Portland International Tea Gathering
I am planning an International Tea Gathering in Portland, October 15-20, 2025. Save the date. I hope you can join us. Information updates will be posted here: www.sweetpersimmon.com
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In gratitude
It is that time of year as the holiday in the U.S. rolls around called Thanksgiving. Most of the time, I am not thinking about giving thanks. Sometimes I like to complain about my life. As I am getting older I find more time to reflect and think about my life. It may sound trite to say but I am thankful today for everything in my life.
I have a group of new students, and they are learning about how to be a good guest. The past couple of weeks they are making good progress, but a couple of things seem to hang them up when receiving sweets or tea. Most often they forget about “Osaki ni” and kansha. They just want to dive in and get the sweets, or immediately drink the tea.
These are two small gestures, yet they are important in tea. Osaki ni, or excuse me for going ahead of you, delays the immediate gratification of eating the sweets or drinking tea. It slows one down to consider others first. Lifting the sweets plate or bowl is an offering before partaking. Kansha, in gratitude, not just for the sweets or tea in front of us, but gratitude to the host for providing the temae, the space to hold the tea ceremony, for making the sweets, and for all the consideration that went into the preparation. The cleaning of the room and mizuya, heating the water, and choosing these utensils. It is also for the people to planted the tea, harvested, processed, and transported it. In fact, it is gratitude for everyone and everything that made this moment possible of sitting here eating these delicious sweets and drinking tea.
Just before my mother passed away, she made buy a blank journal. I thought she wanted to dictate her last thoughts before she passed. But she wanted me to use it. She told me that every night before I went to bed, I should write three things I was thankful for in the journal. Some days it was very hard to think of something I was thankful for. Sometimes I was just thankful that the day was over.
I filled that journal over the next couple of years. At some point I became eager to write down at the end of the day what I was thankful for. I began to look for things during the day to remember to write in my journal that night. It was no longer adequate to write three things that I was thankful for. Sometimes I filled a couple of pages. I no longer write what I am thankful for, but mentally before I go to sleep, I think over the day of things in my life I am thankful for. Loving family, good health, safe shelter, fulfilling work, living a long and productive life.
As I am getting older, more of my friends are no longer around. Every year a few more are passing on. While it makes me sad, I am thankful that I got to know them while they were here. I wake up in the morning and look at my husband and knowing that our time on earth is finite, I am so thankful that I have another day with him. That is a good start to the day, bookended by thinking at night how grateful I am for all the things in my life.
Yes, every day is a good day.
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What is tea ceremony about?
It’s about making and drinking tea, and it’s not about tea at all.
It’s about arranging flowers and preparing the tea room, or not.
It’s about precision and doing things in order, I think.
It’s about interaction of host and guest, maybe.
It’s about harmony with the seasons, perhaps.
Or letting go of mistakes,
Being not doing,
About me
Here
Now
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Between the Sun and the Moon
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.
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After tea we sat Zazen, made breakfast, cleaned the kitchen and set up the tea room and mizuya for study. We don’t often get to study in an 8 mat room, but with the space and portable tatami we had instant tea room.
Besides tea temae training, and kagetsu, we featured sweets making. We made shiro a from scratch, and then went on to finish making nerikiri. Each student got to take home 350 gr of shiro an, and 350 gr of nerikiri to make sweets at home. Luckily, they both freeze well.
We also made a two layer tsubo an/yuzu and rice kanten sweet named miru nami, after the sea plant motif found on dogu like the mizutsugi.
One of the students ordered 500 gr of wasanbon, so we used kashigata molds to make higashi to take home as well.
We teamed up to cook and share meals
Not all time was spent in training or cleaning. There were intense discussions after dinner that ran late into the night as well.
Thank you to all the students for an intensive training weekend.
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Silence and stillness
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 sitter. I wouldn’t get out of bed early if it was raining, cold, or too hot. Other tea classes began with zazen that I have attended, and I have sometimes started my classes with Zazen to calm the students who had just driven in traffic to get to class.
Zazen at the Tea Camp started at 4:50 am. It was dark and I needed a flashlight to get to the Zendo. I am not known as an early riser, so I appreciated that nobody talked with me as we assembled and settled in for early morning Zazen.
After the chanting started and the bell rang, the room was silent. That is, with 15 people in the room, there was no talking. I am always taken how intimate the silence is in Zendo. Though I could not see everyone, I could feel the energy. I could hear outside noises such as cars passing, and birds waking up, but they didn’t disturb the Zendo.
Normally I sit Zazen in seiza because I can sit longer in that position than half lotus, but for this seminar, I have been working on opening my hips. Sitting in this position was challenging, but not as hard as I anticipated.
As usual, when the silence and stillness of the Zendo settled down, my mind went on a wandering journey in order to stimulate itself from the deprivation of input. Like a puppy, I kept trying to bring myself back by counting my breaths. Pretty soon, my left foot became numb, and it started to creep up my leg. The urge to move to find relief became consuming. Breathing, counting, breathing, counting . . .
I appreciated the talks that Gensho, our leader, had later about the physicality of sitting. The position of your spine, how to use your core to maintain your posture and even some exercises to help sitting for longer periods. The most important thing he said is to notice and listen to your own body. Our body speaks to us if we just pay attention.
In the stillness and silence of the Zendo, I could start to listen to my body. The usual distractions were minimized. What did that twinge mean? Could I find a position where it took longer for the numbness in my foot to start? What was going on with the base of my spine? At what point did my breathing deepen? Sometimes, I was just breathing and forgot to count.
During walking meditation in the crisp air of the now lightening day, I was at first relieved that I could walk off the numbness in my foot, but I began to match my breath to my steps, and notice how my feet connected to the ground. I walk regularly during the week, but seldom do I notice these things.
Starting the day with Zazen had lingering effects for me as I was more quiet and thoughtful throughout breakfast and chores. I was paying attention less to my own thoughts and more to what I was doing and people around me.
In the chakai in the afternoon, I noticed and appreciated things that I probably would have passed by without thinking. Sounds that I normally take for granted such as the sound of the whisk swishing, the water going into the kensui gave me great pleasure, as did the sound of the lid of the kettle on the futaoki. Do you notice these things during temae? Even the natsume and chashaku, I examined with greater attention to detail than the usual cursory look. Some of the guests had never attended a chakai before and I tried to pay attention as if it was my first time too. I appreciated that the host didn’t chatter, but let us listen, observe, and experience the chakai as it unfolded. The tea was so delicious!
Even if you don’t sit Zazen, spending some time in silence and stillness allows you to listen and notice things that get lost in the day to day rush of what we do. Have your tea in the garden in the morning, go for a walk without talking. turn off your phone for half an hour. And listen, listen, listen . . .
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