Peace Through a Bowl of Tea

Before coming to Japan my birthday was a day to celebrate and to have a good time.

However, on my first birthday in Japan (when I had a tv) there were sad images all day, of the sheer and utter destruction of life caused by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima.  It was then I realized that my birthday and the bombing of Hiroshima fall on the same day, and while I am living in Japan it will not be a day to celebrate.

I have been to Hiroshima several times.  The site of the atomic bomb musuem is beautiful yet it tells a sad story.  I have spent hours looking at items pulled from the disaster area such as school uniforms of children, lunch boxes, and pictures of victims that were left with severe illnesses and ghastly skin conditions from being exposed to high levels of radiation.

On to another story, in the past few months I have been fortunate to have met and spoken with Daisosho Hounsai the 15th Urasenke Grand Tea Master.  He is quite charasmatic.  He himself experienced war, and the story goes that the chabako temaes were developed by his father so that Daishosho Hounsai could share tea while serving his country n that time of war.  I have been reading some of his written work and they move me.

It is due to his influence and his concept of ‘Peace through a  bowl of tea’ that on my birthday yesterday and the day of the Hiroshima bombing, that I  served tea as a way of encouraging peace.

It was quite fulfilling to serve tea both on my birthday and on the following day as well.  I no longer focused on who forgot my birthday, or what I wanted for my birthday.  I simply focused on making  and sharing tea as my own symbol of peace.

This is now a new tradition for me, and it is one that gives my birthday new meaning.  When tea is made in the true spirit in which it should be done, your focus is on making the best bowl of tea possible for your guest, and all else is secondary.  It is an utterly selfless act, in which everything you do, is for the benefit of your guest.  There is no place for the ego which is usually the root of many misunderstandings/wars.

I look forward to my next birthday when I can again be reminded that there are no winners in war, and when I can in my own way make the tiniest contribution by encouraging peace through my bowls of tea.