The Four Pillars
he Way o ea as we rediscover and recreate it (or it us) must rstly pay T homage to Nature, Heaven Heaven and Earth rom whose unspoken center both people and tea trees grow. Ten through a vast and ancient mountain chain o tea wisdom, we also travel tr avel down the trails blazed by all the great known and unknown sages o tea: those who cloudwalked early Chinese peaks, retreated to orests hermitages, or practiced Zen tea in Japan Japan and Korea, as well as the gongu skills o Southern Chinese tea traditions. More specically, cally, we bow to modern teachers o tea throughout the world, less or preserving tradition and orm than or treasuring and sharing the spirit o the Lea then and now. Like such ancient tea sages, we promote, cultivate and express an awakening o harmony through tea, at a time when it is so very needed in the world; and like those beore us we do so simply and without asking anything in return. Tere are our pillars which support the building on which any modern practice o tea must begin, and upon which our particular tradition is ounded. Understanding Understanding them is very important i one is to make progress in Cha Dao. It would be impossible or us to transmit any o the tea wisdom we have without these orces fowing through us. Ater all, none o our wisdom is new. new. It has been around or millennia. And none o it is our creation; we are merely the vessels in which it is steeped just beore it is poured out or you. Without our ancestors and teachers we would w ould all be lost. For any intelligent person can learn algebra in a year or two with a competent teacher, teacher, but how many could invent it growing up isolated on an island? Even Even with a hundred lietimes spent only brewing tea, some o the insights passing through us like minerals through these our great roots would be missing. Te First Pillar: Great Nature For a million years, tea trees grew in ancient orests untouched by man. Tey sat in the silence o Nature—the Nature—the same ocean o spirit out o which this sun grew, grew, and eventually this earth, rivers then mountains, cells then plants, then animals… And so a thousand page book on Cha Dao would have to include 999 pages written in the language o Nature: Nature: bird chirps, wind-rustled leaves and shats o sun slanting through ancient tea trees. We We
mustn’t orget to pay homage to this aspect o tea, or it is in connection to this Great Spirit Spirit o Nature that tea becomes a Dao, and o all the our pillars, this one is the strongest—the oldest and the deepest rooted. In act, it resembles a tree—twisted and turned, plunging into the darkest part o the earth. It is also the least understood pillar, pillar, and it cannot be discussed d iscussed in any detail in such a manual as this. Its voice is old, cracked and whispers indecipherables to the intellect. You You must become spirit i you are to understand its spirit. You You must learn its language, written in the ancient runes r unes o the lea-veins themselves. Te Second Pillar: Shamans and Daoist hermits Te second pillar o this great g reat and ancient tea temple, covered in vines and runes, spells and magic and lled with ragrances and spirits wise and quiet, is the soul o the ancient shamans and Daoist mendicants who retreated to orest hermitages and mountain peaks in ancient times. Many tea books are written by historians, and such scholars must necessarily begin when tea is rst mentioned in writing, which w hich is or all practical purposes the ang ang Dynasty (618 –907). But mankind’s mankind’s relationship with this sacred herb dates back thousands o years beore that. And so the buying and selling, the warring and pleasuring o tea are also the very end o a long story as tea relates to humanity. Tese orest sages didn’t arm tea, but sought it out wild. Some such trees were even amous, as were some o the sages that distilled its liquor. liquor. At rst, it was aboriginal shamans, medicine men and witches o the orest that drank tea, utilizing it to transmute tr ansmute their own spirits, as healing or others—healing o body, body, mind and spirit—as well as to transmit wisdom to students. Later, Daoist mendicants would also develop a love or tea. It is important or us to bow to this old orest tradition, and to learn rom it by listening to the spirit o these ancient sages as they come alive again in this tradition, however out o time and place it may seem. Te Tird Pillar: Dhyana Te third pillar o tea is an iron one, straight and smooth—black and radiant to the point o perect per ect refection. Like all things tea, the domestication o tea was also sacred. Te rst r st armers were Zen monks. When the early Japanese monks traveled to China to learn Zen, which was called “Chan”
there, they also came back with tea seeds, s eeds, saplings, teaware and preparation methodology. methodology. Tey wrote treatises on the magic o this plant to satisy the looks o askance on the aces o those who had sent them. Ater all, they had been sent to copy Buddhist scriptures and bring back Zen, not to study plants. Why this particular plant? Obviously the masters o China, sage indeed, knew that i Zen were to be planted in Japan Japan tea would also have to be, as the two share “the same favor.” Tere are countless Zen stories that involve tea, and every amous tea mountain in China is also home to a Zen monastery. monastery. Tey either built it there because o wild tea trees, or later brought the trees with them—choosing a place where the tea, not necessarily they themselves, would be happy. happy. For the most part, China lost this tradition o Zen tea. It was ortunately preserved, cultivated and even enhanced in Japan and Korea. Korea. And no temple o tea would stand without a pillar ounded in Zen tea. We We are very ortunate to have received this wisdom in Japan, passed on in spirit and orm, and drunk rom such a pure ont, crystalized in Zen minerals that have grown drip by drip, then and now. Te Fourth Pillar: Gongfu tea Te nal pillar is a crooked one, shaped like a graceul crane: perched on one leg, the other rooted beneath the foor; and the roo balanced magically on the smallest tip o one eather o one extended wing. Tis tradition is the gong u tea o Southern China, which was developed or the most part by practitioners o martial mar tial arts. Tis tradition is looser and reer. reer. It is an artless art, without any rules, other than those that produce the nest cup o tea. Gong u tea is about mastery, inner and outer. It is about learning to brew tea the way it wants to be brewed, until the subtlest and most rened aspects o the process become clear as day. It’s about sensitivity and clarity. clarity. Like in martial arts, there is no halway—you hit or miss based on your skill. Te proo is in the cup. We We are very ortunate or tunate to have come into contact with a very pure tradition o gong u tea, as it was preserved and enhanced in Malaysia. Many Many modern traditions have lost the inner aspects o gong u tea. Without a deep understanding o the inner reasons behind each aspect o tea preparation, many o the outer, outer, more practical aspects o tea have been replaced with quicker and more convenient methods in these modern times.
