Unforgettable in mind-What truly moved me in the dharma gathering of IMG volunteers

In the Flower Garland Sutra, we find truly trippy images of a universe characterized by the mutual interbeing of all phenomena. Tea meditation, for me, always brings that lesson down to earth. After all, each cup of tea is the product of billions of years of chemical cookery, the precise atmospheric conditions of each region of origin, and the human labor that brought it to our tables. To be clear, I wasn’t thinking of Indra’s Net while taking in the increasingly sweet, floral notes of my first high-mountain oolong.
 
Something of the ritual itself, the wonderful natural arrangements on each table, and the view of the trees bending in the breeze outside evoked this without the need for such conceptual supports. It’s only in retrospect that I can see clearly how, just as I could not live or breathe without those swaying trees and the air they provide, neither could we as humans do without each other. Just as we might glimpse, if only vaguely and briefly, the universe in each cup of tea, so too can we see the reality of interconnectedness in the example of the many selfless volunteers who attended in order to donate their time and effort to serving others.

For all this, I’m deeply grateful.

Written by Brandon K.


Photo：Emily 施心媛