Help

2 Tea and Zen History

Text and Images from Slide

WA — Harmony

KEI — Respect

SEI — Purity

JAKU — Inner tranquility transcending individual desire

Rikyu believed that there were four principles fundamental to Tea:

Fluidly written Japanese characters for "Harmony, Respect, Purity, and Tranquility."

Calligraphy by Onozawa Kankai

View all slides | Contents of this slide

Lecture Notes

By emphasizing these principles, he firmly established the preparation of tea as a hoben, one of the many "skillful means" by which a practitioner of Zen might attain enlightenment.