Seminar 53 The Living Tradition of Tea in Contemporary Buddhist Practice
Tea has long been part of Buddhist life, not only as a drink but as something that quietly supports daily rhythm, attention, and care. In Chinese Buddhist communities, tea has accompanied meditation, study, and communal life, shaping how people stay present over long hours and how practice is woven into ordinary activity. Rather than standing apart as a formal ritual, tea often works in the background—steady, unremarkable, and deeply familiar. In this session, Dr. Kai Shmushko shares reflections on the historical roots of tea in Chinese Buddhism and on how tea continues to function in contemporary practice. Drawing from textual study and fieldwork in China and Europe, the talk looks at how tea is prepared, offered, and lived with today, and how these practices carry forward forms of mindfulness and contemplative continuity across time and place. This salon offers space to sit with these observations and to notice how simple practices quietly shape the way we attend, relate, and practice.
Speaker: Dr. Kai Shmushko (Researcher and Lecturer, University of Amsterdam)
Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026 6:00-7:30 am (Los Angeles) 9:00-10:30 am (NYC/Boston) 10:00-11:30 pm (Beijing)
