Stillness 10-12: In The Classic of Tea by Lu Yu, written in the 8th century CE, the most mundane aspects of tea are celebrated. Mundanity seems as sublime as tea’s taste, healing properties, and poetry. By mundane, I mean Lu Yu’s injunctions on picking and sorting the leaves, detailed descriptions of utensils for making tea (including diagrams), and informational techniques for brewing and drinking tea. What I’m reminded through my personal delving into the world of tea, including reading books, watching videos, and, most deliciously, tasting this ancient and revered beverage, is that the simplest—most mundane—things in life are the most delightful.
We may think of something that’s mundane as being a bit of a bore, but the word originates from “mundus”—which means the “world.” In the old days, many religions wanted us to think our earthly, material realm wasn’t nearly as important as the heavenly, spiritual realm. Since the world was less important, “mundus” became mundane.
But nowadays we try to integrate our materiality and spirituality. While we’re on this mundus, they become one. For now, our spirit exists in a physical body that appears to be rushing along through a stream of days and nights. It expands into infinite realms through our thoughts, feelings, and active imagination. It is vivified and inspired by all manner of things. Even tending to the most tedious of tasks or sinking into the deepest of suffering, we can revere the journey we are on. The initiation of the daily life brings to our consciousness the quiet, daily tasks that help us grow into our wisest, most loving selves. Reverence for the mundane inspires in us enlightenment and peace. What is more sacred than our worldly existence? What is more holy than mindfulness, than our gratitude for these marvelous gifts of sight, sound, and our other senses, than the humility inherent in compassion and kindness? What is more divine than the passion that pours out in poetry and paintings of tea-drinking through centuries of its cultivation and ceremony?
The secret of revering the mundane lies in our heart of stillness. All we need to do is steep in the mundane, as the tea leaves steep in the water, and the tea cup is lovingly held, and the flavor enhances the air we breathe, and makes us smile as we taste it, and sometimes, if we’re very lucky, we can even share this mundane treat with a friend.