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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/what-is-tea-ceremony-about/
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/
There are so many things I have learned from Chado that it is difficult to articulate them. This post is the 4th of a series of things that Chado has taught me. These are not necessarily what everyone learns from Chado, but I find my life is so much richer and meaningful because of …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/things-chado-has-taught-me-part-4/
After a long hiatus for Covid, I opened the tearoom last spring. I did not teach any beginner classes for 2 and a half years while the tearoom was closed. There were about 20 people on the waiting list and when I opened the new introduction to Chado class, it filled quickly. Then I …
Permanent link to this article: https://issoantea.com/shoshin-the-beginners-heart/
