Good evening and thank you for joining me for another boring books for bedtime.

I hope tonight selection provides all the boredom your busy brain needs to quiet down and let you get some sleep.

So find a comfortable spot, adjust your volume, take a nice deep breath in, let it out slowly, and off we go.

Tonight let's kick off a relaxing year with one of your favorites from the previous year,

The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura,

first published in 1906.

Let's pick up where we left off. Section 3, Taoism and Zenism. The connection of Zenism with tea is proverbial. We have already remarked that the tea ceremony was a development of the Zen ritual.

The name of Laudseur, the founder of Taoism, is also intimately associated with the history of tea.

It is written in the Chinese school manual concerning the origin of habits and

customs that the ceremony of offering tea to a guest began with Kwan

Yin, a well-known disciple of Lautzer, who first at the gate of the Han Pass presented to the old philosopher a cup of the golden

elixir. We shall not stop to discuss the authenticity of such tales, which are valuable,

however, as confirming the early use of the beverage by the Taoists.

Our interest in Taoism and Zenism here lies mainly in those ideas

regarding life and art which are so embodied in what we call T-ism.

It is to be regretted that as yet there appears to be no adequate presentation of the Taoists and Zen doctrines in any foreign language.

Though we have had several laudable attempts.

Translation is always a treason, and as a Ming author observes can at its best be only the reverse side of a brocade. All the threads are there, but not the subtlety of color or design.

But after all, what great doctrine is there which is easy to expound.

The ancient sages never put their teachings in systematic form.

They spoke in paradoxes, for they were afraid of uttering half-trues.

They began by talking like fools, and ended by making their hearers wise.

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