Page 157 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

(a) Awareness of the Body and its Movements

In the sutras the Buddha speaks of being aware when one is
walking, sitting, standing, or lying down. One is aware of the

position of the hands and of the feet, how one is moving, how
one is gesturing and so on. According to this teaching one
cannot, if one is aware, do anything in a hasty, confused, or

chaotic fashion. We have a wonderful example of this in what is
known as the Japanese tea ceremony. On the face of it, the

Japanese tea ceremony revolves around a very ordinary thing,
which we do everyday: the making and drinking of a cup of tea.
This is something which we have all done hundreds and

thousands of times. But how do they do it in Japan? How is it
done in the Japanese tea ceremony? There it is done in a quite

different way, because it is done with awareness. With
awareness the kettle is filled with water. With awareness it is put
on the charcoal fire. With awareness one just sits and watches

the kettle boil, listening to the humming and bubbling of the
water and watching the flickering of the flames. Finally, with

awareness one pours the boiling water into the teapot, with
awareness one pours out the tea, offers it, and drinks it, all the
time observing complete silence. The whole thing is an exercise

in awareness. It represents the application of awareness to the
affairs of everyday life. This sort of attitude should be brought

into all our activities. They should all be conducted on the same
sort of principle as the Japanese tea ceremony, everything being
done with mindfulness and awareness and, therefore, with

stillness, quietness and beauty, as well as with dignity, harmony,
and peace.

But if the Japanese tea ceremony represents a certain

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