Sel Young Jin's “Live and Die”

The gritty, earthy, wild look and feel of this erabo style bowl instantaneously grabs one as soon as one feasts eyes upon it. When holding its warped oval form, hands reach together closer to being folded in prayer than most tea bowls ever allow. The energy in the hands is felt from the tea, and in turn the tea from the hands. One is sanctified when bringing this bowl towards ones mouth like pulling sandy earth to ones face only to sip green tea from its hallows.

This bowl feels comforting and soothing in ones hands like beach sand between ones fingers and toes. Tea too feels so comfortable resting in such natural surroundings like the sandy earth beneath ones feet this tea bowl grounds one, grounding the tea.

The tea is truly blessed to be housed in such a natural paradise, even if only for minutes. It's earthy coarse-sand texture, asymmetrically irreplicateable form, and warm brown and green colour act in unison to create such a feeling.

This tea bowl, like all tea bowls, represents the earth it is made from. We too, many lives ago, evolved from the gritty sands of earth. When we die we will inevitably return to such a place. Now, one is there, and as the tea is consumed, the impermanence of life is reflected upon deeply.

And as the last drops of tea depart from this tea bowl they do so reluctantly, like one clinging on to life, tea clings onto this bowls course grit walls, its short lived paradise.

What lessons one can learn from tea!

Peace