Comments by "Morgan Olfursson" (@morganolfursson2560) on "National Geographic"
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I studied the tea ceremony in Japan for over 15 years , and kept on studying after i left Japan and have now been studying and practicing for nearly 30 years. Maybe i haven't studied enough or maybe i will never get it because i am not smart enough, but although i find the principles of the tea ceremony absolutely wonderful i find the tea ceremony today in Japan to be merely a business, run by a few families throughout Japan and that the Motto is not Wa Kei Sei Jaku (peace, respect, harmony and serenity) but rather Kane, Kane, Kane, Kane (money, money, money, money).
The tea ceremony style i studied, which was also Urasenke and especially the Wabi Cha, was based on simplicity and humility, poverty even It was the tea made by monks in huts with very simple and unostentatious utensils. But i soon realized that a tea bowl could fetch for over a 100 000 dollars and a spoon owned by a famous master could go for over a million at private auctions. I also realized that the masters and the instructors teaching a simple and unostentatious lifestyle, were all millionaires and lived a very lavish lifestyle outside the Chashitsu.
This very quickly started to bother me and i started asking questions, which were not welcome.
I changed style and started studying with actual monks and then with actual hermit at the zen monastery of Eiheiji where i spent three years studying tea and Zen. There and only there have i found something that seemed close to the original meaning of the tea ceremony and definitely found peace, respect, harmony, purity and serenity.
I do not want to diss my former teachers from the Urasenke School or other teachers and masters from the Omotesenke or Mushanokojisenke or so many others who claim to be the true path of tea. But to be quite honest they all reminded me of Marie Antoinette in her Petit Trianon . The Petit Trainon is a part of Versailles that was offered by Louis the XVI to Marie Antoinette and wehere she lived like a shepherdess . She had an entire fake village built with actual villagers living in it but who were actual actors and workers for Marie Antoinette so she could pretend to live like a peasant, far from the luxury of Versailles, while still remaining the Queen and the richest woman in France. It may seem cute but it is also extremely condescending toward actual peasants and poor people who had to see their kids starve while Marie Antoinette dined in her little cottage out of the finest porcelain, eating dishes prepared by chef and wasting more food in a day than a poor family could ever have in a month.
Those tea teachers and masters are like aristocrats pretending to live like hermits while asking for money in exchange for teaching the tea ceremony which they claim to be based on poverty. The contrast and contradiction become very quickly disturbing when you experience it first hand like any other teacher, but unlike most of the other teacher, questions what i was taught.
One thing which disturbed me the most was that, although during lessons we were only served tea and cakes (and taught later own how to prepare the Kaiseki or meal served in full tea ceremonies, called Chaji , as opposed to Chakai when only tea and cakes are served), we (the students and teachers) were sometimes going out for dinner and then i could see my fellow students and my teachers eating out . And this is when it struck me that this was all a masquerade. The tea ceremony is based not only on simplicity and poverty and respect of naturebut it is also based on Zen. Zen is the true basis of the tea ceremony and its values. I had started studying zen at the same time and we were taught a few Zen teaching during the lessons. But to me the first thing important about zen was the respect of nature and the respect of life. Any true Zen master is de facto vegetarian or vegan as i was (and still am) because not taking animal life is one of the most fundamental principle of Zen. And here i was at these expensive exclusive restaurant with the other students and our teachers, all of them eating meat and fish , all of them in their most expensive Kimono and accessories. And i thought , where is the Zen teaching of respect for nature and animals and where is the unostentatious spirit and style of poverty. There i was in the Petit Trianon with Marie Antoinette and her friends and i was the only one thinking that it was very wrong.
I left soon afterwards the lessons and started looking for true teachers and masters. I found them at Eiheiji and other simple places even in the heart of Tokyo , among simple people, with simple and beautiful values.
This video is funny to watch for me. because this lady is wearing an extremely expensive Kimono and talks about the values of the tea ceremony, but not a single time does she mention the Zen Values attached to it. And , although i may be wrong, i am pretty sure that she had fish for lunch and may have steak for dinner.
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This is too heartbreaking i just can't watch and had to leave halfway through it .
I was born in Arizona because my parents worked there for a while (I am Icelandic with an Inuit grand mother) . My mother is an ethno-anthropologist and was staying with the Navajo and other Native people in the 70s to record their culture , arts and languages as both tangible and intangible world heritage for the Unesco . (i never use the word Native americans , as their culture predates america by 1000s upon 1000s of years if not hundreds of thousands of years) , and my father is an archaeologist who was working with the Tribe leaders to not dig up things but actually preserve burials as they are among the most sacred places and my father is complete against excavating graves and digging up the dead , and only works on ancient cities sites , if he finds a burial then the site is closed and the holes are filled up and left undisturbed . So i was born there and spent my childhood on the reservation (another word i usually not use and replace by Navajo territory or land ) between Utah , New Mexico and Arizona . In spite of going to school in the US i never considered myself american , even though i was by birth . I left the country with my parents years later, heartbroken of having to say good bye to my Navajo and other Native friends . But my father told me one simple thing. This is not our place , we came , we observed, we exchanged and now it is time to leave , which is what should have been done hundreds of years ago. When i turned 16 i legally and very officially renounced my american citizenship . This is not my land , my father is right, this is theirs , and i have no right to be there until it become rightfully theirs again and they invite me . Just like i would never live in Israel unless the Palestinians , get their stolen land back . Same with Australia , the Ainu territories of Japan, the Amazigh territories of northern Africa , and of course the Inuit territories of northern Europe and northern America .
I was raised right , i do not take what is not mine, and i do not benefit from what causes pain and suffering, which is why i also do not eat or wear or use anything of animal origin .
This is a wonderful documentary , but sadly , all i can see is the damage done .
I can only wish well to the Native people and everywhere and just not be there , to avoid adding to the damage . The biggest damage of all, being that their are all using English in an effort to preserve their culture . The truth behind this is what made me stop watching this otherwise wonderful documentary halfway through .
Navajo and every other culture need to make their language the official one, no english or spanish should be taught to kids or only as a a second language and only after thy have mastered their own . And those people should also start their own currency, not use dollars or any other currency . Create your own nation, with its rules, its laws, its language, its currency , its political system (if you need one) . The fight is lost as long as you keep on using english and dollars .
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I studied the tea ceremony in Japan for over 15 years , and kept on studying after i left Japan and have now been studying and practicing for nearly 30 years. Maybe i haven't studied enough or maybe i will never get it because i am not smart enough, but although i find the principles of the tea ceremony absolutely wonderful i find the tea ceremony today in Japan to be merely a business, run by a few families throughout Japan and that the Motto is not Wa Kei Sei Jaku (peace, respect, harmony and serenity) but rather Kane, Kane, Kane, Kane (money, money, money, money).
The tea ceremony style i studied, which was also Urasenke and especially the Wabi Cha, was based on simplicity and humility, poverty even It was the tea made by monks in huts with very simple and unostentatious utensils. But i soon realized that a tea bowl could fetch for over a 100 000 dollars and a spoon owned by a famous master could go for over a million at private auctions. I also realized that the masters and the instructors teaching a simple and unostentatious lifestyle, were all millionaires and lived a very lavish lifestyle outside the Chashitsu.
This very quickly started to bother me and i started asking questions, which were not welcome.
I changed style and started studying with actual monks and then with actual hermit at the zen monastery of Eiheiji where i spent three years studying tea and Zen. There and only there have i found something that seemed close to the original meaning of the tea ceremony and definitely found peace, respect, harmony, purity and serenity.
I do not want to diss my former teachers from the Urasenke School or other teachers and masters from the Omotesenke or Mushanokojisenke or so many others who claim to be the true path of tea. But to be quite honest they all reminded me of Marie Antoinette in her Petit Trianon . The Petit Trainon is a part of Versailles that was offered by Louis the XVI to Marie Antoinette and wehere she lived like a shepherdess . She had an entire fake village built with actual villagers living in it but who were actual actors and workers for Marie Antoinette so she could pretend to live like a peasant, far from the luxury of Versailles, while still remaining the Queen and the richest woman in France. It may seem cute but it is also extremely condescending toward actual peasants and poor people who had to see their kids starve while Marie Antoinette dined in her little cottage out of the finest porcelain, eating dishes prepared by chef and wasting more food in a day than a poor family could ever have in a month.
Those tea teachers and masters are like aristocrats pretending to live like hermits while asking for money in exchange for teaching the tea ceremony which they claim to be based on poverty. The contrast and contradiction become very quickly disturbing when you experience it first hand like any other teacher, but unlike most of the other teacher, questions what i was taught.
One thing which disturbed me the most was that, although during lessons we were only served tea and cakes (and taught later own how to prepare the Kaiseki or meal served in full tea ceremonies, called Chaji , as opposed to Chakai when only tea and cakes are served), we (the students and teachers) were sometimes going out for dinner and then i could see my fellow students and my teachers eating out . And this is when it struck me that this was all a masquerade. The tea ceremony is based not only on simplicity and poverty and respect of naturebut it is also based on Zen. Zen is the true basis of the tea ceremony and its values. I had started studying zen at the same time and we were taught a few Zen teaching during the lessons. But to me the first thing important about zen was the respect of nature and the respect of life. Any true Zen master is de facto vegetarian or vegan as i was (and still am) because not taking animal life is one of the most fundamental principle of Zen. And here i was at these expensive exclusive restaurant with the other students and our teachers, all of them eating meat and fish , all of them in their most expensive Kimono and accessories. And i thought , where is the Zen teaching of respect for nature and animals and where is the unostentatious spirit and style of poverty. There i was in the Petit Trianon with Marie Antoinette and her friends and i was the only one thinking that it was very wrong.
I left soon afterwards the lessons and started looking for true teachers and masters. I found them at Eiheiji and other simple places even in the heart of Tokyo , among simple people, with simple and beautiful values.
This video is funny to watch for me. because this lady is wearing an extremely expensive Kimono and talks about the values of the tea ceremony, but not a single time does she mention the Zen Values attached to it. And , although i may be wrong, i am pretty sure that she had fish for lunch and may have steak for dinner.
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This idea of reward and competition is so american or western of you , just like this belief that every artist wants a trophy . In Japan, art is its own reward . Getting a trophy would make it tacky and the artist would lose a lot of his credibility .
In Japan there is a supreme recognition called Nigen Kokuho meaning Living National Treasure . and no Japanese artist wants it . because it you get the reward (and this is awarded by the Emperor himself), though it means that you are the best in your specific artistic field , it also comes with a lot of duty. The artist once awarded a National Living Treasure (award which last until his last breath) has to produce pieces constantly and even perfect his art , and also hire disciples which he or she must trains to prepare a new generation or artists in this specific field . And though his award comes with money , and the Ningen Kokuho pieces may well sold for the equivalent of hundred of thousands of dollars, most of these artist curse the day they are awarded , (especially since in japan, you can't decline the award) and wish they were still working at their own pace and doing their things and could really do without the burden of fame .
Plus if someone else wanted that title and you got it, the rivalry may last even after your death .
Trust me , in japan , we really do not like recognition , and being in the shadows is considered a very pleasant way to spend one's life.
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I studied the tea ceremony in Japan for over 15 years , and kept on studying after i left Japan and have now been studying and practicing for nearly 30 years. Maybe i haven't studied enough or maybe i will never get it because i am not smart enough, but although i find the principles of the tea ceremony absolutely wonderful i find the tea ceremony today in Japan to be merely a business, run by a few families throughout Japan and that the Motto is not Wa Kei Sei Jaku (peace, respect, harmony and serenity) but rather Kane, Kane, Kane, Kane (money, money, money, money).
The tea ceremony style i studied, which was also Urasenke and especially the Wabi Cha, was based on simplicity and humility, poverty even It was the tea made by monks in huts with very simple and unostentatious utensils. But i soon realized that a tea bowl could fetch for over a 100 000 dollars and a spoon owned by a famous master could go for over a million at private auctions. I also realized that the masters and the instructors teaching a simple and unostentatious lifestyle, were all millionaires and lived a very lavish lifestyle outside the Chashitsu.
This very quickly started to bother me and i started asking questions, which were not welcome.
I changed style and started studying with actual monks and then with actual hermit at the zen monastery of Eiheiji where i spent three years studying tea and Zen. There and only there have i found something that seemed close to the original meaning of the tea ceremony and definitely found peace, respect, harmony, purity and serenity.
I do not want to diss my former teachers from the Urasenke School or other teachers and masters from the Omotesenke or Mushanokojisenke or so many others who claim to be the true path of tea. But to be quite honest they all reminded me of Marie Antoinette in her Petit Trianon . The Petit Trainon is a part of Versailles that was offered by Louis the XVI to Marie Antoinette and wehere she lived like a shepherdess . She had an entire fake village built with actual villagers living in it but who were actual actors and workers for Marie Antoinette so she could pretend to live like a peasant, far from the luxury of Versailles, while still remaining the Queen and the richest woman in France. It may seem cute but it is also extremely condescending toward actual peasants and poor people who had to see their kids starve while Marie Antoinette dined in her little cottage out of the finest porcelain, eating dishes prepared by chef and wasting more food in a day than a poor family could ever have in a month.
Those tea teachers and masters are like aristocrats pretending to live like hermits while asking for money in exchange for teaching the tea ceremony which they claim to be based on poverty. The contrast and contradiction become very quickly disturbing when you experience it first hand like any other teacher, but unlike most of the other teacher, questions what i was taught.
One thing which disturbed me the most was that, although during lessons we were only served tea and cakes (and taught later own how to prepare the Kaiseki or meal served in full tea ceremonies, called Chaji , as opposed to Chakai when only tea and cakes are served), we (the students and teachers) were sometimes going out for dinner and then i could see my fellow students and my teachers eating out . And this is when it struck me that this was all a masquerade. The tea ceremony is based not only on simplicity and poverty and respect of naturebut it is also based on Zen. Zen is the true basis of the tea ceremony and its values. I had started studying zen at the same time and we were taught a few Zen teaching during the lessons. But to me the first thing important about zen was the respect of nature and the respect of life. Any true Zen master is de facto vegetarian or vegan as i was (and still am) because not taking animal life is one of the most fundamental principle of Zen. And here i was at these expensive exclusive restaurant with the other students and our teachers, all of them eating meat and fish , all of them in their most expensive Kimono and accessories. And i thought , where is the Zen teaching of respect for nature and animals and where is the unostentatious spirit and style of poverty. There i was in the Petit Trianon with Marie Antoinette and her friends and i was the only one thinking that it was very wrong.
I left soon afterwards the lessons and started looking for true teachers and masters. I found them at Eiheiji and other simple places even in the heart of Tokyo , among simple people, with simple and beautiful values.
This video is funny to watch for me. because this lady is wearing an extremely expensive Kimono and talks about the values of the tea ceremony, but not a single time does she mention the Zen Values attached to it. And , although i may be wrong, i am pretty sure that she had fish for lunch and may have steak for dinner.
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