Have some tea

The master Zhaozhou Congshen received a monk who had just arrived.

Zhaozhou asked: have you been here before?

The monk said: yes, I have.

Zhaozhou said: go and have some tea.

Later another monk arrived. Zhaozhou asked the same question. This one said: no, this is my first time.

Zhaozhou said: go and have some tea.

The monastic director was confused. The first one had been here, this one hadn't. Why the same instruction?

Zhaozhou said: Director.

The director answered.

Zhaozhou said: go and have some tea.

Chinese Zen is full of this and it's easy to romanticise. What's actually in it is a refusal to turn every moment into a category. Arriving, having been here before, being a beginner, being experienced, all of that is commentary. The tea is the tea.

The reason this is difficult for people isn't that it's profound. It's that commentary is how most of us stay comfortable. We narrate the day instead of living in it. We're rarely where the cup is.

The practice isn't to stop thinking. It's to catch one ordinary moment today, a drink, a walk out to the car, and be in it without the running description.

MOJOWAY works best when you bring a real day rather than a summary of your personality. The texture of an ordinary Tuesday is the material self-awareness is actually made from.