1.
I wanted to learn tea ceremony a long time ago. By chance, I attended the meditation tea ceremony class in Zhengjue Temple, signed up half a day in advance and studied for three days. Before I went, I was very upset. On the one hand, I have never lived in a temple before, and I am worried about my femininity. On the other hand, I am curious and nervous about the new things to learn. The more you want to learn well, the more afraid you are of not learning well.
But when I arrived at Zhengjue Temple, I only felt that the temple in front of me was solemn. I calmed down for a while and started my life these days with the mentality of being safe when I came.
As it turns out, all my previous worries were unnecessary, and I benefited more than I expected.
2.
Before class, we received the class schedule and saw that there was an early class at 4: 30 every morning. We are worried that we won't get up the night before, so we will wake up every other hour every night and can't sleep well. At three o'clock, the "Song of Kind Show" sounded in the corridor, and the clean and loud female voice echoed in the air. I woke up naturally, not the kind of alarm clock that suddenly sounded and my heart jumped suddenly, nor the kind that woke up like a dream and was refreshed.
Drink water, wash, dress neatly, and go to the morning class with the brothers who live together.
On the first morning class, we recited the scriptures and worshipped Buddha with the master of the temple. Everyone should either put their hands together or hold scriptures in their hands and settle down in the present. I am not familiar with many classics, and the masters recite them quickly. When you can't keep up, put down the scriptures and close your eyes slightly. You won't be anxious because you can't keep up with the speed, and you won't be depressed because you can't understand it.
There are chanting sounds in my ears, but naturally there are no distractions in my heart. With the sound of chanting, consciously clear your mind, clear your mind and feel the extraordinary victory at this moment.
The morning class the next morning is to practice meditation tea ceremony. The class on the third morning is meditation practice.
The morning class is over, and it's still not bright. I am still sleeping at this time, but now I am on my way to have breakfast. There is a strict timetable for fasting in temples, with breakfast at 5:30, lunch at 1 1:00 and fasting at 17:30 (medicine and food). Volunteers prepare rich meals for everyone every day. As I am mostly a vegetarian, I won't feel uncomfortable because there is no meat in the temple. On the contrary, I think the vegetarian food in the temple is extremely delicious.
After breakfast, you can move freely, or walk or rest until 7:50 to start the whole day's study.
3. the first day? Ear root meditation and tea-making technology
Entering the classroom, volunteers have arranged desks, tea sets, cushions and other supplies for us, and prepared snacks and drinks for us. The feeling here is that we don't have to worry about anything, everyone does their job, volunteers are responsible for all kinds of logistics work, and we are responsible for focusing on learning. As a volunteer brother said, "Although it may not be as comfortable and convenient as home, I won't feel homesick when I come here. 」
Seeing all kinds of utensils on the table, I was both curious and cautious. After a brief understanding of Zen tea knowledge and tea set, Master Miao Jie did not explain the action of meditation tea ceremony, but first introduced us to meditation and ear meditation. During this period, we listened to three pieces of music, one was the sound from nature, the other was the mixture of all kinds of noisy sounds and natural sounds, and the other was the ambient sound of the classroom when everyone closed their eyes and meditated.
After listening, Master asked us what we heard. I thought about it. In the first paragraph, I heard all kinds of wind, rain and birds singing. In the second paragraph, I don't know where I heard the noise, but when I heard the cicada singing, I saw myself sitting under a big tree in midsummer. In the third paragraph, I heard subtle sounds such as air conditioner heater and back door switch.
I'm a little curious, so I asked the master:
"Meditation and meditation? 」
The master said:
"Not the same. All you have to do is listen while meditating. 」
I'm still at a loss.
4.
After Master enlightened us, Brother Jihai began to teach us the twelve procedures of meditation tea ceremony. I can finally start fiddling with all kinds of objects and utensils on the table, curious about their order and placement, and curious about their connection with meditation. When we were studying, Brother Jihai gave a demonstration. This senior has his own dignity. Looking at her flowing movements, there is still strength in softness.
In the process of learning, Brother Jihai constantly encouraged and comforted us with such words as "Don't worry about doing actions", "Raise your arms, be bold" and "have a solid basic skill". From morning till night, we learned the complete movements of twelve processes, no matter on an empty stomach, lunch break or recess.
I am very happy in my heart, and I already know how to take and show these utensils that arouse my curiosity. Although I am still at a loss about some details in my mind, I find myself in an extremely calm and peaceful mood unconsciously.
In class, I need to keep seven sitting postures (which can be simply understood as sitting cross-legged). Usually, I seldom cross my legs, my feet and legs are numb soon, and my thighs hurt. I thought my biggest problem was getting up at 3: 30, but I didn't expect that my biggest difficulty was the physical pain caused by crossing my legs.
In the end, from the enlightenment of Master Miao Jie to the twelve procedures taught by Brother Jihai, the process from theory to practice was completed. I wondered why I had to learn meditation before learning tea ceremony. Now I understand something.
The so-called Zen tea is to nourish the soul with Zen and take tea as the flesh and blood. In the process of making tea, you should first calm your mind and have no other thoughts, so that all your attention can be focused on your gestures. After you have a calm heart, you should pursue slowness. This slowness is not procrastination, not muddling along, but doing every movement gracefully and beautifully, and even trying to make breathing smooth.
Go back after class and have a good sleep.
5. The next day? Learning temperament and Zen tea three-character classics
I learned twelve procedures of Zen tea ceremony yesterday. Although I can make a whole set of procedures, I lack charm and rhythm and can't show the beauty of tea ceremony. So today, Ji Haige combines Zen tea talk (12 songs) and music to take us to experience the combination of movement and melody.
At first, I followed brother Ji Hai, and listened to her giving us node tips along with music. When does the movement start and stop in the change of melody and the recitation of poetry? After doing a few exercises, you can experience a little doorway by yourself. At this moment, I thought to myself, "It's good to finally touch the door of meditation tea ceremony."
When I can concentrate on following the music, I began to understand the sentence "You just have to listen" that Master Miao Jie said yesterday.
As soon as the music started, my energy was all concentrated. There are no distractions in my mind, no distractions, and no emotional ups and downs in my heart to keep calm. At this time, the mind will become suddenly enlightened, and you can feel the music wholeheartedly and feel what you are doing now. Every time I go to a node, I naturally know which action to do and strive for integration.
The premise of this integration is that we must focus on one place and have no differences.
This is also of great significance to emotional management and human behavior in our daily life. We should try our best to avoid the emotions of great joy and great sorrow, which are not only easy to damage our health and consume our energy, but also easy to lead people by the nose.
I remember reading a book about mental healing, and I was deeply impressed by a passage in it-"Our reason only works when we are cool-headed, and when we are emotional, any conclusions, thoughts and feelings are the result of chaos and are not credible. 」
6.
The meditation tea ceremony was inherited and arranged by the elder Ren Yun of Zhengjue Temple, who wrote many poems. After professional finishing and processing, it has become the music of meditation tea ceremony, and the poems in the music we use in class are his works.
In addition, in order to facilitate students' study, Elder Ren Yan also compiled the Three-Character Sutra of Meditation Tea Ceremony for easy understanding and comprehension. As a beginner, Master Miao Jie will enlighten us on the first half of this work, and the rest will be explained slowly after learning for a long time.
During the class, my ears are listening, my brain is thinking, but my legs are hurting. Later, there was a feeling that the root of the thigh was about to be torn. Even if you sit with your left and right legs alternately, the pain remains undiminished. At that time, I encouraged myself to "bear it, just hold your horses", at the same time, I felt that tears were about to fall, and I constantly relied on deep breathing to adjust my mood and body.
It's like pulling out a wisdom tooth with nerves, and the anesthetic fails halfway. I endure it and don't interrupt the doctor's operation. Later, my colleague who accompanied me to the tooth extraction asked me, "Does it hurt?" Look at your hands clenched tightly. " I said, "If you interrupt the doctor and ask him to give me another anesthetic, you might as well put up with it and let him finish it, so that you can finish it quickly." 」
Fortunately, I made it to the end. When I finished the process of persistence, I thought that the process of overcoming was to hone my will.
7. Tea tasting and graduation activities on the third day
Today, Brother Ji Li came to tell us about tea. I found that people who have studied meditation tea ceremony for a long time have a temperament, gentle, sober and firm.
The same tea, the same water temperature, the same environment, different people have different tastes. After making tea together, the students can finally put into practice what they have learned in the past few days, such as boiling water and making soup, washing cups and burning lamps, watching the color and smelling the fragrance, washing tea with water, making tea quietly and drinking tea at will.
After everyone quietly finished their own tea, they began to share their own tea and their feelings of drinking tea. I looked at the tea I made, and it was a little bitter the second time. I know because I'm a little impetuous. Because it is the last day of study, I will soon return to my respective lives, so I am reluctant to part with it, so I feel unconsciously ups and downs and a little sad. But I really want to taste the difference of tea brewed in different moods, so I keep comforting myself, take a deep breath, and then make the third and fourth bubbles. You can taste that tea has lost its bitterness and become a little thick and dull.
During the tea making, I saw many students sharing their own tea with Brother Ji Li. After tasting, Brother Ji Li can tell the mood, personal character and recent emotional changes of the tea maker carefully, and give some suggestions. However, after tasting the tea of several classmates, I can only feel the general difference, but I have no detailed feelings. Therefore, Senior Brother Li Ji of Beijue is very good at kung fu, and I feel that I should work harder in the future.
I'm sorry I didn't communicate with Gilly's brother. At that time, I just had to adjust my mood in the face of the upcoming separation and feel the difference conveyed by tea. If there is an opportunity in the future, I still hope Ji Li brothers can try my tea.
Tea and water are gifts from nature. In a cup and a lamp, there are hidden feelings and stories that everyone has never said. Those who know, just taste it and you will understand.
8.
Meditation and tea ceremony also pay attention to two studies, step by step. This * * * has three classes, namely: elementary workshop, elementary gain class and three-day meditation. In the afternoon, we will finish the performance together and share it with the students.
Sitting opposite our workshop are three-day Zen students, who have studied Zen tea ceremony for longer than us and have a deeper understanding of "Zen tea blindly". Most of the three-day Zen students I can meet are people in their fifties and sixties. When they performed, I saw that every one of them was so leisurely, so neat and beautiful, and my heart was filled with emotion and I was shocked to tears.
At that time, I had a strong idea in my heart-the seniors are so old, and they still practice so hard and work so hard. As the younger generation, they should be more diligent and cultivate their own moral values. Many people always say that self-cultivation is only for middle-aged and elderly people, so you should enjoy life at such a young age. In fact, there is no conflict between self-cultivation and enjoying life itself. The purpose of self-cultivation is to become a better person. It's easier said than done, so start early and accumulate over time.
I remember when I first came to class the day before yesterday, Brother Jihai showed us a documentary about Elder Ren Lan offering sacrifices to the mountain. In those days, Ren Lan, a 70-year-old elder, lit incense from Zibo and spent nearly two years traveling all over Jiuhua Mountain.
During this period, I encountered many interesting things and naturally encountered many difficulties and obstacles. However, when talking about the experience of worshipping mountains on the way, Elder Ren Yun said: "What is more important is the tempering of will and the washing of soul. This is a common thing that an ordinary monk should do, and he doesn't think I'm great. I still had this mentality when I was in Taihang Mountain. I'm neither happy nor unhappy, neither happy nor unhappy. Just do what you have to do and move forward step by step. 」
This passage touched me a lot. We are not monks, and we don't need to go to worship the mountain in three steps. We have what we should do and what we want to achieve. In this process of gradual completion, we will naturally encounter many setbacks and will not be smooth sailing. But think about it, if we can persist and persist, maybe we can get what we want and fulfill our wishes.
If trivial things can disturb our emotions, shake our beliefs and arouse our anger, then we really need to seriously reflect on how fragile we are.
9.
I packed my things and prepared to go home, and I had a feeling that I didn't want to go. Really, as the volunteers told me the other day, it feels like home here. My life is comfortable and regular, my mind is clean, I concentrate on my work, and my heart is peaceful and quiet. I miss this feeling.
On my way home, I reviewed three days of study. Every time I come into contact with new things and new ideas, I always wonder why. Some can answer by themselves, some can communicate with students, and some can be kept in mind. With the deepening of study and the increase of experience, you will naturally get the answer.
I have experienced the rebellious period of temper explosion and the benefits of changing my mind, but it is not enough, far from enough. I still have a lot to learn and experience. True peace comes from the heart, not from the mouth.
There are two kinds of people around me:
A kind of person sends chicken soup in a circle of friends every day. It can be seen that those words just replaced the expressions of popular quotations on the Internet with their own words. This kind of person seems to see through the secular and open-minded, but in fact he is still jealous of comparison and full of right and wrong about life.
Another kind of people also send positive words in the circle of friends, from which they can read their ingenious ideas and independent attitudes. In this kind of person, you can feel warm and carefree, not artificial, not deliberate, but beautiful from the inside out.
Of course, I prefer the second kind of person, who is honest and not tired of getting along. Such people often have clear eyes and natural smiles, like warm tea and mellow wine. Just like the volunteers and brothers I met in the temple these days.
From beginning to end, I believe that you are born from the heart. What kind of person are you? Look at your eyes, look at your face, look at your mental state, and you will know two or three.
Finally, share a famous saying of Aristotle with those who patiently read the article:
"Courage is the premise of all virtues."
Coincidentally, the day before I went to the meditation tea ceremony class, I happened to hear Mr. Peng Xia explain this sentence.
Courage is so important because the practice of all virtues means that the road you choose must be relatively lonely and indifferent. If you don't persist, there will be no end in sight.
Therefore, for those things that can be obtained immediately, for those things that can be experienced and related to the timely enjoyment of human nature, you should constantly delay your satisfaction with them. Only in this way can you practice true virtue.
So courage becomes very important.
* * * Encourage.
-End-