Back to the beginning…
Tea has its humble beginnings. From a straightforward drink accidentally discovered in China, to becoming a form of medicinal drink and lastly becoming a gauge of status and wealth.
Only the rich, powerful and royalty are able to acquire and have a taste of this precious drink. Emperors of China fell in love with it, and a lot of other people want to follow suit. Teas became an object of tribute and the principal commodity sought right after in trades. It even reached the point of becoming a form of currency in other locations.
Tea also became a symbol of beauty and of art. Name a profession and they will all agree: that tea is the drink of option! Philosophers, artists, Buddhist monks, calligraphers, poets and even widespread folks are all hooked -).
Tea: a sign of hospitality…
Hospitality can be interpreted in a lot of techniques. It could mean being warm and welcoming becoming friendly and generous or merely acceptance and consideration for those lucky sufficient to be invited into the homes of people. From the root word itself hospital, it is a location where in 1 can uncover a shelter to those who are travelling.
Making use of tea as a sign of hospitality can be shown by providing tea to a visitor or inviting someone to a classic and fascinating tea party. This is a way for the individual providing tea to open his or her heart to the visitor a sense of touching and producing a person feel the humanity behind the act and the warmness of welcome connected with it. For it is in tea that nourishment can be related. It also creates a blanket of comfort and allows an ambience of peacefulness and tranquility.
Where did all this notion began?
Serving tea is a quite old tradition. It has been a tradition carried on as portion of a legacy of sharing a component of getting human and who individuals genuinely are – friendly and generous.
But probably, the earliest recognized time as a host providing tea to its honored visitors happened in China (particularly the Taoists). It was around 500 BC Chou dynasty was tainted with corruption and the downfall of an empire was imminent. But based on a legend, there lived a particular high ranked, but wise man, named Lao Tse. He was considered a accurate sage and a visionary. He could not bear the thought of seeing an empire collapse prior to his very eyes. He decided to retreat and vacate the world of men and women. He decided to spend the rest of his time as a hermit and live in the mountains. As he was heading west, he arrived at Han Pass, where a specific primary Yin His, the gatekeeper lived. He was a wise man and a sage himself, waiting all those years for the arrival of an Immortal such as Lao Tse. In order for the master to remain and share his infinite information and wisdom, the gatekeeper served him tea. Therefore, the hospitality of tea was born and was shared ever since.
In light of hospitality, serving tea is…
• Connecting with Other people – when men and women, despite getting different and sharing distinct tips and opinions in life, all meet and collect together and serve every single other tea, something lovely and incredible takes place. The thoughts of individuals appear to be in sync and be in a harmony. This is the start off of the method of becoming one with others. The feeling of harmony and unity among them, with the thread of serving and sharing tea keeping men and women together. In this setting, and with being together and bonded like this, folks will know every single other much better and discover issues they have in widespread.
• Makes us wiser – When folks collect together and serve and share tea, we also get to share ideas, information and wisdom as well. We get to see the larger picture and not just just focus on ourselves. We broaden our horizons and allow ourselves to see points in a diverse light.
• Getting more sensitive to the requirements of others – Our thoughts are normally towards not ourselves but on the guest’s welfare. We ask ourselves what issues do they need to have, what sort of environment or ambience is right to satisfy them and make them happy. Which tea do they prefer and will please them most and what can we do to make them really feel relaxed and at ease.
• Makes us a selfless and empathic persons – Drinking tea is beyond just connecting and being one with other people. It is also a excellent experience to really feel a deep sense of empathy to all forms of life. We discover to be selfless to be more giving than selfish and receiving. It teaches us to be generous and put other people initial before ourselves.
Drinking tea religiously and philosophically…
But nothing will ever beat of tea becoming a philosophy and a religion: to be revered, praised and put into a pedestal is taking it to the subsequent level. And this is not a joke. For believe it or not, there are folks who are really devoted to tea so significantly that they decided to give it due credit by worshipping it. You could not think it but it is in fact true.
Teaism
Throughout the 5th century, religion of tea saw its birth in the womb of Japan. The Japanese lastly decided to develop a religion out of tea, and out of aestheticism.
What is teaism all about?
Teaism is a form of cult created for the purpose of getting able to worship and adore the lovely versus the seemingly ordinary and sordid reality of life in everyday encounters. It promotes and ultimately strives for harmony and purity, the veil of mystery behind charity (in a mutual sense), and also the romance behind the social strata and order. It is basically a form of praise and worship of issues that are imperfect and the endeavor to obtain some thing possible regardless of the impossibility of life itself.
Teaism is a form of philosophy of tea. It combines religion with ethics and the standpoint of man and nature. Some contemplate it as economics other people enforcing cleanliness and purity.
The most probable reason as to why teaism was founded in the 1st location is the length of time Japan isolated itself from the other countries and the world in fact. Other elements that come into play are its own and unique culture, habits, cuisine, art and a lot of much more. Each and every student, born and raised as a Japanese have been taught of the culture at a very young age and has as a result learned to love and appreciate it for all its beauty and splendor. Even mere peasants are not spared. Even they have learned teaism by way of flower arrangements, for instance.
Daoism
This philosophy and religion is believed to have stemmed from ancient China. It literally mans way or path in Chinese and prided of its teachings on the moral and principle light. It can also mean the universe and its essence. And this is genuinely a extremely significant matter for the Chinese.
The founder of Daoism is Lao Zi and his devoted student Zhuang Zi. Its teaching focuses on the universe and its accurate essence and the unity of each the human beings and nature too.
It was with the teachings of the concepts of Inertia and Calm that gave way to the Chinese of making tea a component of their way of life. This way of life consists of enjoying what tea can offer – tasting tea and also dissolving the body into the eternal realm of the universe. Daoism is also given credit for aiding in the invention and enhancement of the tea arts. It also allowed tea to be an agent of alter and improving lifestyle.
Confucianism
Its founder, Confucius is regarded as as Ancient China’s greatest philosopher and it was his student, Meng Zi that founded Confucianism. This religion and philosophy stresses on ceremony and formality in every thing in life. It emphasizes on strict behavior or conduct in between men and women.
Some of the principles stemmed from Confucianism are: Wisdom, Etiquette, Mercy, Commitment and particularly Harmony and Balance.
Its foundation of the principle of Etiquette has lead to the creation of etiquettes of tea as properly as the famous tea ceremonies in China. According to the Confucius principle, tea for them indicates etiquette, harmony and calm.
Buddhism
It was about 535 BC that Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. For them, Buddha signifies the one who has been awakened. It focuses on explaining the essence of humans and their lives. For that reason, they think in suffering as a unavoidable process in the human life. Meditation is also extremely essential. And they are quite strict in their behavior and lifestyle. Animal products are a big no no to them. Alcohol ingestion is out of the question. They only ingest rice, wheat goods and vegetables. However, they made tea an exemption. It does not in any way violate their rules. And they think about tea as a vegetable. Also, tea drinking is critical for their meditation – it helps them stay awake.
Tea versus religions…
Even though a small unorthodox, there are religions in the globe that have particular dietary restrictions and guidelines about food or drinks, and in this case involving teas. Let us appear at some of them.
• Islam – tea is not necessarily restricted in Islam like consuming pork. But it is only during Ramadan that this is enforced. It is in this unique spiritual fasting period that ALL food and drinks are restricted from the break of dawn to dusk. And this even consists of water and any food intake. Even saliva is not allowed to be swallowed. So a typical, healthy muslim can not indulge in a cup of tea for the duration of the restriction period. Not unless you are extremely ill, of old age, too young or else pregnant.
• Latter-Day Saints (typically referred to as Mormons) – Among this congregation, teas and coffee are really forbidden and restricted to be drunk. They based this belief in the written Word of Wisdom that states “Hot drinks (interpreted as tea and coffee) are not for the body or belly.” The assumption with the association of the statements to coffee and tea is due to these two hot beverages being the typically obtainable beverage for the duration of the time when it was interpreted at about 1833. Other Mormons claimed the primary reason for the restriction is simply because of the caffeine content that is discovered in drinks, and for that reason all drinks with caffeine (including teas) really should not be drunk and be avoided.
• Judaism – Judaism does not specify specific restrictions to tea itself. But they do have a far more general rule when it comes to consuming kosher. Kosher for them are foods that need to pass with their Jewish law – the Halakhic law. In the simplest of terms, kosher means becoming fit enough to be eaten. There are rules that want to be regarded as when it is kosher food or not. Foods should NOT: A. have ingredients that are from non-kosher animals (not slaughtered properly). B. have milk. Meat or grape juice or derivatives produced with no supervision. C. designed with the use of non-kosher machinery or utensils.
Tea can be considered as a kosher food. Such as the preparations involved in producing the tea. If the leaves have been supervised according to the law. Or if other ingredients that are non kosher have been added. The list goes on.
• Seventh-Day Adventist – this religion firmly believe in the significance of consuming a wholesome and wholesome diet. Foods and drinks ought to be with out alcohol, illicit drugs such as narcotics and other form of stimulants that are hazardous to wellness. A lengthy time ago, those food and drinks had been forbidden by their officials but the times have changed. Only avoidance and care when ingesting caffeine is suggested.
• Rastafarianism – this religion, like Seventh day Adventist, are strict in following a wholesome, pure and healthy diet plan. And some of the foods restricted are coffee (and tea can also be regarded as), alcoholic beverages, tobacco, salt, meat and even processed foods. They only eat fruits, vegetables and grains.
