TeaForum.org

A thought provoking blog by Scott Norton

The Importance of Space
https://scotttea.wordpress.com/2019/09/ ... -of-space/

Thanks for posting this @Victoria. One of the things I’m working on, slowly it seems, is to modify my tea drinking into more of a mindful ritual.

So beautifully written very special. Thank you Scott.

I hope that a recent tea session at my somewhat spacious apartment inspired Scott write this

Super poetic blog post as always. ^^
Victoria, I did not know you read his blog.

Shine Magical wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 23, 2019 8:00 am

I hope that a recent tea session at my somewhat spacious apartment inspired Scott write this

Super poetic blog post as always. ^^
Victoria, I did not know you read his blog.

It appeared on my FB feed posted in another group. I had not read his blog before. Maybe your aesthetic did inspire his train of thought, your place seems to have a sense of calm space.

It’s no secret I have a similar approach to tea as Scott, though less formal. Preparing tea is something I do deliberately and with no false reverence.

I’ve been teaching my son— now almost sixteen— how to make tea. I’ve been teaching him off and on for the past year and he grew up with tea from the moment he could hold a cup. He's been to a lot of tea gatherings and though he can’t pick up specific notes like I can he does have a good sense for he likes and dislikes. He’s been around tea enough that frankly he doesn’t know what he naturally knows.

So last night he asked me to set him up with a teapot and tea and he would do the rest, by himself in the tearoom overlooking the valley. I gave him a competition grade Bi Luo Chun from this spring. I left him to it.

Outside the tearoom I could hear relaxing music playing (Mac DeMarco) in there and nothing else really. He emerged an hour later and I asked him how it went.

His first steep was the best. He overshot the second steep but corrected it on the third and fourth. The fifth was the worst because he forgot to increase the temperature and time. (Not a bad post mortem, imo)

But then he said this:

“Now I know why you drink tea everyday like you do. It’s great. It’s really relaxing getting in tune with the tea and allowing your mind to focus on one thing.”

I hope he’ll add tea to his other meditative practice, zazen.

What is so nice about reading Scott Norton's words, is the same enjoyment of a recorded concert. The performance is over but the recording can be played and replayed to re-establish those first initial sensations. On an early morning train ride I am experiencing that wonderful feeling of space and awareness as if I were sitting for tea. Thank you Scott.
One current space experience I am having is following and catching a ball coming to me with some speed. This isolated globe that is both suspended in space and traveling through space in a second's time, is not only miraculous, but to follow its movement as it plays with physics, creates total awareness (if it doesn't get caught it will catch me).
That all said because one small feature not written of in the blog post was of the space that the stream of tea, poured from the teapot, like that ball, occupies as it moves to formally settle itself in its new vessel. The fascination of movement through space, so transitory and fleeting, but so defining in its briefness and necessity, and so distinct from the static still space of teaware arrangements.

Baisao wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:05 am

“Now I know why you drink tea everyday like you do. It’s great. It’s really relaxing getting in tune with the tea and allowing your mind to focus on one thing.”

That sounds like the result of some excellent parenting my friend!

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Sep 25, 2019 8:53 am

Baisao wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:05 am

“Now I know why you drink tea everyday like you do. It’s great. It’s really relaxing getting in tune with the tea and allowing your mind to focus on one thing.”

That sounds like the result of some excellent parenting my friend!

Thank you, but I think he deserves all the credit. He's always been ahead of his years.