9- Christina Jade on The Essence of Tea & Tea Meditation

07/04/20 • 51 min

"I definitely felt like tea is a meditation practice that can really help us. A lot of meditation can be difficult because when you first started you get so distracted by your thoughts it can be really challenging, but if you suddenly have the water & the leaf this moment, there you are, you kinda have a 'distraction to your distraction'. It’s almost like a koan, you know." ~ Jade

In this 9th episode of the Eco Flow Podcast, Sherab Jin interviews Jade an author, entrepreneur and tea teacher about her journey of tea exploration across Asia, tea meditation, and her relationship with tea.

Jade's bio:
Jade is a certified Meditation Instructor, Health Coach, and Tea Practitioner. She is the author of Tea, Remembering the Essence of Life A book that illuminates tea from both a traditional and creative perspective. The idea of this book was to explore the essence of the 5 elements (Water, Wood/Wind, Fire, Earth, Metal) and adapt it to the practice of tea meditation. Jade is also the founder of the project WAOTEA, an online tea store, and community, offering consciously-sourced tea, teaware, and accessories, a variety of tea offerings, and experiences. She teaches the practice and ritual of tea privately through her course “way of tea”, offers ceremonial tea meditation in events and retreats. Wao'' stands for “We are one”. The intention behind her project is to encourage conscious community circles, self-healing rituals, sustainable living, and environmental healing. Her practice is about creating space to celebrate life, to honor presence, community, and Nature. “
Jade's website: https://waotea.com/

Previous Episode

8- (Part 2) Cody Abbey on Lessons from China's Rural Education Work

“What I’ve seen though is that a lot of rural kids are are actually quite satisfied with the way they experience life.” ~ Cody Abbey

This is the second part of my interview with Cody, on lessons we can learn from rural education work in China. We touched on China’s effort during this pandemic lockdown, the “two teacher system” and what it means, the question on whether Education technology is narrowing or expanding the urban-rural education gap, spiritual and material civilization and finally, advice for parents during this pandemic lockdown. If you missed the first part of the interview, check it out here on my Youtube Channel (Eco Flow with Sherab Jin).

Cody's Biography: Cody Abbey is a project manager at the Rural Education Action Program, which is a collaborative research organization by Stanford University that aims to narrow the urban-rural gap in China by identifying and solving rural China’s education and health problems. Before REAP he was part of the inaugural class of the Yenching Academy at Peking University and completed his bachelor’s degree in public policy at Princeton University. With a long-held interest in education equity, he previously earned a teaching license in Mandarin Chinese and took part in a Princeton Asia fellowship.

Next Episode

10- Jin on Culture Hacking

Is there a hack to learning culture? In this episode, Jin proposes a model for hacking culture and shares his stories and personal experiences exploring and working with different cultures. Invited as an online guest teacher for Teikyo University students who are taking a course on cross-culture communication, this presentation was recorded in 2020 and the full presentation can be found on my Youtube Channel Eco Flow with Sherab Jin.