"Chanoyu [tea ceremony] takes its origin from the spirit of harmonious union between heaven and earth, and thus becomes a vehicle of peace, a means of preserving order in the world" (quoted by Hammitzsch, pp 66-67). This harmony is none other than the experience of nonduality where the self does not stand apart from, or as it often happens, in opposition to the Other, worrying about its self-preservation and self-gain, but instead experiences itself as being appropriately enfolded into the harmonious "inter-being," to use Thich Nhat Hanh's neologism. In the context of inter-being--that is, seamless interconnectedness and co-emergency of all beings--the self is but a function and a site of receptivity and attunement, of adjusting thoughts and feelings, perceptions and actions to what lies before one. Here is Hammitzsch once again (Ibid, p.69): "One's heart, once it has surrendered itself to [reverence and harmony] in the Zen sense, no longer has any room for any particular object or circumstance, but devotes itself solely to what is in front of it--in the sense of mushin [no-mind]--and thus becomes totally 'gentle and tender', nagoyaka." This gentle and tender mushin --a psychic product of this highly aesthetic activity--is the source of nonviolence and compassion.
"Ethics and Aesthetics are One": The Case of Zen Aesthetics
