Preparing for this moment

P1020265Last week I was in Hood River, Oregon at the  Columbia Center for the Arts for a presentation on Meditations on the Way of Tea.  It was a beautiful venue in downtown Hood River, within sight of the majestic Columbia River.  As part of the month long activities for La Lluvia/The Rain art exhibition, it was done jointly with Internationally acclaimed haiku poet, Maggie Chula.

It was held in the theater and we had a lighting and sound professional light it up and adjust the sound levels. We set up a temporary tea room and mizuya, and even had  a sound check and lighting check.

After introductions, Maggie set the mood first by reading some of her poetry relating to the rain.  By the time the temae started the audience was in rapt silence.  You could hear the sound of the kettle boiling, the water being ladled into the bowl, the sound of the whisk as the host made tea. The guests were served a sweet and tea.  During the temae, Maggie read haiku to call attention to certain things:

slowly
wiping the tea bowl
no thought
~ from This Moment by Margaret Chula

What I love most about these demonstrations is the Question and Answer period.  It keeps me present and makes me think about what people are interested in and want to know about Chado.  One of the questions that I loved was, how long did it take you to prepare for this presentation today?   The proposal for it began in April. There was a visit to the site in August, and several coordination meetings.  We set up the tea room at noon for a 2:00 start time.

But in reality, I have been preparing for This Moment for 35 years.  All of my training and experience has prepared me to be here now.

Special thanks to Stephanie Wilson, teishu; Randy Burks, hanto; Barbara Walker, mizuya cho; and Janelle Rogers, mizuya.

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How long does it take?

articles“From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had attained some reputation, but nothing before the age of 70 is worth bothering with. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will enter into the secret of things. At 100, I may well have understanding. At 110, everything–every dot, every dash–will live.” — Hokusai

 

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The ties that bind

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The student teacher relationship is so important in Chado.  Your teacher is like your parent in that they have brought you up in the world of tea.

My sensei, Minako-sensei, was my first teacher.  Even though she passed away 13 years ago, she is still my sensei.  When I talk about Sensei, I mean Minako-sensei.  Even though I have had other sensei in my tea life, she is still the one.

Likewise, I have many sempai, senior students who have helped me and taught me, commiserated with me and scolded me.  And now I have students of my own that I want to teach what I know.

Relationships like these are for a lifetime, and in Sensei’s case, beyond a lifetime.  Why are these ties so strong?  I think it is partly built in to the training in the Way of Tea.  Transmission from teacher to student are in person and personal.  I know that every time I went to class, my sensei spent at least two hours before and after to prepare.   For every hour I spent in the tea room, she spent that and more. I know that Sensei also thought about my strength and weaknesses and taught me things that I needed to learn.

I also know that my sempai, who were on their own journey of tea, took the time to explain many of the unspoken rules, etiquette, obligations and appropriate behavior in the tea world.

This makes me grateful for the many, many people who have helped me on my own journey with Chado.  How do I repay that?  Sensei said that I didn’t need to repay her, but to pass on what I had learned to the next generation of students.  And so that is why I am a teacher of Chado, to repay my debt of gratitude and to pass on what I know.

Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/the-ties-that-bind/

Chashaku Workshop

P1010251This summer students got to carve a chashaku from bamboo. To make it a little easier, I bent the bamboo before we started, so the students got to do the shaping and final sanding.

There have various instructions on how to do this bending, but the method I used this time was steam.  After thinning the bamboo to about 3-4 mm, I held the bamboo over my steam iron  for a couple of minutes until I could bend it.  There was some cracking on the back, but eventually that got carved away.

We used two different kinds of bamboo, black bamboo and giant timber bamboo.  The black bamboo was easier to carve, but more brittle.  It split more easily and you had to be very careful  when shaping it.  The green bamboo was harder to carve, but more forgiving of splits and mistakes.

I think it went very well and the students this time got to take home a usable chashaku.  The final assignment from the workshop, is that everyone had to name their chashaku.

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Ieyasu words of wisdom

Ieyasu_precepts“Life is like walking along a long road shouldering a heavy load; there is no need to hurry.

One who treats difficulties as the normal state of affairs will never be discontented.

Patience is the source of eternal peace; treat anger as an enemy.

Harm will befall one who knows only success and has never experienced failure.

Blame yourself rather than others.I

t is better not to reach than to go too far.”

-~Precepts on the secret of success in life drafted by Tokugawa Ieayasu from the collection of Nikk? T?sh?-g?

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