SweetPersimmon

Wa, kei, sei, jaku: harmony, respect, purity and tranquility Many of these sayings have appeared in the blog before, and students will ...

The student says, "I am very discouraged about my tea study.  What should I do?" Sensei says, "Encourage others."

One of the things Machida Gyotei sensei taught us about movement within the tea room is that when you are wearing kimono, only your feet ...

One of the things that is a little frustrating to me is that I do not speak Japanese, nor do I read.  I have a number of books in my colle...

It has been seven years since Minako Somi Frady passed away, and today we remember her with a chakai at the Portland Japanese Garden.  She w...

I love to enter the tea room, view the scroll and flowers and smell the incense.   The tea room is a safe place where the rules of etiquette...

This post will be the 300th post on the SweetPersimmon blog.  Thank you all for reading, following and commenting.   I love to hear from rea...

When I left my sensei to begin teaching, she gave me a list of guidelines to help me set up my own school.  One of the most important was th...

Rikyu says: The very heart which wants to enter the Way is the best teacher. Sensei says : Beginning teachers want to teach the heart of...

For the introduction to chado class, we viewed a video the other night called, " Dream Window, Reflections on the Japanese Garden . If...

Sensei says: How you are in the tea room is how you are in the world. Haji o sute hito ni mono toi naraubeshi kore zojozu no motoi narikeru ...

When Christy-sensei was here for koshukai (intensive workshop) she mentioned that Chado is not about the numbers. Which led me to think ab...

When I first began to study tea, I had a million questions and I asked them all the time of my sensei. Often she would not answer my quest...

Sono michi ni iran to omou kokoro koso waga mi nagara no shisho nari keri “The very heart which decides to enter the Way is the best teac...

One of the great lessons that I learned during my 25 years of tea studies is the importance of self-discipline. I think it is one of those ...

For those who study martial arts or are involved in sports, tea practice looks like it is sedentary, not a physical activity. After all, i...

Sensei said, “complete this moment before moving on to the next,” What did she mean when she said that? How long is a moment, and how do y...

Students often think that having the perfect temae is the goal of tea study. Though we strive for perfection in temae, that really is not w...

When I first began to learn about Chado, I thought I could become a tea master in ten lessons. But I found out in those first ten lessons j...

Tea is movement. It gets us out of our heads, into our bodies, so we can touch our souls. We live a lot in our heads, often times without c...