Episode 2: 【I thought...】

2.【I thought…】

I remember the first time when arriving at my teacher's studio, I totally understood the differences between the comprehension of theory and real practice. It's always easier said than done.

Even though I had learned about tea ceremony and used a cover bowl before, when I tried to follow my teacher's steps, I still forgot this and forgot that.

My teacher corrected me a few times and I used to reply "I thought this or I thought that."

There's a step of turning over the tea leaves for his brewing method. He kept correcting me but I didn't get that.

Suddenly, I understood what he said. He wanted us to create space in the front tea so those tea leaves on top can be pulled down. However, I was doing something opposite. 

Then I said, "I thought I should push the front leaves to the back."

He replied naturally, "You thought? The problem is you thought too much."

I was rumbling at heart. Yet later on what he said is always floating in my mind. 

Yes. If you set a lot of assumptions, “you thought” too much, there would be very little room for listening or learning new stuff because the cup is full. 

This echoes what my other tea ceremony teacher said. She quoted Zhuangzi's “Fasting of the Heart”: 

Make your will one! Don’t listen with your ears, listen with your mind. No, don’t listen with your mind, but listen with your spirit. Listening stops with the ears, the mind stops with recognition, but spirit is empty and waits for all things. The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind.” (Chapter 3 “In the World of Men,” transl. Watson p. 25)

Try not to have prejudices or presumptions. If we can treat everything as new and empty our heart, we could listen. This applies to tea brewing, to our relationships with others, and to all new knowledge. 

Do you also “thought too much?” Let us start all over again.