Tea Meditation

I am an avid tea drinker, I love many different kinds of tea (straight green tea being my personal favorite). Every morning, after my run, and breathing exercises, I have a cup of tea and just sit, contemplating nothing, doing nothing. Just letting things settle. However, right before I drink my tea I engage in one more exercise...

I pour my water over my tea, this water is hot, very, very hot. So what I do is wait about 15 seconds to let the heat permeate the cup. Then I grasp the cup fully, wrapping my hand around it.

At first I could only hold my hand wrapped around the cup for about 3 seconds before taking it away. Now I can hold it there for a full minute. I'm not exactly sure when or why I started this exercise, I didn't actually have a purpose for doing it, other than perhaps a testing of the limits of my endurance for pain. No...... I am not trying to be a badass, I just find the subject of pain, physical pain, fascinating. Over time though, this exercise has become an odd sort of meditation for me.

In the medical field, I have seen many different pain thresholds. I have seen people get very minor surgery scream and cry and their pain level is always at a 10. Then, I have seen people get major surgery, and hardly except a pain pill, or push their morphine pump. Obviously, they’re in some discomfort, but their spirits are good and they’re talking, attacking their physical therapy, and indeed it impresses and mystifies me the difference in the experience of pain from individual to individual. The young, in this case, have no corner in the market to the old when it comes to how one accepts and manages their pain either. I have seen an 18-year-old football player in tears, and a smiling 80-year-old walking 2 hours after kidney surgery....

I cannot say why it fascinates me, but in all things when it comes to me, when I discover my limits, or question my limits, I must seek to know them and fully experience them.

You will need...

• A ceramic cup.
• Very hot water.

Pour the water into the cup, let the heat permeate the ceramic. Then simply grasp the cup fully, grasp it with your palm and fingers pressing against the cup. Do not squeeze tightly, just grasp it. Just breathe naturally, and evenly. Also, do not pick it up from the table. Do not seek to meditate, or in any way dampen your experience, just hold the cup, feel your pain, YOUR pain. Experience it in its entirety, be mindful of the moment you’re in. If you cannot even focus your awareness on your pain, just imagine what you’re missing in the rest of your life. Nothing puts one in the moment like pain does. The first reaction (Of course) is to pull away quickly, keep it there three more seconds past your "Limit". Then do the other hand.

Do not try to be a badass, there is no point. Nobody finds second-degree burns impressive. Just test yourself with it daily for say...oh, a month. You will surprise yourself on what your perceived limits of physical pain are, and perhaps a greater understanding of "being in the moment" and how much pain effects you psychologically and physically, how much is illusion and expectation, and how much is in the reality of it. It also gives you a much more intimate experience in your own psychological and biological awareness.

For me, it has become a meditation that is not a meditation. A discovery of personal limits, and grounded awareness of self.