1, Tea Ceremony and Yoga Fitness
Since ancient times, China Tea Ceremony has attached great importance to its health preserving function. When talking about the function of tea, Lu Yu's Tea Classic also emphasizes the effect of refreshing and fitness, such as Tea Classic &; In S226 "Six Drinks", it is said that "if you want to wake up, you should make them drink tea"; Tea classics; In Seven Things, tea mentioned in medical books and Taoist books, such as Hua Tuo's Treatise on Food, Hu Jushi's Dietary Taboos and Tao Hongjing's Miscellaneous Notes, has the functions of benefiting qi, intellectual fit, turning bones and even becoming immortal. Thousands of spring, a new spectrum of tea making &; S226 efficacy of tea ",quoting Compendium of Materia Medica, said that tea has the efficacy of" quenching thirst, helping digestion, resolving phlegm, relieving drowsiness, inducing diuresis, improving eyesight and improving thinking ability ". A Buddhist monk in China concluded that tea has "three virtues"-refreshing, helping sleep, helping digestion and dispelling lust. All these show that drinking tea is related to health and fitness.
Correspondingly, yoga also attaches great importance to physical cultivation. Classical yoga is a yoga posture based on the body movements of wild animals, and it is also aimed at exercising, relaxing meridians and promoting blood circulation, regulating glands, thus enhancing one's immunity and resistance and achieving the purpose of strengthening the body.
2. Yoga spirit and tea ceremony spirit.
As for the Confucian "respect for harmony", Taoism's "quietness" is in the tea ceremony, while China's "quietness" is integrated into "respect for harmony", that is, harmony and elegance. By communicating ideological interests, * * * creates a harmonious atmosphere; Respect means mutual respect, offering tea as a gift and enhancing mutual friendship; Clear, that is, throw away dust and labor troubles, comfortable and quiet, elegant and comfortable; Silence, that is, silence, through meditation in silence, goes deep into meditation, and reaches a lofty realm beyond things and self. This is the spirit of China Tea Ceremony and the essence of Japanese Tea Ceremony. These spirits are also embodied in the spirit of yoga.
The spirit of yoga can also be summarized in four aspects: harmony, concentration, tranquility and detachment. These four aspects are not only embodied in the worship of yoga advocated by the Bhagavad-gita, but also in the eight yogis in the Yoga Sutra.
(1) Harmony is equivalent to the "harmony" of tea ceremony spirit. In the choice of practice places, practitioners strive to be close to the harmonious and quiet nature and avoid the intrusion of material desires and utilitarianism, and even advocate staying away from the hubbub and fleeing to the wild or closed environment to practice. Yoga Sutra, on the other hand, starts from diligent behaviors such as "clean inside and outside, contented, controlling body and senses, studying classics and obeying God", and creates a harmonious environment inside and outside as the basis of higher practice.
(2) Giving love is equivalent to "respecting" the spirit of tea ceremony. The "letting go" mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita is to break the utilitarian motivation of activities, change the understanding of living environment and goals, and create a new life concept that is completely devoted to personality, so as to resolve selfish desires and utilitarianism and face people and things with an inclusive and broad feeling. In this spirit, it must be selfless and peaceful. Yoga Sutra advocates "non-violence" and holds that "as long as non-violence is determined, hostility will be eliminated", which also affirms the importance of respecting and being kind to others.
(3) Tranquility is equivalent to the "quietness" of tea ceremony spirit, which is an important principle of yoga practice. The tranquility of yoga is achieved through meditation. In Yoga Sutra, meditation is divided into three parts: body adjustment, pranayama and mind-taking. As three of the eight branches of yoga, it is pointed out that body adjustment "posture must be stable and comfortable, and anxiety must be controlled"; "Control breathing after mastering posture, and controlling inhalation and exhalation is pranayama"; Mind-taking means that "spirit and perception are separated, and perception is not mixed with senses, so attention is integrated with oneself, thus achieving the highest control over the senses." The supreme control of the senses is the beginning of true inner peace.
(4) detachment, that is, detachment and liberation, which is achieved through meditation in yoga, that is, meditation. It is equivalent to the "silence" of the tea ceremony spirit. Yoga Sutra regards this meditation as a means to achieve meditation liberation, from which the state of "seedless" can be achieved, which is similar to the "silent nirvana" mentioned by Buddhism.
As can be seen from the above, the ideal and pursuit of tea ceremony and yoga in the spiritual realm are the same. Although the ways and means are different, the spiritual realm they want to achieve is basically the same.
3. The "Tao" of tea ceremony and the "harmony between man and nature" of yoga.
The Tao cultivated in the tea ceremony combines the Confucian way of peace, the Taoist way of nothingness and the Buddhist way of enlightenment. It is a kind of "Tao" from tranquility to enlightenment, and it is a lofty realm achieved by physical and mental experience and spiritual understanding. Some people summarize this as "keeping in good health, pleasing feelings, nourishing nature, and demonstrating the truth." According to China people themselves, "Tao" means "the unity of man and nature". This kind of harmony between man and nature means that the mind is the Tao, and things and I are one, just like the Confucian doctrine of the mean, the Taoist doctrine of doing nothing and doing nothing, and the Buddhist doctrine of doing nothing and doing nothing.
The philosophy of yoga also takes "harmony between man and nature" as the highest ideal realm. The Yoga Sutra says that this state is "from continuous learning to integration with heaven, and from the integration of attention and God to samadhi". Although the "heaven" mentioned here is different from the above-mentioned "heaven with the unity of man and nature" in concept and body reference, their views and opinions are basically the same in the relationship between man and nature, cosmic self and individual self. For example, they all believe that if the sky is proved to be the body, the truth, the artificial phase, the illusion and the truth, people can reach and return to the universe itself.
4. "Tea Zen blindly" and yoga
Tea Zen Blindly unifies Zen and tea; Zen and yoga are inseparable. This is another indirect connection between tea ceremony and yoga.
The connection between tea and Zen is that both are based on subjective feelings and must be deep-flavored. Tea and Zen also pursue the purification and sublimation of spiritual realm. Eating tea is also a strict meditation, and it is one of the ways and means of "assuming the truth by borrowing". Tea tasting is a prelude to Zen meditation, and Zen meditation is the purpose of tea tasting. The two are integrated, and water and milk are integrated. Therefore, the Zen Sect in China has had "one tea Yi Chan" and "one tea Yi Chan" since ancient times. Later, I used "tea Zen blindly" to express this concept. The taste of tea here is not just the original taste of tea-sweet or bitter. In the tea ceremony, the original taste of tea is not important, what is important is a kind of peace of mind or giving up. And this realm or abandoning the peaceful state of mind is the taste of Zen.
Yoga practice directly links meditation with liberation. Meditation is thinking in silence, starting with meditation. Yoga Sutra analyzes meditation into three levels: concentration, meditation and samadhi. Concentration is to put consciousness on one thing, meditation is the perception of continuous flow, samadhi is only the object of meditation, and the perception of oneself disappears. There is still a difference between this meditation and meditation. Meditation emphasizes awakening the self-noumenon in the current thought, while yoga meditation directly enters the essence of meditation thinking, thus corresponding to the heaven and proving the universe noumenon. But they also have something in common, that is, to get rid of delusions and conventional thinking patterns and understand the truth of the universe in the light.
Therefore, tea ceremony, meditation and yoga can be described as a "trinity".