Tea is the Way, water is the art: there is real skill in the water you use to brew tea

A cup of tea: to someone who does not know how to drink it, it is just a cup of water, sweet or bitter; to someone who does, the moment the tea touches the lips brings an awakening - just as tea is, so is life. Whether bitter or sweet, it is all part of the experience of living. When a tea stays bitter all the way through, we realise we may have chosen the wrong tea, and we can change it - just as when we take the wrong road, the only thing to do is turn back early. (Image from Oriental IC)

Brewing tea does not decide everything about the tea, yet it can bring out different flavours. The essence of the Way of Tea is not to set tea aside in pursuit of the Way. Bodhi is fundamentally no tree, the bright mirror is fundamentally no stand; since fundamentally there is nothing at all, where could dust ever cling? Drinking tea begins with tea; to enter the Way through tea is the true meaning of drinking tea. Do not make tea mysterious. Though tea does not melt the moment it enters the mouth, it can give a person that refreshing, awakening comfort. (Image from Oriental IC)

Tea is the most accommodating of things. Do not turn tea into a matter of your own vanity or gain. Different teas have different flavours. This world does not exist for anyone's sake, yet tea presents its finest qualities to those who love it. That we like a tea does not mean it is the best tea. The best tea is the one you like, I like, he likes - liking it makes it a good tea. A standard is not the measure of a good tea. (Image from Oriental IC)

Entering a tea room is a kind of ritual surrounding tea. Do not let the sense of ritual make you forget your own original intention. When you taste different flavours of tea in the tea room, only then does the ritual of the tea room let you feel tea's quiet non-action, which is yet non-inaction. (Image from Oriental IC)