Tea...is a religion of the art of life.
Okakura KakuzoRead
Tea is a work of art and needs a master hand to bring out its noblest qualities. We have good and bad teas, as we have good and bad paintings - generally the latter.
Interpretation
Tea, like art, requires skill and mastery to reveal its best qualities.
Okakura Kakuzo compares the preparation of tea to the creation of art, asserting that both require a master to unlock their fullest potential. Just as paintings can vary in quality, so too can teas, indicating that the appreciation and execution of both necessitate expertise and discernment.
In practice
I often share the quote about tea being a work of art during my tea-tasting workshops.
Tea...is a religion of the art of life.
Fain would we remain barbarians, if our claim to civilization were to be based on the gruesome glory of war.
Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order.
Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things.
For life is an expression, our unconscious actions the constant betrayal of our innermost thought. Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in small things because we have so little of the great to conceal. The tiny incidents of daily rouitine are as much a commentary of racial ideas as the highest flight of philosophy or poetry.
The ancient sages never put their teachings in a systematic form. They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-truths. They began by talking like fools and ended by making their hearers wise.
You live the life of a dancer. It is not your job, it is your life, and you have to love it so much to be able to take it every day for six days a week, sometimes seven.
I don't believe that clothes can start a revolution, but I do believe that fashion is often a manifestation of a sociological or political climate.
I spent lunchtime in a grave during the filming of 'Bloody Mama.' When you're younger, you feel that's what you need to do to help you stay in character. When you get older, you become more confident and less intense about it - and you can achieve the same effect.
Hip-Hop isn't just music, it is also a spiritual movement of the blacks! You can't just call Hip-Hop a trend!
As a playwright, you are a torturer of actors and of the audience as well. You inflict things on people.
A world turned into a stereotype, a society converted into a regiment, a life translated into a routine, make it difficult for either art or artists to survive. Crush individuality in society and you crush art as well. Nourish the conditions of a free life and you nourish the arts, too.
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