Hello and welcome.
My name is Ishar and I'll be guiding you through a meditation where we drink tea mindfully.
So for this meditation,
You'll obviously need a warm cup of tea in front of you.
And personally,
I'm drinking a 30 year old Pu'er tea from the Yunnan province in China.
So find a comfortable seat with your spine upright.
And one thing you want to make sure is that any movements that you perform,
Such as picking up your tea cup in this meditation,
That it should be performed in a slow manner.
So slow and controlled.
And this will help us become more mindful of our actions.
So before picking up our tea cup,
Let's take a moment and appreciate that we have the ability to enjoy the tea in front of us.
So start to feel grateful that you have time today to sit and enjoy a warm cup of tea and let the feelings of gratitude start to increase as you reflect upon the ability that you have to drink tea today.
So throughout history,
It was very hard to find many of the common teas that we take for granted today.
Not to mention that in certain periods,
Teas were heavily taxed and they were also very hard to obtain.
So start to ponder over how easy it was for you to have the tea that you have in front of you.
Maybe you just went down the store near your house and bought the tea that you have or you ordered online and now start to feel grateful that you're taking part in a tradition of tea drinking that dates back thousands of years.
So in a moment,
As we drink our tea,
You can find solace in the fact that hundreds of generations of people have been drinking tea just like you and you're sharing a very common experience.
Now using both hands,
Start to pick up your tea cup and for a moment,
Start to take in the warmth of the tea cup against your palms and start to notice where this warmth spreads.
So do you only feel this in your palms or does it start to creep up into your fingertips?
Start to notice.
Begin to now take in the aromas of your tea.
If you're drinking a jasmine tea,
For example,
You may smell floral notes.
If you're drinking a pu-erh tea like me,
You may smell some earthy notes.
Whatever tea you're drinking,
Start to observe the particular and specific notes associated with the tea.
Then very slowly start to bring the cup close to your lips.
Slowly open your mouth and bring the cup to your lips and feel the contact of the tea cup against your lips and observe.
Does the cup feel cold or warm against your lips?
And then slowly start to sip on the tea.
Before swallowing the tea,
Can you be mindful of the flavors that start to emerge on your tongue and taste buds?
Specifically notice the textures and tones of the tea.
Can you observe the complexity of the tea?
Then slowly swallow the tea and bring the cup down to your lap.
Before taking in the next sip,
Start to feel gratitude for the hard work that went into making this tea that you're drinking now.
Then start to think of the different farmers that started to pick the tea and see them going about their day and begin to observe the different processes that the tea underwent,
Such as being rolled or being roasted,
And envision the different people that packaged the tea and how after packaging it was taken to a distribution center and stocked in different stores,
All for you to enjoy.
Start to feel immense gratitude for the community that came together to provide you with this tea.
Rest for a few more moments in gratitude.
Now slowly bring the tea cup back up to your lips again.
Once again,
Being very mindful of the smell of the tea,
The weight of the cup in your hands,
The warmth of the tea.
And as you sip on the tea,
Once again,
Start to take in the complexity of the flavor of the tea and then swallow afterwards,
Being very mindful of the liquid going down your throat.
And slowly bring the cup back down to your lap and smile with gratitude for enjoying this experience of drinking tea.
And take the next couple moments enjoying the experience of drinking tea.
So at a very slow pace,
Once again,
Bring the cup of tea against your lips.
Be very mindful of the entire process of drinking the tea.
If you're mindful enough,
You will start to notice the subtle changes in drinking the tea now compared to when you first started to drink the tea.
You may observe the changes in temperature,
The changes in smell.
Can you observe these minute differences?
Once you've done sipping on the tea and swallowing it,
Then slowly once again,
Bring the cup down and feel grateful for having the opportunity to drink tea.
As we finish this meditation,
Start to feel gratitude for having the opportunity to take 15 minutes out of your day to enjoy a cup of tea fully.
And also feel gratitude for the amount of work that went into making this cup of tea that you're enjoying today.
This exercise of drinking tea in a mindful manner can be applied to all aspects of your life.
What this means is that as you go about your day,
Can you move in a slow,
Controlled and relaxed manner,
Completely paying attention to the present moment?
And can you also see how everything is connected and start to ponder this over.
Noticing that the chair that you sit on or the cushion that you sit on was created by someone and by groups of people.
And even the app in which you're listening to this through was created by an entire team of people who worked very hard to provide you with this experience.
So how you drink tea is how you interact with the world.
