I realise that some of the concepts in this video are my own interpretations of Taoism and I encourage everyone to explore Taoism if they are interested to find their own way.

@mst2203

3 жыл бұрын

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu! Love it.

@woody3307

3 жыл бұрын

LOL..no disagreement. You capture Cha Dao and Tao of Tea beautifully, and it was a great joy to hear someone else so aligned in thought with tea and Tao..but that is why we always love your wonderful videos. True friends in tea! BTW, ever heard of Aaron Fisher or Wu De? Author of a great book on the subject.

@booksinbed718

3 жыл бұрын

I love these concepts and your interpretations and insights into tea and Taoism and how they intersect. Please make more videos on this subject.

@SatyrBarbarossa_Eleusis

Жыл бұрын

Honorable Cha Dao Sifu, a little late but never too: Should We not find This in the Tea & Philosophy Playlist? Just a Thought I thought to share, whether or not if You should care. ( ^ _ - )

I love the tea education. But I’m REALLY enjoying the discussion of Taoism and your perspective on some of these concepts. It gives me more to ruminate on as I’m drinking my tea throughout the week

“You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.” 💕 Loved this video! I love the complementary dualities of tea. I actually got a tea leaf tattoo a couple years ago because it represents so many dualities of life and consciousness and present moment awareness for me. I’ll definitely have to pick up some of this Laoshan green. I agree with you - generally the Laoshan greens I’ve tried lean too far into the vegetal realm for me without much complexity or lasting sweetness. I’ve generally found them to taste too much like grassy miso soup 😅. But I love how my mind is constantly being changed and expanded by tea, so I definitely always end up trying new teas in the hope of changing my preconceptions! I’m generally not really a black tea kind of gal, but I make an exception for Laoshan black tea. The chocolate aromas of Laoshan black tea from the He family in Shandong is unparalleled (even compared to dianhongs/jin jun meis) so I buy it in droves every year. The He family does both a spring and autumn harvest and it’s fascinating to do comparisons across years and seasons! Do you ever stock Laoshan black or oolong? I find that re-steepability is generally low - I usually give up after 3-4 infusions because the flavors/aromas don’t persist, but I find it worth it for the intense chocolate aromas in the dry leaf through early infusions. Anyhow, I’m excited to pick up some of this Laoshan green from you. Thanks for yet another great video. Sending hugs from LA! - Angelica

Yes Please, MORE MORE, please. You ve done so well with explaining Taoism and tea. 👌🏼👍🏿🙏🏼👏🏻😀

Please do make more videos on the relationship between Daoist and tea drinking. Your clarity in explaining these 2 most interesting and depth of topics is amazing. Thank you so much , from a Daoist by birth and upbringing but never ‘taught’ about the principles of Daoism. Tq for this , enjoyed it tremendously.

Don, GREAT Tao discussion. A true ChaDao teacher. Laotze would love this!! I like the tea plants in the background. Have you made a picking? Haha... Thanks Don, keep the Chadao and dharma coming, brother!

@chewyeenlawes3215

2 жыл бұрын

I totally agree about the lovely tea plants in the background. You should have them in all your tea videos. 😁🥰😍

Yes! more videos like this please, they are my favorite. Enjoyed with a Kaori stash I saved ☕️

Very good Taoist concepts, taught me a lot about the philosophy and helps me get through obstacles using Taoism and Tea.

I have re visited this video many many times and each time I learn more and more of the relationship between tea and daoist philosophy. I am a Daoist by birth n upbringing but not ‘taught ‘ as such about the principles. This video is so astoundingly clear and educational Don Mei. I am learning from this video, thank you so much. Please DO MAKE MORE VIDEOS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEA DRINKING AND DAOISM.

EPIC video Don! Sounds like a great tea, too. :) Thank you. Would love to hear you explore this topic further, and further ! Love it so much.

Love the patio view with the potted plants Don. Thanks for the videos! Cheers

What a lovely and inspiring talk about the Dao. Yes, good tea brings us back to the present moment. Thanks, Don 🙏

Wow! Today's setting is so peacful and calming. Nice match with the topic :)

Yes Don, please talk more about the Dao concept. I appreciate your wisdom and am in a season of life that more wisdom is required. Blessings to you tea brother.

Loved the video! It's always nice to discuss any kind of philosophy while drinking tea.

I would love to hear more. It was an amazing video, thank you.

So interesting, thank you Don. I could listen for long. More is welcome for sure!

Thanks for this amazing video, wasn't expecting this new concept that I was subconsciously looking for

I am a westerner who follows Daoism and applies it's philosophy to my life. I also have a small shrine in my living room. I drink tea daily in one form or another without fail. So I've been long awaiting a video like thi,s thank you!

Cheers Don! Great video

seriously loved this, thank you.

One of my favorite tea vids so far!

This was thoroughly enjoyable! Thanks, Don, for this introduction to Daoism and all the links. It reminded me a lot of my grandmother's code of life, only she used another name for it. The tea is on my list now, especially after reading through the comments. - Please make more videos in this vein: tea tasting interspersed with philosophical and/or cultural concepts surrounding it! It's such a nice shove out of the daily rut. I'd also love to hear about the concept of qi in pu erh. The mention of "qi" has crossed my path time and again, and still it baffles me.

Love these videos. Your lecture on Consciousness and these educational videos are spot on. Keep them coming!

Loving the background on this one!!

@BlakeP16

3 жыл бұрын

And is this gonna be a mei leaf Gaiwan?

Thank you for sharing! Love your perspective on cha dao, would absolutely appreciate more exploration into daoism :)

Thank you for spotlighting this tea. Laoshan is my all time favorite Chinese green tea and IMO, one of the most underrated teas out there. Laoshan black is also incredibly good!

Great video!

I love to see a crossed cultivar variety, very nice Mei Leaf!

This vid is so cool combining two things im interested in

I love tea 🍵 with stories.

I was wondering if you were going to use Laoshan Green Tea. Very cool, I live out here in Qingdao, and yes, Taoism actually has quite a long history here in Qingdao.

Great video as usual👍🌞! If not, do you plan to talk or give your opinion on the tea boxes from Fellow ? The Atmos Vacuum Canister.

explained beautifully

nice sharing

Nice, educational and as always - calming video 🔥 Could you describe korean teas someday? I ve never seen any video about these so i believe it might be interesting to compare (like you compared chinese vs japanese). Have a nice day 🌿🍵

I love this set up more than the couch :P

One of the best videos yet!!

This video is a gift! If you don't agree what Don said, just enjoy tea. :D

What a fancy background!

Doesn't Don come from a family of pioneers of Asian medicine and philosophy in Europe? I would love to see more videos on that line, even if they are only tangentially related to tea. Great video, as per usual ^^

Daoism really speaks to my soul, though i don't know much about it. I have my own faith, but the part about nature has always been an inmate part of my personality

Hey Don are there any books you would recommend on this subject? Every book i find explores the link between tea and Buddhism, but I'm looking for one that talks about Taoism and tea. Please help. Thank you for the video!

Could you suggest some books that explore these ideas? Some books I have read are The Book of Tea, and The Tao of Teaching

Nicely done. What was the book mentioned toward the end? It sounded like ‘drenza’ but I know that’s not the spelling.

@MeiLeaf

3 жыл бұрын

Zhuangzi

hi Don, is laoshan pan fried or steamed? do you know of any Chinese greens that are still steamed?

there's a local teahouse where i live called the Tao of Tea :)

I can imagine Uncle Iroh and Toph having this kind of conversation over tea in the Spirit World.

The contentment of tea drinking leads automatically into a Daoist awareness.

Great video! I’m really missing the live global tea parties though. Will there be another one soon? Maybe in the next one, we can have a period of discussion regarding tea and philosophies and such? Just throwing it out there.

look into the research of Gi-Ming Shien and Seraphim Rose. Christ The Eternal Tao is an amazing book and very in-depth work from scholars of original classical taoist philosophy and 'theology'. some seriously deep and mind-blowing stuff. Taoism really helped me refresh my brain and come at eastern Christianity in a new beautiful way.

Alan Watts likes this. „strategic passivity“ - noice 👍

I’m having a hard time finding the second book Don talked about. I already have the Tao te Ching, I will like the second one but have no idea how to spell it lol please some one help!!

@MeiLeaf

3 жыл бұрын

The Zhuangzi

@deanzaZZR

3 жыл бұрын

@@MeiLeaf I still have the well-used and tattered copy The Way of Chuang Tzu translated by Thomas Merton from the idealistic college days.

❤️

I heard tea master WuDe once say, tea is meditation and meditation is tea.

"Buy expensive tea, that's the way of the Dao & Wu Wei" - Laozi.

@guillermolledowolkowicz7085

3 жыл бұрын

Do you know from what text is this sentence?

@aosteklov

3 жыл бұрын

@@guillermolledowolkowicz7085 i believe it's from when Laozi talks about a strong connection to nature and as an example he recommends to buy Mai Leaf's tea

@YouBrewKombucha

3 жыл бұрын

😂

@beth.7

3 жыл бұрын

@@guillermolledowolkowicz7085 😄🦊 ... artful question

Thinkin bout thos beans

Pine needle tisane doesn't have much texture nor flavour, but it's still a nice drink to make. Many pines & spruces are perfectly fine to brew or chew on. (Eating needles can be quite astringent though.) I doubt Don will read this, but I regularly leave lengthy texts on Mei Leaf videos anyway. I believe you mispronounced stoicism, unless I am wrong myself and stoïsm is something different, but I guess you meant stoicism. Just a small detail. I don't agree that the philosophy of taoism and many religions can go in harmony. Religions are by definition hierarchical, ideological, intrusive/non-harmonious, dogmatic & cultic. The one major difference between a cult and a religion, is that in a cult there is a person or a group on top who know it's an hierarchical scam to keep the followers numb. While in a religion that person or group has already passed away. When enough people follow a cult, and a government recognizes said cult, we call it a 'religion'. Sure, many religions grew out of schools of thought/philosophy (like how buddhism & jainism are sramana traditions just like the schools of ajivika & charvaka) but they grew into religions with hierarchical structures and dogmas nonetheless. Although jainism in general has shown itself throughout many centuries to indeed be a rather peaceful religion, in comparison to what one can read in the bible, let alone the quran... If one were to take the quran literally - which they actually should because it's *the literal word of allah/god* given to Mohammed through the angel Gabriel - he/she would be an extremist jihadist. Most people who call themselves 'muslim' nowadays are as much muslim as an average western christian who doesn't go to church, has tattoos, is homosexual & eats pork. Things the bible forbids if you aren't following my ramblelike writings. No, religion & taoism sounds like a joke. I don't even agree that philosophical taoism and religious taoism (many traditional Chinese beliefs that don't fit into confucianist, buddhist, elder veneration or other traditional Chinese religious traditions) can go in harmony. Religion in itself misses the point of taoist teachings. Even calling yourself a taoist, misses the point of taoist teachings. Going all the way with logic, intelligence & concepts. In order to go beyond it. Buddhism e.g., always emphasizes itself to be 'non-dogmatic', but the cornerstone of many of their teachings is based upon concepts like karma & reincarnation. For whom there is no imperical nor rational based evidence to backit up. Sure, the majority of atoms in your body are completely changed with other ones every 7 years or so. Your current ideas, feelings, motivations, opinions, knowledge, wisdom, etc. is different from maybe even a mere months ago. 'You' is a delusion, as you are made up of elements in continuous flux. 'I/you' is impermanent. There is no intrinsic value in 'you' or 'me'. Hence no 'you or I'. (To give an extreme example. If someone takes another persons life, 'they' will forever be remembered as a murderer. Even if they turn their life around, show ever lasting remorse & guilt, go on to do many subjectively good things, actually save others' lives, add to charity, volunteer for the rest of their lives and so forth. They will still, always remain a 'murderer'. Even though that person now, is a completely different person when they comitted said crime.) And so forth. So yes, purely from a material point of view, we 'reincarnate'. When we pass away and rot, we go back to the earth for other living beings to be made up of our previous atoms. Our bodies become the larvae that feed on it. But to state that actions in a prior life (which you can't provide evidence for either), of which our 'mind'/'soul' was supposed to be in said prior living being, affects your *particular* life right now, is a dogma on its own. Neither do I *believe* in objective morality. How does one define morals, good & bad (that duality)? What one perceives as 'bad' might as well be perceived by another one as 'good'! What was considered 'normal' back in the day, is completely unaccepted nowadays, and vice versa. 'Normal' (literally just means conforming to the norm), 'good', 'bad', 'acceptable', 'taboo', 'unacceptable' differs from time to time, place to place, culture to culture, subculture to subculture, even individual to individual! Nature doesn't give a cr*p about anybody, nature is completely neutral. And according to taoism, 'nature follows the tao'. (The 'tao' isn't nature, the tao is a concept which cannot be explained through means of language. According to taoism. To call it 'the way', misses the point as well.) Why do thousands of children get born in unbearable circumstances, living a life of mere suffering? Because reality isn't fair, nor 'good', nor 'bad'. It just is. If we weren't here by mere evolutionary coincidence, we wouldn't be able to think about it in the first place, would we? Hence, why I doubt the concept of 'objective' morality. Especially when you start taking things from an evolutionary point of view. (For which there is plenty of evidence, some even going as far as calling it the 'law of evolution', maybe because many lay people confuse a hypothesis with a scientific theory. "A theory is the explanation of the observational data set forward in the form of a law. In simple words, a theory is the reasoning behind a law.") 'I' play a traditional Japanese instrument that was used by followers of the rinzai zen sect (here we are again with religion :D ironic & a bit hypocritical) 'fuke-shu'. They were mendicant 'monks' (not officially, although they were one of the few people free to travel the country in the Edo period), called 'komuso' or 'monks of nothingness' (mu in Japanese, wu in Chinese, the same character in wu wei), made up by ronin (ex-samurai), spies of the shogun, actual spiritual practitioners, etc. Many komuso were actually spies because the komuso played with bamboo baskets on their heads in order to help them get rid of their ego delusion. Basically a travelling human ghost playing flute so to speak, going from town to town, getting alms like a monk. Many documentation and even pieces, got lost during Meiji period and the like. Many temples of the fuke-shu got destroyed. With the emphasis back then of wiping out those older buddhist traditions, to make place for the westernization at the latter 19th century. Remember, Japan was an imperialist nation back then. Got very powerful until the end of the second world war. But some survived and went into the modern 'ryu' following iemoto systems of teacher to student. One early shakuhachi player (before Meiji period) Hisamatsu Fuyo wrote something similar about going beyond intellect. www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=105 "Q. If you say shakuhachi goes beyond intellect, then how can you explain it in words? A. To go all the way with intellect, and then go beyond intellect: this is the way to the inconceivable. This is not limited to shakuhachi."

Ah, impermanence is hard, every moment and cup of tea is a high to never be drunk again. Why does dying feel so good during the gong fu session? And then I try again to stop time and life once the session is over. I'm thankful that tea is not frustrated with me for now.

@beth.7

3 жыл бұрын

Same here. ... The fear, that something so good will never come again. ... Yes, it is hard, to let go and trust and hope ... but then you re-visit your favourite tea vendours, and again the spark of curiosity is kindled. 😉 The good life may go on after all?

I read the Tao De Ching at an air show. You really can breeze through it. Not very ‘in the moment’ of me! 🤣

As if tea wasn’t even grown in Scotland!

@user-eh5xr1mh6w

3 жыл бұрын

Drink whiskey

Let me be the controversial one by that stating religious Daoism 道教 is not worth the time of day unlike the philosophical approach 道家 which is quite enriching. The same can be said of Buddhism. 佛教 vs.佛法 If you are interested in Daoism through poetry then there is none better than Li Bai 李白.

@wudang-tao9813

3 жыл бұрын

Philosophical and religious Taoism is Western Bullshit. There is no such thing, just different addresses. daojia, daojiao. There is no philosophical Taoist, it is just a Western designation. It's just Quanzhen and Zhengyi.

@Liliquan

3 жыл бұрын

@@wudang-tao9813 Spoken like a true religious believer.

@woody3307

3 жыл бұрын

Making merit to get a better after life IS absurd. Charitable acts to make a better world today and for all future creatures shows true enlightenment that has nothing to do with the metaphysical. Stephen Batchelor's books, Buddhist Atheist and After Buddhism explore this subject and give real perspective. Most Chinese people from numbers I have seen consider themselves atheists and yet perhaps also Daoists or Buddhiststo to an extent since it is a significant part of the culture....so in the larger world I find I am not alone. Please transport me to the island of Pu To at your earliest convenience at least in thought. Haha. When having tea meditation I find that the MIRACLE of being here now is amazing and enough. Makes me laugh!!! But I definitely don't like to talk about politics or religion during tea time so I hope I don't spoil anybody's tea with this comment. And re: poetry I like Lo Tung....To honor my tea, I shut my wooden gate, lest worldly people intrude, and donning my silken cap I brew and taste my tea alone....well with Don Mei sometimes. Haha!!!