 |
|
As our current center, Tea Sage Hut, fills up with light and a love for tea brought from Chajin around the world, the need for a bigger, better center of our own becomes more and more apparent. And everyone can see the vision, and feel the vibrations of the magical land we will build it on! The world needs more free spiritual centers, and free not just in the financial sense; but also free of any sectarian or religious motivations. We aren't promoting a particular philosophy or worldview - we are merely offering a sacred space to meditate in any way you see fit, drink tea and learn about Nature, eat healthy food and develop a community of friends, brothers and sisters. Light Meets Life will be a quiet retreat in the mountains where you can come to learn more about tea, tea farming, preparation, meditation and healthy living: in harmony with Dao and Nature...
It is important that we review this vision again and again as it takes form, or "renew" it! We plan to build a huge main hall with tea rooms of various sizes, classrooms, tea and teaware storage, a huge dining area and a communal kitchen. There will then be two sets of small houses. As we mentioned two months ago, each row will have five houses, but will share a single roof. The bigger set will have a raised tatami platform and cushions that sleep four or five, a rest/study area (complete with teaware and a tea table) and a bathroom. That will allow us to host twenty or twenty-five guests at any time. The second row will be smaller residences for more permanent students. We will also build a meditation hall. Our vision is to use glass walls on all four sides and have no altar, allowing Nature itself to be our sacred space. We envision these buildings in a Japanese style: using antique wood, stone and water with little to no decoration, and definitely fitting into the mountainside, as if they'd always been there...
Aside from this, we hope to landscape the area with koi and lotus ponds, as well as to enhance the waterfall. Shane will help us design an awesome vegetable and herb garden to feed us all delicious and bio-dynamically nutritious foods. We also have future goals to create a hot spring (if possible, since there is geothermal activity in the area, or at least a wood-fired bath and sauna). There will be many outdoor tea spaces as well, including a flattened stone that could seat around five and a bamboo grove for full-moon sessions - there is nothing like full-moon tea in a bamboo grove...
Recently, we were chatting with a dear tea brother about how sad it is that some of the greatest medicine in the world has become so expensive, and is mostly being used for sensual pleasure by the rich these days. We were, of course, talking about aged Puerh, which is so magically transformative. Master Zhou Yu used to write a lot of articles about how such teas should be used spiritually/medicinally, and what a shame it was to treat them like an expensive delicacy. Many of these teas are so rare and priceless that it would be difficult to buy them at any price if you didn't have a good reason and good connections. From decades of friendship, we have some such connections, which means that it would be theoretically possible for our center to have one of the greatest libraries of vintage Puerh on earth if we were sponsored adequately. There are many vintages that are so rare they can't be bought at any price whatsoever, and are exclusively in the hands of private collectors. However, if you know the right people and are building a free tea center, hoping to use such teas medicinally/spiritually, it is possible to get some. As most of you know, we have already started a vast library of tea and teaware here at the Tea Sage Hut. It is very important that we continue this with Light Meets Life, expanding the variety of tea we have to explore together...
Wu De will be in LA this month, so come out and support his work there. Buy one of our Light Meets Life cakes. The proceeds will go towards making this vision real. You can contact Kaiya if you are interested in getting a hold of one or more of these cakes. There is a small amount only. They are special teas for many reasons, especially for what they represent.
Help us to awaken this dream by envisioning yourself visiting and meditating, drinking tea on a rock, etc. We are building it for you, after all. If we all see it out loud, and amplify that dream, we can together awaken it on this earth. We'll create the greatest tea center the world has ever known, and one that will hopefully outlive us all!
Should any of you wish to contribute or have any ideas for ways to help us realize this vibrant dream, please contact us. You can donate at the Center page of our GTH website or send a check to:
Global Tea Hut West 2441 Beverley Ave. #6 Santa Monica, CA 90405 United States
Or contact us for other ways to support.
