It was the new moon day for Chinese new year. I really wanted to have a tea ceremony even if I would be alone to do. I felt something bubbles bursting in my mind in the transition of the year in the moon calendar. I was thinking of applying for MA course in Norway but I was not sure. My mind was talking too much to occupy my body and my heart didn’t move properly so I wanted to be in an extreme silence. According to the book of Zen, the silence is the language of heart. The mind is ego. So I guess at that time I was full of ego.
I invited people who I could tell in chance. I didn’t expect everyone to come. I just decided to have the ceremony in the uni garden. That was the all thing I decided to do. I prepared Japanese papers, black ink and a bowl for putting water after serving tea. I was not sure whether people will come or not. I sent this message to some people
A circle coldness warmth
Tea draw
At 7:40 meet up in a garden in front of a garden studio or I’ll pick you up from Falmouth sign
I’ll start a ceremony at 8pm
Draw a circle
Water
Eat
Drink tea
A circle
Bring warm clothes
Bring candles
Bring yourself inside of a circle
Bring yourself outside of a circle
Even if you can’t come, I imagine you are here
Just I make tea for looking at the moon
We look at the same moon
In the end, some people came. Charlie, Zac, Eve and Nyne. I felt that we were animals gathering with our own wills like a cats’gathering. I expected that it would be very cold but there was no wind so I felt warm and everyone does too. The red candles they brought were shining on the lawn and Charlie brought us clay. In the beginning, we drew circles or some symbols and put them in a bowl. And I started to serve tea. For cleaning a cup, I used hot water and I throw that away to the bowl. So the drawing on the paper disappeared in the dark. At that time, I felt that our persistence for the ego disappeared a bit. I served tea and bowed for each person. Bowing to each is very important. It reminded me of a story of warriors in Japan. They used to do a tea ceremony before they fight for showing their honesty. The real tea house is very small so people can’t avoid to face to people. That nervousness can create trusts. The warriors know their destiny of fighting each other in a bloody situation. But they didn’t escape because of this way of constructing their trust.
We started to trust each other. And we started to create clay small bowls. Everyone made in very different thicknesses and shapes. We passed them to sense the textures and we created a circle by passing them around.
In the end of session, we started to communicate with trees and started to sing in no languages.
Now I could understand why cats sing in a group sometimes. We were trusting our chances. And the chances met each other in the new moon as stars. Stars shine in the new moon day the most.