Zen Buddhist priests would spend hours every day sitting and thinking. To keep awake, they would drink cups of a strange liquid. It was hot and bitter. This strange liquid was tea.
Tea was first brought to Japan from China by a Zen priest.
Drinking tea became an important ceremony in Japan. The tea ceremony was supposed to free people from worries. In this way the ceremony was like Zen.
One famous japanese tea master(Zen teacher) said :"In earthly life, easy living and good food are supposed to mean happiness.But if people have shelter to protect them from the rain and enough food to keep them from being hungry, that is all they need.
This is the heart of the Way of Tea, as well as of Buddha's teaching."
