Sukiya Living—Tea

Cha-no yu (The Way of Tea)

While the roji (path) is meant to be a passageway
Altogether outside this earthly life
How is it that people only contrive
To sprinkle it with the dust of the mind.

—Sen no Rikyu

The Tea ceremony is a paradigm of Sukiya Living as I have characterized it in the two previous essays; here, the following will be addressed: 1) What are the cultural roots of Sukiya Living? and 2) What is the precedent for Sukiya Living's garden/residence relationship? (1) The cultural roots of Sukiya Living reside with Tea, both conceptually and historically. It was within the context of Tea that Sen no Rikyu first applied the concept "Sukiya Living." (2) It was in the microcosm of Tea that Rikyu articulated those experiential dimensions central to "living-life-well" component of Sukiya Living. The complex of Tea was both subtle and nuanced; the two elements from Tea that have been popularized as the constituents of Sukiya Living are the Tea House and Tea Garden.

Since Cha-no-yu came to maturity in the final quarter of the 16^th century, Tea has been of substantial significance in Japanese culture. Of direct import here is the derivation of Sukiya Living from Tea. The famous Tea master, Sen no Rikyu (d 1591) was the first to use the term "Sukiya Living."

Rikyu's tea ceremony and its setting might be characterized from two perspectives: 1) exclusions; and 2) inclusions. (1) Most strikingly excluded, were the stereotypic social and religious barriers imposed upon the Tea participants. The ostentation of the aristocratic Chinese Tea were eliminated; ironically, Rikyu's patron, Hideyoshi is said to have had a tea house constructed entirely of gold. Socially, Rikyu's "tea" was democratized; the small opening into the teahouse was intended as an active "equalizer," in the process of the Tea ceremony. (2) While the old Chinese style of Tea was referred to as shin (from the Sino-Japanese calligraphy), the new Japanese way of Tea was gyo (simple and informal). Likewise, the Tea structure was moved from the shoin (the most elegant room in the house) to the so-an ("grass hut"). Of importance for the new Tea, was the replacement of pretentious gold tea utensils, the standard for the Chinese to common indigenous Japanese utensils, the more humble and imperfect the better; thus, Rikyu's preference for Bizen ware.

Throughout my childhood Catholicism, primarily in the guise of the ritual of the Latin Mass was very important. A serious dimension of the 20^th century Church's loss of power can be traced to its failure to distinguish its theology from its ritualistic base; this came to fruition in 1962, when the Second Vatican Council eliminated the Latin Mass, which marked the termination of my Catholicism. I felt that the baby had indeed gone out with the bathwater; this loss of their ritualistic base was very expensive.

It might be revealing to approach the power of the Tea ceremony by way of the Latin Mass. Reflecting back, the Mass for me was spending long hours as an alter boy, listening to the unending liturgy in an alien tongue; this provided not only the opportunity, but an incentive to pose and contemplate the question— "What is this; and what does it mean?" Even as a child, glimmers of meditative possibility crept into my mind; and while it could not have been articulated, the very importance of ritual itself must have been at play. This encouraged me to ask, who, what and how a person is within himself, and in the world. Not surprisingly, only decades later did these things come to conscious realization; and not fully until as an adult I came to Cha-no-yu, and experienced that "aha" moment. The driving force in virtue of which this occurred was the ritual itself.

As it has been characterized, Tea could justifiably be described as a secular spiritual activity. Virtually all religions in all cultures throughout history have appreciated the significance of ritual. Again, this is a powerful force in Catholicism's being so universally catholic—the reason that it held such potency across class and intellectual lines was its sophisticated depth and breathe of ritual. The theological dimensions of religion is often little more than an opiate for the masses. (The silly "god" business shares its logic with that toward Santa Clause.) The potential provided by ritual has always gone further and deeper, which has included the upper and educated classes. The religious significance and power of ritual simply cannot be overstated; the Catholic Church knew this and so did Sen no Rikyu.

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"Cha-no-yu is to appreciate the spirit of a naturally harmonious blending of Heaven and Earth, to see the pervading presence of the five elements (wu-hsing) by one's fireside, where the mountains, rivers, rocks and trees are found as they are in Nature, to draw the refreshing water from the well of Nature, to taste with one's own mouth the flavor supplied by Nature. How grand this enjoyment of the harmonious blending of Heaven and Earth."

—Zen master Takuan (1573-1645)

The mood of the Tea Ceremony may be captured using four principles, Harmony (wa), Reverence (Kei), Purity (sei) and Tranquility (jaku). Of these four, Tranquility is likely the most difficult to characterize, but it is also the most important. This concept directly suggests two properties manifest in Cha-no-yu which also extend to the most basic aspects of Japanese aesthetics—wabi and sabi. (See the "Aesthetics" piece above.) Wabi refers to an attitude or state of being; sabi is taken to refer to objects; both imply an appreciation for things of great age, simplicity and solitude. An object is said to possess sabi if it shows its age by its wear or acquired patina; these objects are simple, asymmetric, imperfect and often weathered. Wabi suggests the loneliness of an abandoned fisherman's hut on the beach, or the moon passing behind a cloud. All of the aspects of Tea are subtle, sensitive, precious and understated.

The Ritual of Cha-no-yu

The constitutive elements of the Tea Ceremony are: 1) the designated location (the Sukiya Living space, Japanese garden/Japanese room); 2) the officiator (the Tea Master); 3) the prescribed liturgy; 4) participants (guest of honor and friends); 5) the ceremony (preparation and cleaning, introducing the guests, preparing the tea, conversation, consuming tea, food and the conclusion).

Cha-no-yu is a ceremony in virtue of which the participants undergo a psychological transformation from the mundane world of ordinary life to the experience of a different, elevated, possible even a transcendent state. How does this occur? There is a particular mind-set in place: the participants understand what this is and what its objectives are; they come to the ceremony with the expectation of psychic if not spiritual transformation. Even more important than the willing suspension of disbelief here is the invested proclivity for a positive, experiential outcome. We place ourselves in an appropriate setting and give ourselves over to the ceremony, with the expectation of a rewarding experience.

It is a classic ritual setting—everyone is clear regarding the agenda; each person gives up a certain amount of autonomous individuality with the prospect of receiving the social/psychological impact generated by the group. There is something inordinately intimate in the sharing the whipped tea with the group. This has been liken to the ritual taking communion in the Catholic Mass. In truth, it may be even more—while the consumptive aspect is similar, one is literally sharing the same tea from the same tea bowl.

We might say a word regarding the subject of consumption—how is it, one wonders that the Catholic Church came to this notion of symbolically ingesting the body of Christ? Like much else in the Catholic religion, this tradition hearkens back to ancient rituals that might even be said to include cannibalism, where consuming the body of another, makes that individual a physical and psychical part of you. The obvious logical step is that we bring God into ourselves as intimately as possible by "eating" Him. Metaphorically applying this to Tea, we can appreciate a similar "intimate" experience with one's fellows and Nature by means of the Cha-no-yu ritual. Among those venues of social conviviality, having "a drink," or "a coffee" with a friend is one of the best ways by which to bond. So much more so is the case in the context of tea when it is provided ritualistic status.

The experience of the Japanese garden can bring one close to Nature and this becomes even more significant with the ritualistic impact of Cha-no-yu. Part of this may be the resolution of the tension between the existential solipsism of wabi isolation, and the inevitable social component that underpins the psychological transcendence of the Tea ceremony.