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A Perfect Cup of Tea
How to Avoid the Many Pitfalls of Tea Brewing

I am real, and the tea is real. I am in the present. I don’t think of the past. I don’t think of the future. There is a real encounter between me and the tea, and peace, happiness, and joy are possible during the time I drink.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
It could be a poem or a novel or lyrics to a blues ballad, I’m not sure, but I’ve been keeping a list of all the terrible, no good, very bad cups of tea I make. There are just so many ways it can go wrong.
Like the time I was trying to be considerate by preheating a special guest’s tea cup with hot water and then forgot and poured the tea into the full cup (the light was dim). Like all the times I’ve tried to be thrifty and reuse old leaves or old bags well past their point of releasing any worthy flavor.
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- Tricycle | The Digital Edition - web based edition of the magazine
- The Wisdom Collection - nearly two decades of teachings by the world's most compelling teachers, from the pages of Tricycle
- Tricycle Gallery - the best in Buddhist art to download and share with friends
- Tricycle Book Club - online discussions with leading Buddhist authors
- Tricycle Discussions - teacher-led explorations of dharma in daily life
- The Tricycle Blog - our diary of the global Buddhist movement
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