At the cosmic scale, tea and water, the person and the thatched hut, the paper lantern, the bamboo whisk, the wooden ladle—all are made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, forged in the heart of a dying star. Scattered as stardust, they now gather here as mountains, rivers, grass, and our very bodies.
“The moment we met was the Big Bang—every particle of me racing toward you.”
The host offers tea. The guest receives it. Fingertips brush. Silence lingers. In that smallest instant, a universe is born.
The Zen master asks: “All things return to One. Where does the One return?”
The Way of Tea answers: “To this cup. To this thought. To you and me, sitting here, now.”
Even the Buddha, seated in Nirvana, exists in infinite fractal reflections across time and space. In a single grain of dust, we glimpse boundless worlds.
To understand the tea ceremony is to embrace ichigo ichie—the deepest impermanence and the truest eternity. From the meeting of water and powdered tea to the reunion of friends, this moment is a fleeting spark in the dance of energy.
And when it passes—no longing for the past, no demand for the future—only this remains:
- A humble room
- A half-drawn bamboo blind
- The faint glow of the hearth
- A tea bowl’s quiet ridges
- Moss greening the garden
At parting, we are clear as water.
In memory, we are bitter as tea.
