George Breeden Blog 10

Outside Reading: Daisetz T. Suzuki. Zen and Japanese Culture.

The Zen Art of Tea

The art of the tea ceremony holds a very important place in Japanese culture. It is one of those iconic practices that is recognized across the globe. The unfortunate thing is that its true meaning is rarely understood. Suzuki that its true meaning is based in the fact that: “The art of tea is the aestheticism of primitive simplicity.” (271) This is to say that the art of tea is focused on stripping away all distractions for the sake of the most “natural” and simple experience. This idea is completely Zen, because it is an idea of abandonment. Yet the question here is why is it so stylized if what it is really seeking is the dropping of all stylizations? The answer to this is that it is not the style that is important, rather it is the intent behind the style. The intent is what pushing the mind of the practitioner and the participant towards a negation of what is around them. Admittly this does not always happen, because the practice has been undeniably secularized, but that does not change the value of it original intent. That is what I think at least.