In the West, philosophers often write books of a non-fictional nature, thick ones, often using incomprehensible words, limiting their connection to the outside world to lectures and committee meetings. In the East, and especially in Zen practice, philosophers composed poems, laid gravel, made pilgrimages, practiced archery, wrote aphorisms and aphorisms on scrolls, and chanted hymns, among which there was a great Zen thinker, Senrihu (1), devoted himself to teaching people how to drink tea in a soothing and healing way.
In 1522, Senritsu was born in the rich port city of Sakai (2), near present-day Osaka. His father, Tanaka and Hyobei, was a warehouse owner who ran a fishing business and wanted his son to do business like him. But Lishew hated the merchant-like life and turned to wisdom and self-knowledge. He gradually became fascinated by Zen Buddhism, worshipped some people as teachers, and lived a life of roaming the countryside with few external objects. We still remember him to this day for his outstanding contribution to the innovation and promotion of the "tea ceremony" (3), a Japanese tea-drinking ceremony.
Since the ninth century AD, the Japanese have been drinking tea, a practice that has been passed down from Chinese merchants and monks. Tea soup is considered healthy while calming the body and mind and reaching the heart. But it was Lishu who placed the tea ceremony on a more rigorous and far-reaching philosophical basis. Thanks to his physical and painstaking efforts, drinking tea in a ritualized and profound way in the unique tea room he helped to design became an integral part of the behavior of Zen Buddhism <b>(4),</b> just as poetry or sitting in Zen Buddhism.
In his time, the consciousness of Japanese image awakened, and the wind of worship of gold prevailed. Ricciu proposed another set of values, which he called "silence"—a compound word, a combination of "侘" and "寂", the former can also be called simplicity, the latter referring to the beauty of imperfection. In the fields of architecture, interior design, philosophy and literature, Rishio awakened the Japanese people to love simplicity and authenticity, nature and humility.
His area of particular concern was the tea ceremony, which Ricciu believes is one of the most potential ways to promote the idea of "silence". He made many reforms and refinements to the tea ceremony. First, he started by reforming the tea room where the tea ceremony was held. Previously, tea rooms were popular among the wealthy, who built extremely elaborate tea rooms in conspicuous public places as venues for secular gatherings and to show off their status. And Li Xiu believes that the tea room should be reduced to a place with a radius of two meters, so that it can be hidden in the garden, and the door of the tea room should be deliberately designed to be smaller, so that all people who enter the tea room, even if they are prominent, need to bow their waists and consciously be equal with others. The idea was to isolate the tea room from the outside world. Access to the tea room requires bypassing the trees and rocks, which allows us to wander through it, isolating people from the everyday kingdom.
When properly operated, the tea ceremony can carry forward what Li xiu calls "wa" or "harmony", which is embodied in the tea drinker's re-connection with nature: in the garden hut, breathing in the breath of unpainted wooden planks, moss and tea leaves, they can feel the gentleness of the wind, hear the birdsong outside the window - experience an empty silence. This is followed by "kei" or "respect", sitting in a small space with others, talking to each other, and forgetting the pressures and tricks of the world. After a successful ceremony, guests will have a sense of "jaku" or "silence", which is one of the most central ideas in Lishu's gentle and quiet philosophy.
Kyoto Taian Tea Room designed by Senritsu
Lishet's innovation of the tea ceremony involved the field of utensils used. He insisted that in the future, tea ceremonies should not use expensive or traditional exquisite teacups and teapots. Senritsu liked worn bamboo tea sets, which gradually became popular in his time. Because in Zen Buddhism, nothing can be permanent, there are flaws, and it is impossible to reach perfection. Objects with time marks and heartless symbols convey The unique wisdom of Lisho and promote them to guests.
A bamboo cup made by Senritsu
Tea bowl in the style of the shuffle, 16th century
One of Riccio's achievements was to give one of the most everyday and characteristic activities in the West a solemn and profound meaning similar to the Catholic Mass. Every step of the tea ceremony, from patiently boiling water to putting in the right amount of matcha powder, is closely related to the Zen philosophy of humility, respect for nature, the need to resonate with nature, and the idea of the fleeting nature of everything.
How do you live your daily life? There are countless answers. Through creative imagination, we can make progress in the behavior habits of each day of our lives, becoming meaningful and beneficial. The question is not whether or not to participate in the tea ceremony, but whether we should take shape the daily spiritual life through certain devices and rituals that appeal to beauty.
Lishew reminds us that there is a potential interdependence between the great philosophy of life and everyday objects, such as drinks, cups, utensils, and smells. They don't isolate themselves from the big ideas, but they make them more alive. Philosophy's task is not only to conceive ideas, but also to create a set of behavioral mechanisms that we identify with and adhere to from the bottom of our hearts.
Translation Notes:
[1] Sen no rikyu (Roman: sen no rikyu), born 1522, died 21 April 1591. The famous tea ceremony master of the Azuchi Momoyama period in the Sengoku period of Japan, known as the Tea Sage.
[2] Sakai Is located in central Osaka Prefecture, south of Osaka City, and is the second most populous city in Osaka Prefecture. The western part of the city is the coastal plain, of which the central and eastern parts are mostly residential, and the southern hilly area begins the development of its new town.
[3] The tea ceremony, the Japanese tea ceremony is a ritualized matter in Japan that serves tea to guests. Originally known as "tea soup". The tea ceremony pays attention to following the "four rules", "seven rules". "Harmony and respect" refers to the spirit, attitude and etiquette that should be possessed between the host and the guest. "Qing and silent" requires that the tea room and tea drinking garden should maintain a quiet and elegant environment and atmosphere. Seven refers to: prepare tea in advance, put charcoal in advance, the tea room should be kept warm in winter and cool in summer, the indoor flower arrangement should maintain the beauty of nature and freshness, abide by the time, prepare rain gear, always put the guests in mind and so on.
[4] Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhism (also known as Buddha Heart Sect), the dominant sect of Chinese Chinese Buddhism, began with Bodhidharma, flourished in the Six Ancestors Huineng, and became the mainstream of Chinese Buddhism after the middle and late Tang Dynasties, and is also one of the most important symbols of Chinese Buddhism.