We have just concluded Issoan’s 2024 Intensive at the Oregon Coast. Six students spent 4 days of training, study and discussion. The weather cooperated and for three mornings we got up to do chabako tea on the beach between the waning full moon and glorious sun rise kissing the day.…
After tea …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/between-the-sun-and-the-moon/
I just came back from Tea and Zen Tea Camp at Tahoma One Drop Zendo. I have never formally studied Zen, though over the years I have sat zazen for tea. At Midorikai there was a temple at Daitokuji whose abbot let us sit in his Zendo before class, but I was a fair weather …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/silence-and-stillness/
Some people, especially at demonstrations, get the idea that Chanoyu is a performance. The host has set the stage and enters to perform a ritual with the guests as the audience. In performance the emphasis and attention are all directed at the performer, while the audience is there to be entertained or to view the …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/it-is-not-a-performance/
In serious study or training in anything you will have setbacks. What you dot with setbacks determines how resilient you are. When things start out hard and get harder, what motivates you to hang in there and continue to practice?
What is resilience?
Resilience is the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/studying-tea-builds-resilience/
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” ― Gustav Mahler
As international teachers of a traditional Japanese art, how can we “preserve the fire” of Chado and pass on the traditions, yet still allow for it to have meaning in our own culture? I have been lucky in …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/preserving-the-fire/
