You may have seen the scenery of Japanese traditional tea ceremony. Clean and humble room, quiet people, soft and slow, elegant movement.
The basic tea ceremony concept is simple – you alone or with company, make a cup of tea and enjoy the time, forgetting about trivial everyday affairs.
Okay, if you want to enjoy a nice cup of drink forgetting about your everyday things, you can go to Starbucks, too. Pick your favorite beverage, sit and enjoy the music, work on your laptop or smart phone, have a good time alone or with your friends. Can it be the new style tea ceremony?
Well, the answer is likely no. Starbucks is intentionally designed to provide you the convenience and pleasure over the opportunity of self growth. Tea ceremony is not an escape from the real world or temporary entertainment. It is the opportunity for discovery and self growth.
The tea ceremony was developed in Japan to accompany with the rise of Zen Buddhism. The Samurai leaders and royal family members commonly practiced tea ceremony during the Sengoku period, the chaotic time due to social upheaval, political intrigue and military conflict.
It was the time like something valuable yesterday could be worthless today depending on who was superior in power and influence at that time. Your master could be killed and replaced any time. People didn’t know what it would be tomorrow. They were confused and their value system became unstable and disposal.
In such a confusing time, the leaders purposely made time to sit in a simple, quiet room, often accompanied by a tea master. They were not temporary escaping from the all stress they had by having a good cup of tea. They made a quiet time so that, as the result, they could find the way to break through their own doubt, fear and worry. It was like a meditation, the exercise to discover the direction.
For example, some tea house has a small entrance so that nobody can get inside without their head down. This is designed to remind people humbleness. After you pass through the entrance, your social status doesn’t matter at all. It doesn’t matter if you are a president or house wife, rich or poor, popular or not. You are just you and so is your company.
If you are the host, you serve the tea with your best effort. It’s not a gourmet tea tasting competition. It is the practice of your hospitality. You set the room not to show off but make the guest the most comfortable and inspired. You make tea in the same way. You observe and listen to the guest rather make her to listen to your story, but not in an overwhelming way.
If you are the guest, you pay attention over the all effort the host is making and appreciate it. You don’t judge things by how expensive but how much thoughts are behind.
The host and guest pay attention each other with respect and gratitude rather criticism and competitiveness. This is not a self-admiration either. If you admire something without really understanding what it is, it simply shows your shallowness. Saying ‘Wow, great!’ about everything means you don’t really know what is really great and what is not. By observing your own reaction, you can learn about you as well.
Technically if you have the same mind set at a Starbucks, I believe you can turn a visit there your tea ceremony. But in the reality, Starbucks is not setup to make you more humble or respectful. You tend to just enjoy their hospitality in exchange with money.
Often something established taking a long time has the solid, deep reason why it is as is. I call such things ‘Real’ in this article.
I believe a real thing, supported by the solid confidence, has certain energy. When you touch a real thing, you feel it.
Wasn’t that the reason why the leaders made time to have a cup of tea with a Zen master? The room setting was simple yet all with deep, deep thoughts. Everything was done by taking time. Through the entire activity, they felt the energy of real things, which helped them to reach their resource hidden deep down (or way up high), something called ‘higher self’, ‘divine wisdom’, ‘the power of universe’ and so on today. Whatever it is called, the fact is such a connection gives a solid direction to a person. You ‘feel it’ and ‘know it’. Once you ‘know it’, you can take an action.