Tea Alchemy: Reflections on Space
Nan-in, a Zen master of the late 19th Century, once received a university professor who came to speak of Zen philosophy. Before the professor was able to get a conversation going, Nan-in graciously offered to serve him tea first. When he poured, he filled the cup and did not stop. As the cup overflowed, the professor felt embarrassed. As Nan-in continued to pour, the professor became dumbfounded. As Nan-in poured on, the professor could not contain his annoyance and said with disdain, "It's overfilled, you can't fill it any more!"
"Like this cup you are full of your own speculations and fantasies. How can I share Zen with you unless your heart's cup is emptied?"
It might seem impossibly unrelated, but whenever we feel stuck with our lives, it might be time to clean house, either metaphorically or literally. In five element energy practice, space is the element that has the power to balance any imbalance of the other four.
Space is the essence of the vessel. Without space, cups or teapots could not hold tea. Space is thus related to two qualities that alchemists cultivate: vastness and humility. Vastness is the vision that goes beyond the dramas of ups and downs in the phenomenal world, and humility is the way we receive gifts from outside of what we are and what we know. If a teapot was full of itself, there would be no room for the tea. When we are too full of ourselves, we never learn from others, we become separated from the true source of our wealth in community.
Space is also the pace of stillness, of waiting. When we are preparing tea, after the water is poured and the lid is replaced on the teapot, there is nothing to do but wait for the tea to brew. Space is the inbetween state of not knowing, not doing. It is the wisdom of patience, knowing when to become still. The wisdom of knowing when to become still is the wisdom of vision in harmony with action, and actually cultivates our energy. Action without vision creates scattered waves that disturb us more and more, and leave us with more and more messes to clean up. When the appropriate presence of space is done, the tea is poured and the energy of the infusion shows the balance of space and form.