy the process of meditation. Thus is the true meditation.
The pursuit of spiritual purity and transformation is common in tea and Chan. Master Zong Ze of Jaku-an Temple in Kyoto, Japan had said
The common ground of tea and Zen is the pursuit of the pureness and sublimation of self-spatiality.
Zen Master Zong-ze, from Ji Temple of Kyoto, Japan, said that
The Dao of Tea, which embeds the sense of Chan in tea cakes, is a method for all beings to reflect on their inner selves. Thus, the whole process of tea is no different to the Dao of Chan.
Master Zong Ze had also said
There is no difference between the sense of tea and the sense of Chan. Therefore, without knowing the sense of Chan, one wouldn’t know the taste of the tea.
