LIFE AS MYTH
JOURNAL
JOURNAL 2007
Following a white hart
Exploring myth & meaning
SUMMER 2007
Seeking the Ox
LIFEWORKS
ATLAS
SUMMER 2007
ICHI-GO ICHI-E
Distinguished ladies relaxing at a tea ceremony. Nobukazu. 1892.
Sen no Rikyu. Tohaku Hasegawa. c. 16th Century. Omotesenke Fushinan Foundation.
A tea house at Koishikawa the morning after a snowfall. Part of the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, no. 11. Artist unknown. 1830.
Within the Japanese tea ceremony, all parameters are highly prescribed -- dress, gesture, response, affect, presentation, space. And it is these well-defined boundaries which allow the transformative potential of the ceremony to emerge. For when ritual specifies boundaries and form, consciousness is free to focus on the moment.
Sen no Rikyu was a Zen Buddhist who had a profound influence on the Japanese tea ceremony. Assuming the position of tea master at the age of 58, he brought the concept of ichi-go ichi-e to the ceremony. Meaning literally "one time, one place," ichi-go ichi-e embodies Rikyu's ideal that each meeting between people is sacred for it can never be reproduced.
And it is this mind set of ichi-go ichi-e which strikes me most. Though I tend to think primarily in future terms, I am beginning to appreciate that Life is finite. As a result, I am trying to be more grateful, trying to live more fully in the present moment. That seems to be the core principle underlying the Japanese tea ceremony, where each gesture and each word and each object of the experience serve only to frame the sacredness of the Other and the extraordinary gift of Now.
