Gong Fu Cha

by M.J. Greenmountain

Text, Music, and Video by M.J. Greenmountain

As a practitioner of Meditating with Tea for 20 years, The ancient practices of Traditional Tea Ceremony – like “Gong Fu Cha” (China, Taiwan, SE Asia) or “Cha No Yu” (Japanese version) have been used as a vehicle for discipline, meditation, centering, grounding, celebration and prayer.

To engage in Tea ceremony, one actually doesn’t need anything fancy. In fact, it can be done with the simplest of means. It just requires one to sit comfortably, and quietly, without the usual distractions of cell phones, tv’s blaring on in the background, and so on.

The point of Tea Ceremony, in its many forms, is to take time, to focus one’s energy in the moment, and proceed with intention. One simply makes one’s tea, with pinpointed attention, making every drop count. One heats the water, brews the tea, pours the tea, and drinks the tea with calm, smooth and deliberate movements, in and allow the moment to be time-less. Don’t worry about form, or whether what is happening is the “right way”. As an old saying goes:

The right way, to go easy

Is to forget the “right” way

Or that the going must be “easy”.

To participate in this installment of Sip for Peace, one need only to have your hot water ready, your choice of tea prepared in what ever brewing device you have (teapot, gaiwan, tea strainer, etc) and prepare a simple and clean space in which to site – whether table and chair, or floor pillow and low table or simple platform.

Please enjoy the following offering, some creativity and beauty, to surround your Sip for Peace moment… But then put away your phone or computer, and let the images, music and words permeate and inspire your Tea.

And most of all, ENJOY!

M.J. Greenmountain is the owner of Jade Valley Tea Arts and Jade Summit Fine Tea & Antiques in Nevada City, California. His tearoom is an education and retreat center where you attend organized classes and book private tastings.

M.J is also a musician and has recorded a collection of original compositions, Music For Tea, a sample of which you hear on his video presentation here.

Music for Tea is a sonic sojourn across the Ancient Silk Road. Each song, one Master performing on one Asian stringed instrument, weaving lilting melodic threads, evoking images of old Tea masters sitting in a mountain Tea Hut as a lone musician transports the space, lost in the trance of the music coming through.