Thank you for the great response to the previous post on what Chado has taught me. I would like to extend my gratitude to those who read these posts and never comment, but I find out later they have been following for a very long time.
If you would like to share things Chado has taught you in the comments, I would love that. Thank you, and I hope these posts contribute to your own journey with tea.
Here are the next 10 thing Chado has taught me:
- Be humble. Respect others. Give appreciation without flattery.
- Everything has a spirit and a story. Don’t just consider something by itself, consider all the hands that touched it, shaped it, and used it before you.
- Cleaning and preparation takes more time than the temae.
- There is a lot of hidden work that goes into a tea gathering. Consideration of such unseen elements applies to many things outside tea.
- Hataraki. Making it work when things aren’t as you expected or exactly as they’re “supposed to be”.
- Leave the world outside when entering the tea room, but bring the tea room with you out into the world.
- Tea is not a solo event. The best tea is shared.
- Patience. Everything has its own time, and the journey is where the value lies.
- Going back to basics. It’s important to continually practice the most basic forms. It’s easy to pick up bad habits when you are focusing on more complex procedures.
- Tea is best enjoyed with a working knowledge of all the elements involved – ceramics, woodworking, tea making, ironwork, bamboo work, calligraphy, etc.