The tea ceremony involves the presence of a host – a tea master, one or more guests and a space designed in a special way. There is nothing superfluous in the tea room: a low entrance, opposite it – a tokonoma, a floor covered with tatami mats, a small window that allows for dim light, a fireplace. Before the guests arrive, the tea master creates a sacred space using sacred objects, incense, flowers. All this is placed in the room only for the duration of the tea ceremony, after which it is cleaned up. Each event is unique, unique due to the combination of movements, objects, smells. We will notice that the sacred environment created during the practice has a certain atmosphere, although its intensity may vary. Every element of the tea ceremony helps to purify the mind. “The sight of the scroll in the tokonoma and the flower in the vase purifies the sense of smell; when you listen to the water boiling in the iron kettle and flowing from the bamboo pipe, your hearing is purified; when you touch the tea ware, the sense of touch is purified; when all the senses are purified, the mind itself is also purified of obscurations.”

Upon entering the tea room for the beginning of the ceremony, the guest enters a space that is already attuned, preparing him for the following act. The first thing the guest sees in the room is the tokonoma (a special niche) and the scroll or flower placed in the vase. The tokonoma contains objects created as a result of sacred Zen practices. The consecrated guest can “read” in them the main ideas of the teachings and spiritual experiences of the author, actualizing in himself the experience of the sacred.

When the guests take their places on the tatami, the owner appears in the tea room. In front of each participant of the event lies a folded fan, which symbolizes the personal, the individual. After the greeting, the fan is necessarily cleaned, pushing everything worldly, vain into the background with it. This moment symbolizes the final separation from the profane and the willingness to join the sacred. The next step is the ritual preparation of the necessary utensils. The tea master first lays out the tea in strict order, then cleans each object in a certain way. The purpose of these manipulations is not literal, but symbolic purification: in accordance with the rhythm of movements, a certain rhythm of breathing is established, the accuracy of ritual movements brought to automatism allows you not to be distracted by the sequence of actions, to concentrate.

Preparation of tea utensils transformed into a ritual allows you to create a situation in which the master contrasts with the profane, deliberately stimulating the atmosphere for the manifestation of the sacred. Becoming the center of sacralization, it not only changes its internal state, but also creates a sacred environment around itself. In other words, the sacred space, prepared before the event begins, gradually becomes a sacred environment during the event itself. The intensity of the sacred medium gradually increases. The moment of highest inspiration corresponds to the preparation of tea, and specifically to the whisking of tea powder with a small amount of water (in three sips) with a tyason (bamboo whisk). At this stage of practice, the master’s body is not controlled by reason, but by intuition and experience, that is, by the ratio of tea powder and water, the speed of whipping and, depending on this, by the taste of the tea, one can judge the state of the person who prepared it, his ability to act as a “conductor” of the sacred.

The practice based on the creation of a picturesque scroll does not require a special room, however, it can be carried out in a room where there are tokonomi with pious sacred objects that can serve as a source of inspiration and experience of the sacred. The creation of a scroll, like the tea act, begins with the ritual preparation of materials: all the necessary objects are brought out and laid out in a special order, brushes, a sheet of paper or a piece of silk are carefully selected. The master holds the paper in front of him, fixes it with a special press, smears it in an inkstone with a small amount of water, etc.

Two options are possible in this practice: in the presence of a visiting spectator and without him. In both cases, the artist behaves in the same way. In both cases the artist acts in the same way: he prepares materials for the painting process and his own consciousness for experiencing the sacred. While preparing materials for painting, he enters a meditative state, switches to spatial-figurative thinking. Contemplating a blank sheet, he experiences creative inspiration close to the state of insight. The spontaneous meditative image that has arisen in the mind is fixed with quick and precise movements of the brush. The sacred manifests itself, acquiring a visible body and form. The resulting image is a kind of record of the master’s state at the time of inspiration-enlightenment, so the artist does not have to compare the image with the model and make numerous adjustments. In addition, both silk and rice paper require high writing speed from the artist and do not give the opportunity to make corrections, erase or overlay the image.

The guest at the tea ceremony and the one contemplating the creation of a picturesque scroll are equally watching the action, but they are not passive observers, but participants in the action. Performing the supposed ritual actions, the guests, like the master, are performing active inner work and experiencing the sacred. Due to concentrated contemplation and empathy, the master first involves and then leads the contemplator. While performing the practice, he himself shares his experiences and is an example. The observer receives spiritual experience, realizes the Zen postulate of the transmission of truth “from heart to heart”, from teacher to student directly, without the use of verbal means, conceptual constructions, showing “sincerity of the heart”.

Immersion in the sacred environment helps to feel unity with other participants in the ritual, creates the necessary mood for entering a meditative state, when “forgetting yourself, you become yourself, you become one with others. The less you think about yourself, the more you become closer to others. In a single rhythm, the “single heart” beats evenly. This is the meeting of everything with everything, the absolute meeting of hearts. There is neither space, nor time, nor social, nor national differences, neither one’s own nor another’s, the universe becomes the abode of everything.

The nature of the act, the atmosphere in which it takes place, and the degree of sacredness of what is happening, therefore, depend not only on the host, but also on all participants in the act. The guest in the tea space must master the elements of the ritual in order to carry out his activity without destroying the unity and integrity of the act. The internal state, which is reflected in the posture of the body, the rhythm of breathing and, as a result, movements, can support and even increase the degree of manifestation of the sacred. The presence of an enlightened master as a guest can already mediate sacralization at the initial stage of the act, since he has the experience, the “habit” of causing hierophany without special effort: his body arbitrarily takes the desired position, his breathing takes on a certain rhythm, and his consciousness is empty. If the guest is outraged, limited by ignorance of the ritual, the sacred escapes him and the act loses the quality of spiritual power.

The tea act, unlike the process of creating a scroll, is initially focused on the guest, without whom the act is impossible. The guest is included in the present action not only as a contemplative, but has a certain role in the ritual, he must manipulate the dishes and maintain the sacred environment. The dishes are the same full-fledged participant here. The participants in the action communicate: the guest greets the vessel with a bow, immediately turning it “front” to himself, that side that is highlighted by the image or texture.

Each item plays its own role, which is strictly assigned to it and requires special respectful treatment and worship, since it is endowed with sacred properties. However, the essence of the ceremony does not fall into the cult of objects or tea itself. All events are aimed at creating and maintaining an atmosphere favorable for the manifestation of the sacred: “… guests, owner, tea utensils – a single organism, subject to a single rhythm.”

Tea Vasiliy
Tea Alchymistr, Prague