Text: Liu Shuliang **Liu Shuliang Channel
I like to go to the Dream Zen studio for tea, which is halfway up the hill in this seaside city.
The buildings are hidden by towering pines and sun-shading poplars. There are no tourists to disturb and no hawkers. The neighborhood is not big, very quiet, with occasional idlers walking around. Through the gaps in the leaves, you can see the sea in the distance and the uninhabited islands near the coast. Shuttle-like boats are cruising or waiting for tourists, and that's where the tourists are in paradise.
The smell of tea wafted from the purple clay pot in her hand. With its graceful gestures of washing tea, ironing dishes, brewing tea, pouring tea, etc., tea guests quietly enjoy this complex tea tasting process. Although you can't catch the curve of the tea fragrance, you can really feel its presence every moment.
When there are many tea customers, I often choose the window position, look at the world outside the window, and no longer join the heated discussion of the tea customers, and the reverie spreads. Although it is early summer, the birds fly around among the thick aspens, the cicadas call crisply, like a song, like a song, there is a frequency of suppression and frustration, different Beijing cicadas tear their throats and shout, lest the world do not know. There will also be clouds drifting from afar, slowly passing overhead, and the heart will be incomparably vast.
If she is in a good mood, she will walk to the guqin and play a song of mountains and rivers, and her mind will be led into the mountains and valleys or the endless wind-blown grass and low grassland.
Dream Zen good tea. I drink tea when I'm thirsty, mostly like me. Only tea tasting and leaving a heart can be the way, the level of good tea in Mengzen can be described as a road, and tea tasting is an indispensable process in her life.
I don't have any opinion on the tea ceremony, I don't have any admiration for the "300 years" insect poop tea, and I don't open my mouth wide in surprise when I drink tea, I just like to sit in such an environment and drink tea.
Good tea must have a certain realm, and the mood will be happy when drinking tea. When the mind relaxes, many strange thoughts come out. This is often the beginning of a conversation between Mengzen and her heart, and the most common thing to communicate is her work and the Zen that permeates her work.
Mengzen told me that when painting reaches a certain height, the heart is depressed, the mind is entangled, and the soul is struggling, just like a walker who keeps looking for the goal ahead, but the goal is looming, and he even doubts whether he can reach that height. I also thought about giving up, and more often than not, I persuaded myself to "let go". "Letting go", only to find that the target was by his side, and he never left, but he was not discovered, and he didn't pay special attention to it. The horizon is high, looking back at the platform where I have stood, and the horizon stretches into the distance again.
Tea tasting is a science, and the process of tea tasting is also a process of thinking. When the tea is tasted to the extreme, it jumps to another level. At this time, even if the tea is light, you will feel the philosophy revealed in the tea. Tea, at this time, is no longer tea, it is the life you are savoring, and you are thinking wildly. At this time, even if you pour a glass of white water, you will still feel its mellow and fragrant.
Will tea still be tea at this time?
The process of making tea is also a process of knowing yourself and understanding yourself. Mengzen said that when making tea, we should respect the tea, but also do nothing and not be attached to the tea environment. Tea and tea people are as intimate as traveling companions, as alienated as passers-by, as respectful as monks, and as sympathetic as heroes.
If it is a hard-to-find good tea, I love it like a confidant. Of course, once a good tea is drunk, it is also a kind of fate. The cause of the world, the water and clouds are three thousand. After traveling, let it go away with the wind, and the outline of another cloud and water floated in my heart.
Tea tasting is not drinking tea, tea tasting focuses on the word "taste", Dream Zen often drinks tea when he is tired of painting, drinks tea when he doesn't want to write, and drinks tea when he is in a bad mood. At this time, it is not drinking tea, but tasting tea, neglecting time, alienating the environment, and alienating the rights and wrongs around you.
The process of tasting tea is also the process of enlightenment. Zen teaches us to let go of our restless state of mind and to face everything that happens or is happening every day with a peaceful attitude. Let go of the restless mood, the vigor has passed, how many moods will compete with others to worry about themselves?Like the happiness we are looking for every day. In fact, happiness comes from our hearts, and when we are happy in our hearts, you will find that happiness is not far away, and every corner of it is readily available or visible, even right in front of you.
It is said that a certain kind of tea is good, and it is extremely good. If the heart is bitter, the tea you have drunk is bitter;Sweet-hearted, your life is full of sunshine. The best tea is the cup in your hand;The best person is the person in front of you. Why don't you enjoy this cup of tea in front of you and treat the person in front of you well?
I once heard a master of advanced tea art talk about Zen tea, and he opened another window in my soul that day. He recognized that Zen is more about artistic conception, which is not only stored in tea texts, but also stored everywhere in our lives. Find yourself from your state of mind, and find your heart from tasting tea. What Zen opens us up is the realm of the mind, tea is not tea, right and wrong, right and wrong constitute the pluralistic world we live in.
Whether tea is good or not, only tea tasters define tea. There is Zen in the heart, and every cup is Zen tea. If there is no Zen in my heart, which cup will be Zen tea?It's the same with painting, draw your thoughts and realize with your heart, don't chase the stream, don't compare, don't seek the dazzling awards, the glory brought by the titles of different associations. Let go of your mood and make a good painting, and not be disturbed by the complicated world, your work will be integrated into your cognition and feelings of life, and there will be more Zen for the viewer to read.
With this kind of perception, if we look at Mengzen's works again, we will find that they are never overlapping and rigid, but the author opens his heart to others.
Some people say that Mengzen painting is very easy, and it is easy to do it with a wave. This is an outsider's saying, ** to experience the painful process of literati painters giving birth to their works. A painting has been conceived for a long time, maybe for a while, maybe for a day, maybe for a year, maybe longer, and the idea is mature, and then it will be copied on rice paper in a very short time. A true literati painter will never be smeared casually, it must be an instantaneous burst of long-term accumulation of thoughts.
Mengzen's works are the crystallization of her long-term cultivation of thoughts, and they are the totems of profound knowledge. Just like drinking tea, we taste the aroma of tea, but she is enjoying the process of drinking tea. This process is a process of sorting out her own thoughts, and it is also a process of Zen understanding the work. The peaceful state of mind is used in painting, which is simple and complex, and expresses the mind directly. How can such a person not create a timeless work, and how can such a work not be read over and over again?
(Excerpt from Liu Shuliang's "The Days of Spring Blossoms").