This morning, as I was sipping the last of my green tea, I
noticed the residue on the bottom of the cup.
“Hmmm,” I thought. “It looks like matcha. I wonder if in those matcha ceremonies they have some special thing at the end so that you drink all the matcha, so that you don’t leave any residue in your cup.”
And then I thought, “Yeah, definitely not interested in those matcha ceremonies: frothy green tea? No thanks.”
And then I realized that I have never done a matcha or green tea ceremony. I have totally and completely missed out on this thing just because I have a preference against green tea (especially the frothy ones). And that seemed kind of silly- my preference, my idea of what would happen in a green tea ceremony- completely denies me a life experience.
And I think that’s one of the reasons we practice having no preferences. I used to think it was just to help you to like those things which you didn’t like but now I think it can be bigger than that. I think it’s to keep you from limiting yourself and your experience. If you only do those things that you prefer, it means you’re not doing things that you don’t prefer- and so you’re denying yourself a bunch of life experiences. And the thing is, since you actually don’t know what’s going to happen in that experience, it’s not like you’re necessarily missing out on some kind of suffering or bummer situation- you really have no idea what’s going to happen with that thing you don’t prefer. And by skipping it, because you don’t want to do it or don’t like it, you’re skipping out on part of your life.
So it seems like preferences, and the lack of them, actually open you up to new experiences. Instead of "protecting you" from things you think you'd prefer not to do, they end up limiting you from experiencing things that might turn out to be really cool.
“Hmmm,” I thought. “It looks like matcha. I wonder if in those matcha ceremonies they have some special thing at the end so that you drink all the matcha, so that you don’t leave any residue in your cup.”
And then I thought, “Yeah, definitely not interested in those matcha ceremonies: frothy green tea? No thanks.”
And then I realized that I have never done a matcha or green tea ceremony. I have totally and completely missed out on this thing just because I have a preference against green tea (especially the frothy ones). And that seemed kind of silly- my preference, my idea of what would happen in a green tea ceremony- completely denies me a life experience.
And I think that’s one of the reasons we practice having no preferences. I used to think it was just to help you to like those things which you didn’t like but now I think it can be bigger than that. I think it’s to keep you from limiting yourself and your experience. If you only do those things that you prefer, it means you’re not doing things that you don’t prefer- and so you’re denying yourself a bunch of life experiences. And the thing is, since you actually don’t know what’s going to happen in that experience, it’s not like you’re necessarily missing out on some kind of suffering or bummer situation- you really have no idea what’s going to happen with that thing you don’t prefer. And by skipping it, because you don’t want to do it or don’t like it, you’re skipping out on part of your life.
So it seems like preferences, and the lack of them, actually open you up to new experiences. Instead of "protecting you" from things you think you'd prefer not to do, they end up limiting you from experiencing things that might turn out to be really cool.
love it, thanks for the reminder! working at the bookstore, I make an effort to read books I usually wouldn't open to cultivate this practice.
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