A Cup of Tea

[Guest guest]

Osho:<br>Bodhidharma's eyelids and the origins of

tea<br>Awareness comes through sensitivity. You have to be more

sensitive whatsoever you do, so that even a trivial thing

like tea... Can you find anything more trivial than

tea? Can you find anything more ordinary than tea? No,

you cannot--and Zen monks and masters have raised

this most ordinary thing into the most extraordinary.

They have bridged "this" and "that"... as if tea and

God have become one. <br>Unless tea becomes divine

you will not be divine, because the least has to be

raised to the most, the ordinary has to be raised to the

extraordinary, the earth has to be made heaven. They have to be

bridged, no gap should be left.<br>Tea was discovered by

Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen. The story is beautiful. He

was meditating for nine years, facing a wall. Nine

years, just facing the wall, continuously, and sometimes

it was natural that he might start falling asleep.

<br>He fought and fought with his sleep--remember, the

metaphysical sleep, the unconsciousness. He wanted to remain

conscious even while asleep. He wanted to make a continuity

of consciousness--the light should go on burning day

and night, for twenty-four hours. That's what dhyana

is, what meditation is--awareness. <br>One night he

felt that it was impossible to keep awake; he was

falling asleep. He cut his eyelids off and threw them!

Now there was no way for him to close his eyes.

<br>The story is beautiful. To get to the inner eyes,

these outer eyes will have to be thrown. That much

price has to be paid. And what happened? After a few

days he found that those eyelids that he had thrown on

the ground had started growing into a small sprout.

That sprout became tea. <br>That's why when you drink

tea, something of Bodhidharma enters you and you

cannot fall asleep. Bodhidharma was meditating on the

mountain called T'a, that's why it is called tea. It comes

from that mountain where Bodhidharma meditated for

nine years. <br>This is a parable. When the Zen Master

says, "Have a cup of tea," he's saying, "Taste a little

of Bodhidharma. Don't bother about these questions,

whether God exists or not, who created the world, where

is heaven and where is hell and what is the theory

of karma and rebirth." <br>When the Zen Master says,

"Forget all about it. Have a cup of tea," he's saying,

"Better become more aware, don't go into all this

nonsense. This is not going to help you at all."