/7/06


> This thread now touches on a zone of compelling interest to me: the way
> synthetic mysticism is used to support and inhibit direct personal
> experience.
>
> [Michael]
>>> A bit of silent ritual enhances the tea experience. A bit of mysticism that
>>> brings us to a greater awareness of what the tea is doing in our mouths does
>>> not go amiss; and any method we bring to the table that tunes and enhances
>>> our concentration is a good thing. ...
> (Zen references trimmed to avoid objectifying the absolute)
>
> [Mike]
>> ... In this "business" it
>> seems that mysticism is used predominantly for marketing and seldom
>> for spirituality. Almost every time I see mysticism brought into play
>> it is to create some "story" whose prime purpose is to inflate the
>> price of the tea. ...
>> When mysticism is used to "sell" a product it is the consumer who
>> always loses...
>
> Some make a distinction between two forms of hidden knowledge: mysteries
> and secrets. Secrets are information known and directly transmissible,
> whose concealment provides advantage to some. Releasing this information
> reduces or eliminates its special value to the holder.
>
> Mysteries include the kind of informedness that requires non-verbal
> transmission and direct experience. Concealment and "trading"
> transactions are irrelevant, because the content cannot be coded into
> words in a way that conveys the important meaning. Some mysteries are
> described as self-secret: they are available everywhere, all the time,
> but will not be perceived and understood until the vessel is properly
> cleaned and seasoned. Most true spiritual teachings are like this:
> well-publicized, impossible to understand beyond the level of slogan and
> cliche and truism until the moment of personal insight exists, and then
> blindingly obvious in a way that remains very difficult to communicate
> to a non-seer. One definition of a teacher is someone who can help the
> student to prepare his/her own vessel, then put forth a truth with such
> clarity and simplicity that it can easily be received.
>
> There is a third category of non-knowledge: ignorance. IMO, this society
> is crippled by a fear of ignorance, and a driving need to fill creative
> emptiness with any sort of chaff, no matter how much that may impede
> further development. Ignorance and confusion are honorable; without
> both, there would be no progress.
>
> In agreeing with Michael and Mike, I would further elaborate that many
> people in the tea world seem to experience a need for
> knowledge-as-control even where this does not enhance their direct
> relationship with their drink. So we find endless procreation of myth,
> misinformation and gratuitous dogma. Or, as indicted in this discussion,
> ignorance wrapped in a cloak of either secrecy or mystery. Threads
> here and elsewhere have questioned the righteousness of vendors who
> choose not to disclose production details of their offerings. That, to
> me, is a perfectly reasonable business decision for both parties: what
> to tell, whether or not to buy, and on what basis of information,
> reputation, relationship or other coin of credibility.
>
> I hold, though, that counterfeiting mystery where none exists is a
> direct assault on the real gold here, the simple enjoyment (alone or in
> company, with a tin cup or a vintage set of celadon, with tuppence worth
> of stale leaf or a couriered pick of mountain green, before a shrine or
> a television) of the brewed leaf. Many paths, perhaps even many ways.
> IMO, anything that diverts a seeker of truth or pleasure from the
> self-revealed personal path, whether through rigid rules, deliberate
> obfuscation or the mindless objectification of legend, is an exercise in
> service of ego and counter to the good of all. The priciest leaf in a
> good cigar is the wrapper, but the best tea comes in very plain packages.
>
> -DM

Aha! All I meant to say was that paying close attention
to the tea and its preparation makes the experience that
much more interesting. Some ritual helps that awareness
along. Discovering a new demension in a tea, a demension
that you find you can't easily express (if at all) is what is
technically known in the jargon as a "happy mystery." Yet
the last thing in the world I'd want to do is mystify you.
That's the last from me.That's it. There is no more.

Dogma's point that the "I know something you don't know,
and I'm not gonna tell you" syndrome is crap is very well
taken indeed. Catching the mystery, as somebody in my past
had said, is "as easy as falling off a log."

Yadayadayada.

Michael