‘Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence,’ wrote Okakura Kakuzo in The Book of Tea.
The movement started around the 15th century in Japan. It was the time when Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism were seeking mutual synthesis. The pantheistic symbolism of the time was urging one to mirror the Universal in the Particular. And the wise ones found their answer — surprise, surprise — in a cup of tea!
The idea was quite simple: taking the art of drinking tea to the level of sublime. That’s what the great tea-masters of the time hoped. For them, it was more than an idealisation of the form of drinking; it was the art of life.
Generally speaking, that has been the territory of religion, not art — and the two stand on different grounds. One talks about after-death experiences, and the other tries to make the present eternal. Teaism tried to bridge that gap. The tea-masters held that real appreciation of art is only possible to those who make of it a living influence. Thus they sought to regulate their daily life by the high standard of refinement which was obtained in the tea-room.
The earliest tea-masters were committed to bring beauty in the ordinary moments of life while firmly believing in the thought that one has no right to approach beauty until one has made himself beautiful. And that’s what they set out to do: to become the art itself.
The first cup moistens my lips and throat, the second cup breaks my loneliness, the third cup searches my inmost being… The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration – all the wrongs of life passes away through my pores. At the fifth cup I am purified; the sixth cup calls me to the realms of immortals. The seventh cup – ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of cool wind that rises in my sleeves. Where is Heaven? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.
An ancient Chinese poet
Teaism became a way of life for these tea-masters. They revolutionised the classical architecture and interior decorations, and established the new style whose influences can be seen in the palaces and monasteries. They worked on the perfection of pottery and made sure that it, too, acquired the same levels of perfection that they were seeking in their lives. They expressed their love for tea through paintings, establishing new schools of the art. And they invented new food recipes, which would go in harmony with the divine beverage.
All this effort… for what?
Going back to something we mentioned earlier: bringing beauty (and thus happiness) in the simple and ordinary moments of life. Making a cup of tea is a lesson on regulating our own existence. How gently we go about it! How sincerely we do it! How much beauty is in there! That’s what Teaism is trying to teach us in the simplest of ways.
The question is, can we live beautifully?
A tea-master would say that the answer to this question completely depends on our adherence to Teaism.
Kalampedia 