Pause. Sip. Be Here.
Poster transcript
Slow down. Let one cup change your pace.
禅茶一味 is a widely used expression in tea culture. It links tea with the attentiveness of Chan practice. “One taste” does not mean that tea and Buddhism are identical. It suggests that an everyday act—making and sharing tea—can become a practice of presence.
Spring is gathered in the mountains; fragrant tea is best brewed among bamboo.
春共山中採，香宜竹裡煎 — anonymous tea-shop couplet, date unknown; appears at least as early as the 1928 Shanghai edition of Fenlei Zhonghua Yinglian Daquan.
Historical background
The exhibition treats 禅茶一味 as a later cultural formulation rather than a single ancient doctrine. Tea and Buddhist institutions have long histories of contact, but a modern slogan should not be projected unchanged into every earlier period.
Curator’s interpretation
The poster offers a pause inside the festival’s rush. Presence is not withdrawal from the world. It is a way to notice the cup, the people around it, and the conditions of an encounter.