heat
Making tea doesn’t require a sharp mind, but it does require a few things. Attention to the quality of ingredients, water, fire to heat it up to the right temperature, choosing the brewing time you prefer, balancing the quantities of tea and water, and then drinking it in the short time before it gets cold.
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That requires you to be in the present moment. Ready to drink and receptive to the tea’s poetry. You sip, you meditate and look out the window at the mist rising off the sea beyond, or chat with your companion about the flavour, whether you want sugar, milk, or lemon, small talk about food, or the garden, things you see around the room. This is the time to talk about the pattern of the wallpaper, not about the mortgage, this relaxing time after the work of eating is done.
Of course you can do a lot more. Japan has made a science and art of the tea ceremony. If you live here awhile, you realize that the tea ceremony is more about “oughts” and the ritual of the dance of tea rather than merely about the quality of the drink. The flowers are as important as the tea. The decoration and choice of vessels is as important. Comportment and ability to turn the bowl so that the front faces away from the server, and then back again after drinking are important. The choice of guests, and the order of serving them is important. Measuring the tea on its tiny bboo stick, and even the direction of stirring it are of considerable importance. Even the slight snobbery of the idea of “look at us all being cultural” with its undertones of mutual congratulation is a factor. Yet.