Auckland YAD as the Tea Meditation Practitioners Cultivating Emotional Well-being

On 14 August, BLIA YAD Auckland organised a youth tea meditation event in Guang Ming Hall at FGS Buddhist Temple Auckland. For the first time, YAD committee members acted as practitioners serving the youths to experience the joy of tea meditation.

Edwin, the President of Fo Guang Club, led the ice-breaking part of the event with self-introduction prior to starting the Tea Meditation activity. The tea practitioners, Thomas, Abby, Carol, and Kyle brought two members each and started the event with mindfulness meditation followed by the tea ceremony. The facilitator, Muyang, explained the delicate steps of the tea meditation, such as Flower offering to Buddha, Warming Tea ware, Appreciate the Aftertaste. All the participants enjoyed the tea meditation in such peace and calm environment.

The President of the BLIA North Island Chapter, Lintao Yu, was invited to give a talk on Humanistic Buddhism. He gave the participants a deeper understanding of Chan and the meaning behind tea meditation. Thomas, one of the practitioners was amazed at how profound meditation can be, and he would like to be more dedicated to it. Only commitment leads to depth, only devotion leads to excellence, only by being ordinary can one be extraordinary, only training leads to skilfulness, Kyle felt deeply with Venerable Master Hsing Yun words of wisdom this event. He stated that by devoting oneself to tea making, it increases the fragrance of the tea. The practitioners took this valuable opportunity to learn the way of serving the tea decently.

Most of the participants were new members of Fo Guang Club. One of the participants shared that although he had experienced meditation at home, it was the first time for him to meditate through tea which felt more comfortable and peaceful. He looks forward to participating in such activities again in the future.