No. Always seek the truth of beauty, each time returning to the world of ordinary experience.”
Through participation in something seemingly simple, the tea ceremony allowed participants to immerse themselves in their own inner peace and experience a sense of unity with the world. To simultaneously be of elevated spirit, yet present in one’s surroundings. Tea, because of its effects, symbolized wakefulness, yet tranquility and meditation that are necessary for a person to turn more easily towards their inner self.
Through this book, the author has conveyed a fragment of the beauty and values of Japanese culture in a delicate and poetic manner, opening the reader’s mind, like a master of the tea ceremony, to perceive the insufficiently known dimensions of the wondrous reality to which we belong. Here we present some excerpts from this book:
“A Cup of Humanity”
Tea originated as a medicine and surpassed into a beverage. In China, in the 8th century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the refined pleasures. The 15th century saw Japan elevate it to the level of a religious practice. Teaism – to theism. Theism is a ritual based on the worship of what is beautiful among the dirt of everyday life. It imposes purity and harmony, the secret of mutual love, the romanticism of social order. (…)
The philosophy of tea is not mere aestheticism, in the usual sense of the word, because it expresses, along with ethics and religion, our entire perception of man and nature. It is a hygiene because it imposes cleanliness; it is economics because it shows more enjoyment in the simple rather than the complicated and expensive; it is moral geometry because it defines our sense of the proportions of the universe. It expresses the true spirit of Eastern democracy because it turns all its followers into connoisseurs of taste.
The long separation of Japan from the rest of the world, which contributes to introspection, has greatly facilitated the development of theism. Our house and habits, clothing and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer, painting – even our literature – have all been exposed to its influence. No student of Japanese culture could ignore its presence. It has permeated He entered the humble dwellings with the elegance of noble chambers. Our peasants have learned to arrange flowers, our lowest worker to greet the cliffs and waters. In everyday expressions, we speak of “a person without tea” when they are insensitive to the serious-comedic aspects of personal drama. On the other hand, we label the unbridled aesthete who, oblivious to the world’s tragedy, indulges in a flood of liberated emotions as someone with “too much tea.”
To an outsider, it may indeed seem surprising that there is so much fuss about nothing. What a storm in a tea cup! – they would say. But when we consider how, at the end of the day, a tiny cup of human pleasure is, how often it overflows with tears, how easily it is emptied to the bottom due to our unquenchable thirst for infinity, we should not blame ourselves for exalting the tea cup.
Taoism and Zen
However, the main contribution of Taoism to Asian life lies in the field of aesthetics. Chinese historians have always spoken of Taoism as an “artificial” one. “that being in the world” because it deals with the present – ourselves. It is precisely in us that God meets with Nature and separates yesterday from tomorrow. The present is a movable Infinitude, the lawful sphere of the Relative. Relativity demands Adaptation; Adaptation is Art. The art of living is continuous adaptation to our environment. Taoism accepts the earthly as it is and, differing from Confucians and Buddhists, seeks to discover beauty in our world of suffering and misery. (…)
Taoists emphasize that the comedy of life could be made more interesting if everyone preserved unity. To maintain proportion among things and give space to others without losing one’s own position – that was the secret of the earthly drama. We must know the whole play in order to play our roles properly; the understanding of totality must never be lost in the individual. Lao Tzu illustrates this with his favorite metaphor of Emptiness. He claims that true essence can only be found in emptiness. The reality of a room, for example, must be found in empty space surrounding it. surrounded by just a roof and walls, and not within the roof and walls themselves. The utility of a water pitcher lies in its emptiness, where water can be contained, and not in the form or material from which it is made. Emptiness is all-powerful because it contains everything. Only in emptiness can movement occur. Whoever can create emptiness within themselves, into which others can freely enter, becomes the master of all situations. The whole can always govern the part.
Taoist ideas have greatly influenced all of our theories of action, even those of swordsmanship and wrestling. Jiu-jitsu, the Japanese art of self-defense, owes its name to a passage from the Tao Te Ching. In jiu-jitsu, the aim is to extract and exhaust the enemy’s strength through non-resistance, emptiness, while preserving one’s own strength for victory in the final fight. In art, the value of the same principle is illustrated by the value of suggestion. By leaving something unsaid, we give the observer the opportunity to complete the idea, and thus a great masterpiece irresistibly captures your attention until it seems that you too are included. his remaining part. The emptiness is there for you to enter and fill your aesthetic emotion to the top.
Those who would make themselves artists in the art of living were considered by Taoists to be True men. At birth, one enters the realm of dreams only to awaken to reality in death. He suppresses his own light to merge with the darkness of others. (…) For them, the three jewels of life are compassion, vigilance, and modesty. (…)
Worship of Art
A masterpiece is a symphony played on our most delicate emotions. True art is Pai Ya, and we are the harp Lung Mena. With the magical touch of beauty, the secret strings of our being awaken, and we tremble and vibrate in response to its call. Spirit speaks to spirit. We listen to the inexpressible, we see the invisible. The master summons sounds that we do not know. Long-forgotten memories return to us with new meaning. Hopes, silenced by fear, longings we dare not acknowledge, emerge in new glory. Our spirit is the canvas on which artists apply their paint; n Their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro is the light of joy, the shadow of sorrow. We are a masterpiece, and we are made of masterpieces.
Compassionate unity of spirits, crucial for the worship of art, must be based on mutual confession. The observer must assume the right position to receive the message, just as the artist must know how to communicate it. Master of tea Kobori Enshu, himself a daimyo, left us with these unforgettable words: “Approach a great painting as you would approach a great prince.” To understand a masterpiece, you must humble yourself before it and, breathlessly, wait for its slightest expression. A renowned critic from the Sung dynasty made a captivating confession: “In my younger days, I praised the master whose paintings I loved, but as my judgment matured, I praised myself more because I love what the masters chose for me to love.” It is regrettable that so few of us actually make an effort to study the preferences of masters. (…) The master always has something to offer, while we go hungry due to mere lack of curiosity. Journeys.
To the sympathetic, a masterpiece is a vibrant reality, and we feel drawn to it by the bonds of companionship. Masters are immortal because their loves and anxieties are constantly revived within us. More souls than hands speak to us, more humanity than technique – the more humane the calling, the deeper our response. (…)
Great masters, both in the East and the West, have never forgotten the value of suggestion as a means to gain the observer’s trust. Who can look at a masterpiece without feeling awe in the face of the vast intellectual panorama that is laid bare before us? (…)
There is nothing more sublime than the unity of kindred souls in art. In the moment of encounter, the art lover surpasses himself. Suddenly, he exists and does not exist. He momentarily catches a glimpse of Infinity, but words cannot express his joy, for the eye has no language. Unburdened by material constraints, his spirit moves in rhythm with things. It is precisely for this reason that art is akin to religion and elevates humanity. It is precisely what makes a masterpiece something sacred.
Chosen by: Anastazija Pulja