Last night I felt very pleased with myself for having the discipline to bike 40 minutes into the city to go to zazen (sitting meditation) at a temple in the city. After the session as I was trying to find my way out through the maze of stone pathways that leads back to the real world, the ladies who had been there ushered me over to the pond to see the fireflys. They were like children, gushing with awe and amazement at the tiny glowing bulbs floating over the water. There were about 5 of them and a lady grabbed one and tried to put it in my hand but I flinched and dropped it. They laughed at my reaction. For some reason they then decided to grab me by the arm and lead me all the way over to the building where people were practising tea ceremony. I had been to watch once before but recently found out that you're supposed to pay money and actually learn the technique.
Having been ushered so forcefully to the building I went inside and was served some tea and watched the detailed choreography of the ceremony. A lady in her kimono was serving. She shuffled out of the kitchen room and placed the pot of matcha powder and the bowl side by side in front of her with great delicacy and precision. Only to be told by the monk that she should put them closer together and slightly further away from her. She tried about 4 or 5 times to get this exactly right. Isn't it amazing that these people pay to learn how to serve tea?! Anyway I was allowed my turn to drink some tea (which also must be done a certain way) and continued watching. After this I had a chat with the lady who served me using my stunted Japanese and somehow ended up saying that I wanted to learn tea ceremony but my Japanese wasn't good enough. (I think the reason I said this was purely because I knew how to say it). This went down much too well for my liking and soon I was being given papers and being told where to go to buy the right cloth and fan and case etc and come EVERY week. So now I am expected to turn up next week and study tea ceremony and its just this kind of discipline that my stomach responds to with, "No! No!" So I now have to choose between never showing my face at Zuiganji temple again, thereby giving up my zazen priviledges, or commiting to weekly tea ceremony training for a whole year...
It's kind of like pushing off on a water slide when your rubber mat isn't in the right position and you spend the whole ride down in an extremely awkward position trying really hard to readjust it but you can't do anything about it until your dumped in the pool at the bottom. Only to have to climb all the way up the stairs again just to get it right... Kind of...
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hahaha awesome water slide analogy. That whole blog sounded like you were describing a dream!
ReplyDeleteI think you should do it! Although weekly training for a year sounds a bit too much. I mean, how hard is it? Put the tea in the cup, wait a while for it to brew and cool, then proceed to drink! Ahhh the joys of being a simple westerner.