"A Cup of Tea, a Cup of Enlightenment”
“A cup of tea, a cup of enlightenment”, is something Inamoto Hyakuten, founder of Komyo ReikiDo, is often quoted as saying. Being an avid tea drinker myself since high school, I love hearing the quote re-stated regularly by my Reiki instructor. But, can enlightenment be as simple as that?
The image accompanying this post is one of a simple, non-descript, white mug. To the average person seeing this in my hand, they would, if even considering it on any level, assume it was part of a set of dishes or something left behind somewhere that I happened to use purely out of necessity. Those who know me a little better, know that I love unique, hand-made pottery and have seen my collection of mugs displayed at tea parties where they are encouraged to choose the one that appeals to them most. I encourage this because I have long believed that drinking from a mug with the right feel for you at that time enhances the entire experience. From this perspective, one may wonder why I have a mass produced, unoriginal mug if I have put so much effort into creating a unique tea drinking experience for myself and my guests.
Few would guess that the mug was a gift from a woman I met during my brief exploration of belly dancing. She knew that I loved tea and chose this particular gift because she liked to see clearly to the bottom of her mug while drinking and believed the absence of a darker colour would offer me the same opportunity. Though she and I have not seen each other in years, I think of the kindness and consideration of this gift every time I choose this mug for tea. It is often my first choice because, as I am certain no one would guess, it provides my absolute favourite cup of tea without fail.
Somehow, this plain, seemingly mundane mug offers each cup of tea, whether black or green, a crispness that the other mugs in my cabinet do not. The day I took the photo above, I had just finished my second of two truly perfect cups of green tea. I was filled with joy and gratitude for the experience of blissful sips accompanying my tasks and even uttered the quote myself as I took the photo. Could this really be a path to enlightenment?
Many who have, at any point, practiced meditation have found it to be horribly challenging. We can all relate to the scene in the movie, Eat, Pray, Love, where Julia Roberts fidgets and fusses during meditation thinking it had gone on forever only to discover she had barely reached a full five minutes. Despite all the challenges, expectations, and frustration we experience when starting a mediation practice, if we stick with it, we eventually come to understand that it is simple – sit. That’s it, nothing else. When we finally figure that out, things really start to happen.
This simple, non-descript, seemingly mundane mug, when chosen, offers a sweetness not unlike the moment one finds stillness in their mediation practice. When I let go of all the stories and expectations around the uniqueness of the mug I choose, I am left with a simple white mug and my favourite tea drinking experience.