The Tea Letter #1 (Finding Peace, Self-Improvement, Reading & Enlightenment)
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many regular Tea Letters. Unlike my long-form blog posts, these emails will be curations or collections of thoughts and ideas from reading or thinking on the overall theme of The Tea Letter.
What is that theme? The working concept is: “Modern living in the Way of Tea”. In short, it’s the idea that the wisdom of ancient tea masters can teach us a lot about how to live better lives today.
Today's Reading
For today’s Tea Letter, I’d like to demonstrate that idea with some excerpts from a book called Essays in Idleness (Tsurezuregusa, 徒然草).
This book fascinates me. It’s actually two separate “books” combined into one piece: the Hōjōki, written by Kamo No Chōmei (c. 1155-1216), and Essays in Idleness by Yoshida Kenkō (c. 1283-1352). Both are courtly types from Kyoto who (mostly) withdrew from society to live out the rest of their days as ascetic monks. They pursued the Buddhist path while writing their observations of the world and its ways.
This was apparently a normal thing to do back in feudal Japan. Is it weird I’m a little jealous?
The resulting book is the combined writings they did while living in isolation. Supposedly, they didn’t write their journals to be read by others. But they also made sure their writing was easily discovered in their huts after they died.
Come on, guys.
Tea of the Day
Before we dive in, I’d like to take a moment and encourage you to have some tea along with the reading. I always wanted The Tea Letter to be something enjoyed over a cup of tea. I’m hoping this newsletter provides the perfect opportunity for both you and I to do so.
Here’s my tea of the day: “Yabukita Kabuse (Shincha)”, by Kettl. This 2021 spring tea is a single cultivar Yabukita tour de force.Bright, crisp, astringent, and eye-opening. It’s a much bolder kabuse-style tea than I’m used to. It’s the perfect tea to drink along with a good book that stimulates the mind.
I hope you’ll pour your favorite cup and enjoy.
Excerpts from Hōjōki, by Kamo no Chomei:
Chōmei on finding peace
Knowing what the world holds and its ways, I desire nothing from it, nor chase after its prizes. My one craving is to be at peace, my one pleasure to live free of troubles.
Wealth brings great anxiety, while with poverty come fierce resentments. Dependence on others puts you in their power, while care for others will snare you in the worldly attachments of affection. Follow the social rules, and they hem you in; fail to do so, and you are thought as good as crazy. Where can one be, what can one do, to find a little safe shelter in this world, and a little peace of mind?
We often say we want to be happy but I think what we truly want is peace. There are so many difficulties in life. How are we supposed to find peace in such a troubled world?
I think we find peace in choosing our constraints and rigorously avoiding entanglement elsewhere. I don't believe we can truly be free of life's troubles. I do believe there's peace in knowing the troubles we're facing come from choices we ourselves made. Facing life's troubles gets easier when we know there's a point to the suffering.
Excerpts from Essays in Idleness, by Yoshido Kenkō
Kenkō on life circumstances and self-improvement
Status and personal appearance are things one is born with, after all, but surely the inner man can always be improved with effort.
We can’t control where we’re born, or to whom we are born. What we can control is how we live our lives. Even humans kept in bondage or locked in actual prison have found opportunities for self-improvement. Many famous works of literature and philosophy were, in fact, produced behind bars.
What this means is: we only have control over ourselves, so we should exercise that control to improve our inner self.
When we take on the responsibility of improving ourselves, we open the door to a life of self-satisfaction and inner peace.
Kenkō on reading and wisdom
It is a most wonderful comfort to sit alone beneath a lamp, book spread before you, and commune with someone from the past whom you have never met.
I’m going to rope in an excerpt from another book called Japanese Tea Ceremony by A.L. Sadler to emphasize the point:
...the reason that writing is preferred to painting in [the tearoom’s place of honor called] the tokonoma is that...contemplation of the words of a profound thinker leads to enlightenment.
Reading and writing is truly a gift to mankind. There is not only wisdom but joy to be found in reading the words of those who have come before. When we read actively, we enter into dialogue with some of the greatest minds in all of human history. We get to learn what they know about life and being human.
It’s the very reason I’m writing to you now.
Why try to solve all of life's problems from a cold start? Especially when it comes to the core questions we all deal with--finding purpose, living well, death and dying--which people have been pondering for as long as we’ve had the ability to think about such things.
Reading a good book allows us to look at life while standing on the shoulders of giants. Everyone wants to be taller, don’t they?
That’s all for this week. Until next time, happy drinking.
Mike