Go Drink Tea

Gaiwan, cups, tea tools, bamboo tea tray, and assorted oolong teas, e.g. dóngdǐng, Ālǐshān chá, Bāozhŏng chá, in my outer office. I make a lot of gung fu tea here. 

A monk once asked Chinese Zen Master Zhaozhou, "What is Buddha?" Zhaozhou answered "Go drink tea!". The monk then asked, "What is Dharma?" Zhaozhou answered, "Go drink tea!" The monk persisted, "What is Sangha?" Zhaozhou again said, "Go drink tea!" 

[NOTE: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, are the Three Treasures of Buddhism in which practicitioners take refuge].

There are lot of other things worth pointing out in this image. There's an air sickness bag from Lao Aviation. A plastic, extremely realistic green iguana ( Iguana iguana L. ), a carved wooden mask from Papua New Guinea, a photo of my sister and I standing next to a totem pole in the Great Smokey Mountains during a family vacation, an old calendar with nice calligraphy and quotations from Shunryu Suzuki, and postcards of young monks from Sri Lanka standing with a baby elephant, a guy living in a crashed B-52 bomber in the jungles of PNG, and Astro Boy.  Go drink tea!

[NOTE: A lot of the tea, and the lovely gaiwan, were gifts from Meng Hsueh Yu, a doctoral student  of mine from Taiwan. She successfully defended her thesis at the end of last year, so I guess I really should call her Dr. Meng Hsueh Yu. (thx, Meng Hsueh)].