The Glocal Book:"The Book of Tea" by Okakura Kakuzou(Tenshin)-No.14

Life is an Expression of Our Innermost Thought

｢Life Art, Tea has its periods and its schools. Its evolution may be roughly divided into three main stages: the Boiled Tea, the Whipped Tea, and the Steeped Tea. We moderns belong to the last school. These several methods of appreciating the beverages are indicative of the spirit of the age in which they prevailed. For life is an expression, our unconscious actions the constant betrayal of our innermost thought. Confucious said that "man hideth not." Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in small things because we have so little of the great to conceal. The tiny incidents of daily routine are as much a commentary of racial ideals as the highest flight of philosophy or poetry.
Even as the difference in favourite vintage marks the separate idiosyncrasies of different periods and nationalities of Europe, so the Tea-ideals characterise the various moods of Oriental culture. The Cake-tea which was boiled, the Powdered-tea which was whipped, the Leaf-tea which was steeoed, mark the distinct emotional impulses of the Tang, the Sung, and the Ming dynasties of China. If we were inclined to borrow the much abused terminology of art classification, we might designate them respectiveiy, the Classic, the Romantic, and Naturalistic school of Tea.」(From the Book of Tea-The School of Tea,pp.20-2 Book of Tea-The School of Tea,pp.20-21,Chares E. Tuttles Co.,Rutland, Vermont-Tokyo,Japan)
The way of Tea drinking is not just a drinking the beverages. We would say it is the expression of life, especially our unconscious actions of our innermost thought.
Let's sit down to drink tea and enjoy philosophical free conversation.
It doesn't mean a simple current way of slow life in daily time.

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