RASA

Rare...... Rare indeed is such a place as Rasa. In Cento Vallee, in Ticino, in Confederation Helvitia, in Switzerland, on this Mother Earth
.

Under your feet is EARTH only for people. Walking on unpaved surfaces that do not really go anywhere. Cars are unknown; in fact they never existed here for the last 600 years.

WATER cold and clear flowing directly from the mountains into your room, into your kitchen, into your kettle for preparing a delicious Bowl of Tea for your guest sitting opposite you.

FIRE only for cooking most simple delicious feasts, for firing handmade tea bowls, for boiling water for a Bowl of Tea.

AIR so delicious you can actually enjoy breathing it, surviving only on it, existing on not much more than this. Magico, outside the norm of GNP, a step back and out of this world of materialism and  convenience, GNH, a place for retreat, a place of inner peace, good fortune, secretive, genuine, la Dolce Vita, not theatre, not show. Boring. A place and time for smile and good cheer. And good grappa.

 Come to Rasa in Switzerland this summer.

Make one or two beautiful Tea Bowls by only your own hands.

Take these Tea Bowls from the fire with your own hands.

Then make a delicious  "Bowl of Tea for Peace." A Bowl of Tea for your guest. For your self.

For Evi who showed you how to make such a beautiful piece.

It will be my great pleasure to show you how to make such a beautiful and delicious Bowl of Tea, according to the ancient Japanese tradition of Chado, the Way of Tea, the Way of Peace.

 Or.....just fall in love. With the place. With the quiet. With yourself,

With each other,

With Mother Earth.

We call this one week retreat the TEE-ART SEMINAR. In Rasa. One week together from August 19-25. For more information please contact Evi Kienast,  at www.raku-art.ch or Jack Convery Soko 宗好, at  www.shotoku-an.org or shotoku.an.kyoto@gmail.com

RYOAN-JI

BLAUTOPF

                                      "Lau"

 She is the lovely and beautiful spirit of the water, and she protects the precious and clear spring of the Blautopf that rises-up from deep inside Mother Earth.

 From here in Schwabenland in south Deutschland, this amazingly blue water then quietly overflows to form one of the smallest and shortest rivers on this earth. 14.5 km later, the Blau flows into the Donau, then into the Black Sea. Here at this place of natural beauty, Hiromi and I first greeted "Lau" (the spirit or kami or drala of the Blautopf) and then offered our traditional  "Bowl of Tea for Peace into the Four Directions."

Once long long ago (before convenience society, before the Christians, before the Romans, even before history), the local people naturally showed respect for the spirits of earth-water-fire-wind. They greeted these spirits and invoked them into their lives and offered fruits and drink to them. Today at the Blautopf, the people give nothing. Just take. Take a smoke break, take a walk, take a picture, take a coffee break. Take a swim.

Let's return back to the ancient traditions of showing respect for our Mother Earth and all the elements. Wherever we are, let's just offer simple simple bowls of tea into the four directions. Let us do nothing to harm this earth and all creatures above and below.

GUERNICA

The first air attack in world history on civilian people was by the Condor Legion on refugees fleeing from Malaga to Almeria. It was 13 Feb 1937, with hundreds of casualties.  Only one month later in March, planes from Mussolini  bombed Durango for 20 minutes. And then another month later, the massive all-day bombing of Guernica, a place of 5000 people with war material factories, by the 24 airplanes of the Condor Legion.

 (Condor birds are better known for not attacking living creatures. They generally survive by scavenging and cleaning-up the environment). Then only seven years later, the atomic  bombings over Japan in August 1945. In all cases, the target was women, men, and children. Only the German government has offered a formal apology for these terrorist air attacks on the citizens of the Basque Homeland, today a world symbol of the horrors of war and a world capital of peace.

Guernica was made famous because of Picasso's large mural; but it was also made famous by Paz and Kike who went to that place of great human suffering, that black spot on the pages of good human history, and just offered

"A Bowl of Tea for Peace into the Four Directions."

"This is a place of the White Hands peace symbol. Just a quiet feeling, making tea here. We were bringing and giving something from all the students at Shotoku-an. Blue sky and sunny day after a long month of rain. At the same time we were offering 'A Bowl of Tea for Peace,' one person was standing there and singing a traditional Basque song of freedom, a song of peace. I really appreciated this chance to make tea at Guernica. It was a new place for me, and I am very happy you asked me to go there."

VIET-NAM

"The war is in everyone. Sit like a mountain and breath like a flower. Become your best."

Thich Nhat Hahn said this. His lineage stretches back to the first teacher in Viet-Nam, Tang-Hor, in the years 200-250. Thang-Hor went to study in China and came back with his simple teaching called "throw away."   "Throw away" is stronger than release or letting-go. Throw away all notions of self and other. Become less arrogant. Throw away all notions of life-span, of birth, of death. All this is the foundation of fear. Not who am I, but rather what am I? I am this body. This body is me. Throw away the extremes, the extreme notions of birth, of death, of being, of non-being, of same-ness, of other-ness, of coming, of going.

Today about 1,800 years later, Thich Nhat Han's famous words are "Peace is every step."

 When Imamura-san and Kenji-san went to Viet-Nam, they carried a scroll with these words brushed by our youngest student. At that time Yui was eight years old and her words in Japanese were "Ho-Ho-Kore- Heiwa."

And they carried the permission certificate for Thu-san to teach Cha-do. And they carried a letter to all the people of Viet-Nam, expressing my deep apology for the terrible things done to ordinary children and women and men by my generation during the Viet-Nam War. And they carried "KOSMOS" chawan and they offered the first "Bowl of Tea for Peace into the Four Directions."

This was the beginning of the story of a tea-bowl on a mission of peace in the world.

   Thich Nhat Hahn's root temple in Viet-Nam is Tu-Hieu-Pagoda. www.findingkatherine.com

KINGDOM of BHUTAN

             The Land of Thunder Dragon, Druk Yul.

"We believe peace and tranquility of the spirit must not be harmed." Imagine if more countries accepted this as a national policy. The first words of the constitution of Shotoku-Taishi from the year 600 stated almost the same words: "We hold that the the principle of harmony and peace is of the utmost precious-ness."

Furthermore, the Four Foundations of Chado, the Way of Tea are Harmony-Respect-Purity-Tranquility. All this is very alive in the modern day Kingdom of Bhutan, and probably because of the influence of Dingo Khyentse Rinpoche on the first King of Bhutan.

The cave of Tak-tsang or the Tiger's Lair was pivotal in the life of CTR, especially as he discovered how to present the ancient teachings of Shakyamuni to the people of the Western world. Soon after his retreat at Tak-tsang, he came to Canada first and then to America. His impact on us was amazing, and continues to be profound even 25 years after his death. At my request, Maki-san carried "KOSMOS" chawan to Bhutan, and gave her young son the chance to make "A Bowl of Tea for Peace" at the foot of this important meditation cave. Thank you very very much.

May the successors of Dingo Khyentse Rinpoche

and the first King of Bhutan be successful in curbing the influences of modern day materialism, convenience, and entertainment. May they successfully maintain Bhutan as a pristine environment of natural forests. May the policy of gross national happiness inspire other countries so deeply trapped in the muck and mire of profit and loss, hope and fear. May ordinary mind remain ordinary.

UNITED NATIONS PLAZA in N.Y.

"Imagine."  Imagine this feeling of hope for a new world. Standing there in front of the United Nations monument in New York City, not far from the Statue of Liberty.

Standing in front of this gun-barrel tied in a knot. With the John Lennon song going through my mind. So I felt a connection of peace with people and with other countries.

 And then I offered "A Bowl of Tea for Peace into the Four Directions. Imagine all the people..."   These are the sentiments of Kenji Ueda. After the gun-killing of John Lennon, Carl Fredrik Reutersward from Sweden expressed his deep sad-ness by designing and casting this famous gun monument, known as "Non-Violence" or "The Knotted Gun." One of the earlier guns in the history is the famous Colt 45. It's the gun in all the cowboy and Indian movies. It was known as

"The Peace-maker" because of the big part it played in "pacifying the American West." Or, for destroying the native peoples in the last part of the 1800's. This was the peace-maker that made the American Dream possible. The designer could not have picked a more symbolic gun to tie-up into a knot.

MACCHU-PICHU

           A place of great human beauty.

A good place to offer "A Bowl of Tea for Peace," with a heart full of appreciation for all the good things that people have done in the past.

"Abandoned but not broken. Amazing and incredible. Not so big, an atmosphere of jungle climate. Terraces for food and living, with irrigation systems built by Inca 600 years ago.

 Temple of the Sun and Temple of the Moon. Walls and foundations are stone-work, clean and tight. What was that mind, from so many many years ago?" These are some of Kenji-san's   words of respect. There is a Zen-phrase: Ryu-Sui-Kan-Dan-Nashi. 流水無間断　The meaning is that nothing can stop flowing water. Or, the awake energy flowing out of our pristine pure ordinary mind cannot be hindered by obstructions of any kind. Good-ness and beauty are unstopable.

GREENLAND

                                     Thule

An American nuclear air-base and a long-time colony of Denmark.

It was to this glacial homeland of the Inuit people that Jason Winn carried the Spirit of "KOSMOS," and offered into the Four Directions the four principles of Chado, the Way of Tea, the Way of Peace: Wa-Kei-Sei-Jaku. Or Harmony-Respect-Purity-Tranquility.

This was the first time that someone carried the "KOSMOS" tea-bowl in the heart, rather than in the hand.