Three tea stories (1) — The buddhist drug



The stories I am telling here have few historical background. They are merely legends decorated by my imagination.  Just like anything that belongs to a fantasy of the past, they are as true as one would like them to be. But it is sometimes so comforting that a story could be true that it does not matter if it really is or not.

The buddhist drug

It is said that Bodhidharma, father of the Chan buddhism, decided one day to meditate for nine years in front of a wall without sleep. Nevertheless, one day, his eyelids got heavy and he eventually closed them. When He woke up, he was extremely mad at himself. So as to not reproduce the same mistake, he tear his eyelids and threw them on the ground. From that same ground the first tea tree was bon. Bodhidharma’s disciples turned it into a drink by grounding the leaves and served it to the master. Hence, never again did he got sleepy during meditation.

In the Chinese temples of the Chan sect (Zen in Japan), tea powder became the favorite drink of the meditative monks. Countless masters could meditate for days while drinking tea and eating nothing. But the drink was so addictive that some disciples were spending more time drinking than actually meditating ! Rules were needed to reduce the consumption. Tea stayed as the most common drink in monasteries. Specific spaces were designed to drink tea while discussing the Dharma. And when the rooms had been done, tea was served according to a certain ritual that , among other things, limited its consumption.

The Japanese tea ceremony, I heard, comes from there.


Three tea stories (2) — Chinese Paradise→

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