“Drinking a cup of tea, I stop the war.”
At the time of the Korean War, American Zen Buddhist and poet Paul Reps tried to enter Korea to visit a respected Zen master. He went to the consulate to apply for his visa and was politely informed that his application was denied because of the conflict that had just broken out. Reps walked out of the consulate and sat quietly in the adjacent park. He reached into his pocket, took out his thermos flask, and poured himself a cup of tea. When he finished the tea, he took a brush and paper and wrote a picture poem on it. The official read the poem, and it brought tears to his eyes. He smiled, bowed respectfully, and stamped Reps’ passport for entry into Korea. Reps’ haiku read: “By drinking a cup of tea, I end the war.”
In a hologram, a reality networked through all dimensions, where the most minor, peaceful gesture, like drinking a cup of tea, can have a colossal effect, we are aware that each of us is part of fractal, cosmic networks. One of my spiritual teachers from the non-dual Advaita tradition taught me: “We are the soup, walking in the soup.” We are condensed vibrational beings moving through a sea of vibrations. Beyond the dual solid body that our consciousness has chosen for this human journey, we are energy beings who can not only travel to other dimensions in our dreams but always have the option to raise our vibration so that we can willingly leave the body and come back again.
In the official media, we only hear shrill sounds. If we can feel deeper into the invisible currents of existence, we realize that — even if we experience ourselves as separate from the outer world of appearances — this separation is an illusion. That’s why I love this story by Paul Reps. The Korean official understood the symbolic meaning immediately. Awareness of the interdependence of all life was still an Asian spiritual heritage, at least in the 1950s, and it is just now making its way to the surface of the collective consciousness.
If consciousness is primary, then the earth is not our real home, then the next step in human evolution is to become aware of the fundamental interconnectedness of existence, including physical existence. Each of us contributes to the course of events with our thoughts and actions. Each of us has the task of finding and cultivating the most peaceful place within ourselves. Those who find this peace within themselves, even if they only drink a cup of tea in peace, put an end to part of the daily war. That seems to be the most crucial task in these inflamed times.
When we come into contact with the level of consciousness in which “space” is central and no longer time, i.e., when we are freed from linear time, the energetic space of existence unfolds within us. In the second step, we become this space. You merge with the consciousness of this expanded dimension because you have become empty. You have left your earthly baggage, your programming behind you. You experience pure consciousness when you are no longer “contaminated” or “occupied” by society's programs, your ancestors, or previous incarnations. The next step is to act and communicate from this intimate connection with you as a consciousness-space being. Here, duality is already primarily eliminated. You are still “surfing” in your earthly existence as a human being, but the information that shapes your actions and speech comes from an expanded space of consciousness.
Once you have tasted the fragrance and the immense dimension of the holographic spaces, earthly pleasures are merely copies of the feelings of happiness and amazement you experience in these expanded spaces. You get an incomparable taste of feeling boundlessly “one” with them. To be one with these holographic vibrational systems is to experience deep waves of spiritual joy, unconditional love, or pure well-being. The inner dialog has faded into the background; it no longer drives you because your higher vibrating, holographic fundamental vibration generates continuous well-being. You no longer have to do anything to feel good. When you feel at ease with yourself in silence, you know that you have arrived at the most original vibrational essence of your being. Moreover, this new connection gives you unlimited access to the cosmic database.
Our worldly internet is an artificial precursor to this expanded state of consciousness, which we usually attribute to the soul or the Higher Self. The more you experience this holographic state of consciousness, called samadhi in Buddhism, the more your priorities change. The inner state of drinking tea or whatever you do takes on greater significance. This is where the end of the war within yourself begins, and this state automatically flows into the collective hologram and changes the vibration in the matrix.
“Drinking a cup of tea, I stop the war”
With peaceful greetings for the next cup of tea
Ralph
