Inner balance can be found in a cup of tea. Rick Matz shares his favorite quotes about this meditative beverage.
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A friend of mine and I were talking about tea the other day; the next best thing to drinking it. Anyway, it got me thinking about tea quotes. If you have others of a similar vein, please post in the comments.
The first one is my favorite.
“Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are always two cups on my table.”Tang Dynasty
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“The first cup moistens my lips and throat.
The second shatters my loneliness. The third causes the wrongs of life to fade gently from my recollection. The fourth purifies my soul. The fifth lifts me to the realms of the unwinking gods.”Chinese mystic, Tang Dynasty
“Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one.”◊♦◊
Chinese Proverb
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“So I must rise at early dawn, as busy as can be,
to get my daily labor done, and pluck the leafy tea.”Ballad of the Tea Pickers, Le Yih, Early Ch’ing Dynasty, 1644
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“Kissing is like drinking tea through a tea-strainer; you’re always thirsty afterwards.”
Chinese Proverb
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“I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea.”
Lu t’ung
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“In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea; I see all of nature represented in its green color. Closing my eyes I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart. Silently sitting alone and drinking tea, I feel these become a part of me.”
Soshitsu Sen, Grand Master XIV, Urasenke School of Tea
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“Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.”
T’ien Yiheng
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“The tea ceremony is more than an idealization of the form of drinking—it is a religion of the art of life.”
Okakura Kakuzo
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“What is the most wonderful thing for people like myself who follow the Way of Tea? My answer: the oneness of host and guest created through ‘meeting heart to heart’ and sharing a bowl of tea.”
Soshitsu Sen, Grand Master XIV, Urasenke School of Tea
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“The best quality tea must have creases like the leathern boot of Tartar horsemen, curl like the dewlap of a mighty bullock, unfold like a mist rising out of a ravine, gleam like a lake touched by a zephyr, and be wet and soft like a fine earth newly swept by rain.”
Lu Yu (d. 804),, Chinese sage, hermit.
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“A wave of rare incense is wafted from the tea-room; it is the summons which bids the guests to enter. One by one they advance and take their places. In the tokonoma hangs a kakemono—a wonderful writing by an ancient monk dealing with the evanescence of all earthly things. The singing kettle. . . sounds like some cicada pouring forth his woes to departing summer.”
Okakura Kakuzo, Book of Tea (1906) Describing the last Cha-no-yu by Rikiu, a great tea master
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“Tea is nought but this:
First you heat the water, Then you make the tea. Then you drink it properly. That is all you need to know.”Sen Rikyu, Zen Tea Master, 1522-1591
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“Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.”Okakura Kakuzo, Book of Tea (1906)
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Originally posted on Cook Ding’s KitchenIf you need good reading material to go with your morning tea (or coffee), you might like a daily dose of Good Men Project awesomeness delivered straight to your inbox. Once a day or once a week, your choice. Join our mailing list here.
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