List of Classes Links Message Board Chat/Discussion		Chat/Discussion   This section is for people who are interested in talking about Japanese tea ceremony to others. We, however, do not post replies. We put up your name, email address and the topic you'd like to talk about. All the replies should go directly to you.   February 2004   From Judith Krall-Russo karusso@erols.com I have just started to study Japanese Tea Ceremony (4 lessons) and wish to speak to others who are learning. July 2001   From Paul Elliott paulsculptor@eircom.net I am studying Japanese on my own with books and tapes. I would like to chat with a Japanese person who can speak or write and read English-preferably an artist as I make Raku pottery tea bowls etc., as well as wooden artefacts and paintings. Apr. 2001   Zuiho Stephen Fox, Ph.D. stephen-fox@uiowa.edu Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa Founder and Director, Iowa Zen Chanoyu Iowa City, Iowa I am writing in response to the section of your website entitled THE JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY:TEA FOR ALL NATIONS. It is with humility and deep appreciation for the generous efforts of Brother Joseph Keenan, PhD, FSC, that I must sincerely disagree with his representation of Chado and offer some thoughts for reconsideration. I do understand and support the view that Chanoyu can be fully appreciated and enjoyed by those with religious and spiritual convictions and practices other than Zen Buddhism and that Chanoyu may embrace and widely held universal concerns. But Professor Keenan's discussion seems to reflects an oversight or serious misunderstanding of the history and literature of the intent of Chanoyu, to suggest its neutrality. Chanoyu certainly may be recognized to have parallels in the religious practices of many spiritual traditions and I have for many years, in my University courses in Ritual Behavior, pointed out such similarities. But Chanoyu, particularly the Wabi Tea of Sen Rikyu, finds it origin and intent as an expression of Zen Buddhism, as clearly expressed in his own words in the Nampo Roku. There, Chanoyu is unambiguously imbedded and is described as an expression exclusively of the Buddha Dharma. "It is from the Nampo Roku that evidence may be gathered for this intimate relationship between wabi tea and Zen, "This is precisely the reason for its evaluation as a sacred book of the Way of Tea, the classic among classics". The Nampo Roku opens: "Buddha's teaching is the fundamental intent of Chanoyu", and again, "Wabi tea is above all a matter of performing practice and attaining the Way in accord the Buddha-dharma", and again, "Chanoyu arose from Zen, based wholly on the practice of monks. Shuko and Jo'o both practiced Zen", and again, "...the fundamental intent of wabi tea lies in manifesting the pure, undefiled Buddha-world. Here the Buddha-mind emerges to reveal itself." Although Sen Rikyu himself possibly accurately foresaw the eventual dilution and possible loss of this clearly delineated tradition, his intent for Chanoyu was clear. I do not mean to suggest that the offering of Tea is to be isolated from the world at large or exclusive to Zen practitioners or that "Peace in a Bowl of Tea" cannot be humbly and generously offered to anyone, anywhere, as an expression of humanity and compassion. I do, however, adhere to the belief that the intent informs the act and the offering will in the end be no more than what we bring to it. Offering wabi tea in the tradition of Sen Rikyu remains essentially Zen and Buddhist and to be expressed most fully and true to Sen Rikyu, must remain so. Opening the Catholic Mass and the Eucharist to general use as an offering and a practice would not make it less Christian. So it is with Sen Rikyu's wabi tea. Sen Rikyu himself affirmed that "Tea and Zen are one". A careful re-reading of Hisamatsu Shin'ichi's presentation of the "Significance of the Nampo Roku" in Chanoyu Quarterly. No. 52, pp. 7-17, may be instructive. There, he discusses in detail the central relationship of Tea and Zen. Perhaps, after all, the statement, on the website, "Tea is Tea and Zen is Zen", should be carefully re-thought, or at least, presented in balance with the long-held tradition of the identity of Tea and Zen. Readers may wish to more deeply pursue the relationship of Zen and Tea by studying Dennis Hirota's recent book, "Wind in the Pines: Classic Writings of the Way of Tea as a Buddhist Path", published by Asian Humanities Press.