Drinking Tea as a Sacred Practice | Brother Phap Dung

Learning to drink tea, mindfully

I do that every day.

Lighting a candle and an incense.

That has become my ritual for

cultivating Mother Earth in me.

And you know, Thay drinks tea quite often

during Dharma talks and so on

I was able to be near him and around him
when he did drink tea

And yeah, I just very inspired

to see that he was very consistent,
when he drinks tea, he's like

He's really drinking tea, you know!

It's very sacred

Yeah, so I was very impressed with that

So no matter where he is, what he's doing

even at the airport

when he grabs that cup of tea

It's just like, I don't know
but it's just like

trying to catch him
when he's like you know like...

He's like, he's always like....

You know he drinks the tea

really like, like a sacred act

so for me I'm cultivating that,

that simple act and keeping it regular

when I drink tea

so I try to keep Thay alive in me
and Mother Earth in me,

to see the water

that comes from the air, the sky,
the rain, the river

you know, the ancestors.
I mean the magic of water,

just contemplate on, wow

incredible what water does for us

when you say
"oh, water is necessary for live"

but like, you know that stuff

It can go and it becomes ice,

it can wash and make things clean

it's dirty, it doesn't care

it's clean, it's perfume,
it's clear, it's muddy

it doesn't, you know,
it's just water, it doesn't...

You know there's a lot of wisdom
in a cup of tea.

So for me, that is the
wisdom of Mother Earth

So these kind of elements

just, we have time to
reguarly interact with it

with a cup of tea, with water,
with Mother Earth.

You know it's just the depth
of your life

it comes, more, more and more.

So for me it's an ongoing maintenance

to take care of it.

So it's not like you have an insight

"Oh, water is Mother Earth,
water is in me"

but what do you do every day, you know.

So when I take a shower,
when I brush my teeth,

so drinking tea is somehow
kind of penetrating

through these other elements.

So, but I enjoy drinking tea
and when I drink it

I feel Thay alive in me,
and he's smiling and

you know, cause I learned that from him

and I didn't drink tea before
I came to Plum Village.

Well, I drank coffee, but like you know

buffalo cups, you know

but here you drink in a small little thing

and there's a reason why it's small

it's just, you take your time.

So our culture drinking tea is

super this, super that, you know,

but we don't really enjoy it,

we just take it down
as if it's just material.

You know, you can come up with all
these great names for tea and stuff, but

you don't know how to drink it,
it's just

you know a commodity.

A simple cup of tea can,

that can change the way you
move through the day.

So before sitting meditation,
before even a lazy day

I wake up and light a candle

or some incense and

enjoy a cup of tea with my teacher
and Mother Earth.

That's one of my things
I receive from Thay,

not just a teaching,
but it's a living teaching.