The Book of Tea

In discussion with my wife a few weeks back - we got on the topic of a book I was reading called The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzo . I was lead to the book after reading up on Japanese aesthetic pertaining to "beauty in the ordinary and everyday existence"; That and a bit of wandering around in a local bookstore. At the turn of the century, the author was witnessing the modernization of Japan and selected Tea as the metaphor for what his disappearing culture embodied. My wife and I struggled with what single element in our own culture we could create such a metaphor around. The book is a looking glass into Japanese culture and is filled with thought provoking ideas around simplicity and the art of life. The eastern model of opposing forces (ying yang, opposites) that is familiar in this period was draped in concepts like relativism, metaphysics, and principles that sounded allot like and pre dated the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. I knew there was a reason I drink so much green tea! Drawing these parallels was new for me. Here is a passage I found myself trying to appreciate more..

"The reality of a room, for instance, was to be found in the vacant space enclosed by the roof and walls, not in the roof and walls themselves. The usefulness of a water pitcher dwelt in the emptiness where water might be put, not in the form of the pitcher or the material of which it was made. Vacuum is all potent because all containing. In vacuum alone motion becomes possible. One who could make of himself a vacuum into which others might freely enter would become master of all situations"

Happy New Year Everybody !