Talking Tea: Tea, Zen, Awareness

We’re releasing this episode in between the Western
new year and the Asian lunar new year, and we took this opportunity
to quiet our minds, turn inward a bit, and look again at tea as a
contemplative practice. Chatting with us in this exploration is
Ven. Hyeonmin Prajna, a Zen teacher in the Five Mountain Zen Order
based in New York City, and a student and practitioner of Japanese
tea ceremony in the Dai Nihon Chado Gakkai school of
tea.

The history of tea culture is so intertwined with Zen
Buddhism that it seemed natural to ask a Zen teacher to give us
some perspectives on the practice of tea, and we talk with Hyeonmin
about the essence of Zen and how to apply Zen ideals to both tea
ceremony and casual tea drinking. Hyeonmin sheds light on how the
Japanese tea ceremony in particular reflects some of those ideals,
gives us suggestions on applying these principles to everyday tea
and everyday life, and discusses how all tea culture can,
from a Zen perspective,  expand our awareness and help us
“correct the mind and the heart”.

More info on Five Mountain Zen in New York City
can be found at zen-nyc.info and on Ven.
Hyeonmin Prajna’s Facebook
page. To learn about tea ceremony programs in New York
City in the Dai Hihon Chado Gakkai tradition, go to http://www.tea-whisk.com. 

For more information on Talking Tea and updates on new
episodes, visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/talkingtea.

To inquire about being a guest or having your
organization featured, please email us at talkingteapodcasts@gmail.com.

Have something in mind you’d like to hear discussed
on Talking Tea? Leave us a comment on Facebook or on our Libsyn
episode page, or email us.

Talking Tea is produced and hosted by Ken Cohen.
You can follow Ken on Twitter @Kensvoiceken. 

This podcast features music from “Japanese Flowers”
(https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii/japanese-flowers) by mpgiiiBEATS
(https://soundcloud.com/mpgiii) available under a Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). Adapted from
original.