The Cup in Your Hands 🍵🙌🍃

The Cup in Your Hands, inspired by spiritual teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh.

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” – Thich Nhat Hạnh

The Cup in Your Hands, inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, a global spiritual leader, peace activist, and poet.

His teachings have helped many along their journey to peace, mindfulness, and deep awareness.

“When you touch one thing with deep awareness,” says Nhat Hanh, “you touch everything. When you touch one moment with deep awareness, you touch all moments.”

If while drinking the cup of tea, we’re barely aware of the cup in our hands. It means we’re sucked away into the future. In other words, we are incapable of actually living one minute of life.

Nhat Hanh reminds us that, raising your cup of tea to your mouth, is a form of ceremony.

The cup in your hands represents patience, gratitude, and good ol’ self-care. “Don’t drink your tea like someone who gulps down a cup a coffee during a work break.” Says Nhat Hanh, “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves—lowly, without rushing toward the future.

Live the actual moment.

Only this actual moment is life.“

The Cup in Your Hands

🍵Drinking a cup of tea becomes a direct and wondrous experience in which the distinction between subject and object no longer exists. — Thich Nhat Hanh.”

🫗Empty the Cup in your hands: Zen master Nan-in served tea🍶🍵

During the Meiji era (1868-1912), a Japanese Zen master by the name of Nan’in Zengu received a university professor who came to learn about Zen.

Nan-in served tea.

He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could, shouted, “It’s overfull! No more will go in.”

“Like this cup,” reply Nan’in “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen if you don’t first empty your cup?”

Prepare a Pot of Tea to Drink in Mindfulness the cup in your hands

Image courtesy of Delphi forums

Allow yourself a good length of time to prepare a pot of tea for the cup in your hands.

• Follow each step, do each movement slowly, in mindfulness.
• Try not to let one detail of your movements go by without being mindful of it. For instance, realize that your hand lifts the pot by its handle. And know that you are pouring the warm fragrance of that green tea into the cup.

Once you’re ready, sit somewhere quietly to slowly drink your tea. Don’t slouch your back too much. Maintain a sit-up posture as much as possible to help ease-up the flow of the breath.

Breathe more deeply than usual.

And when you’re ready to wash the dishes, wash them in mindfulness.

Two Ways to Wash the Dishes 🌊

If we can’t wash the dishes properly, explains Nhat Hanh, chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either. But now that you’ve formed a relationship with the cup, washing it should feel more harmonious and peaceful.

Thich Nhat Hanh believes that there are two ways to wash the dishes: the first is to wash the dishes in order to have clean dishes. The second is to wash the dishes in order to wash the dishes.

As Nhat Hanh explains, if while washing dishes, we’re in a hurry to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a nuisance, then we are not “washing the dishes to wash the dishes.”

What’s more, he says, “we’re not alive during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of realizing the miracle of life while standing at the sink.”

Nhat Hanh says, while you are washing the cup in your hands, you should only be washing the cup or the dishes.

Which means that while washing the cup one should be completely aware of the fact that you are washing the cup, or the dish.

He writes, “At first glance, that might seem a little silly to put so much pressure and stress a simple thing, but that’s precisely the point. The fact that I am standing there and washing these bowls is a wondrous reality. I’m being completely myself following my breath, conscious of my presence, and conscious of my thoughts and actions. There’s no way I can be tossed around mindlessly like a bottle slapped here and there on the waves.”

Conclusion

Bringing mindfulness into our everyday tasks like drinking tea or washing dishes can turn the most ordinary moments into chances to relax and reset.

Instead of rushing through, taking a little extra time to focus on the present can help you feel more grounded and at ease.

Whether it’s enjoying the warmth of your tea or paying attention to the sensation of the soapy water on your hands.

These small, mindful habits can make a big difference in your mood.

So, next time you’re doing these daily tasks, try slowing down and enjoying the moment—you might be surprised at how much calmer and happier you’ll feel!

As spiritual teacher, and author Eknath Easwaran put it, this kind of meditation is warmup exercise for the mind, so that you can jog through the rest of the day without Getting agitated or spraining your patience.

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Thank you for reading friend. And may the force be with you today.