Matcha and Meditation: A Practice of Mindfulness
Matcha and meditation or mindfulness have been two peas in a pod now for a long time, going way back to around 9th century China.
Brief History of Matcha
Though Matcha is now often seen as traditionally Japanese, it was actually Chinese Zen monks who originally considered grinding dried green tea leaves into a powder and mixing it directly into water. It didn’t take long for the original producers of Matcha to discover the benefits it held for the mind and body.
Eisai is the Japanese Buddhist monk credited with bringing the Matcha tea ceremony to Japan. He not only imported green tea seeds from China, but wrote a book actively promoting the benefits of Matcha. Eisai was more concerned about the ways that Matcha could be used to help heal the body and keep it healthy. However, as a Zen Buddhist he was still very much concerned with mindfulness and picked up several different ways in which Matcha could be used in tandem with meditation and mindfulness. From the ritual of preparing it and the way ways in which Matcha itself makes you feel after you’re finished drinking it.
Legend has it that one of Eisai’s best pupils took his love of tea to heart and began to grow and process green tea himself, preparing and drinking it in Eisai’s preferred way known as, you guessed it, Matcha. Eisai said that tea was the “elixir of the immortals”.
Meditation and Matcha
One of the reasons Japanese Zen Buddhists took to Matcha so quickly was that they found it helped them concentrate and remain alert during their long hours of meditation. (Quite like how it helps me feel the same way during days when I’m writing or trying to focus on resting my mind and body as a relief from chronic pain.)
The reason that Matcha has this effect on you is because of the caffeine content which is accompanied by various phytonutrients, antioxidants, and amino acids. This combination helps to provide the mental boost commonly associated with caffeine, but it does not create the same kind of caffeine high that comes with coffee that often results in a bad crash afterwards, which could get in the way of whatever you are trying to focus on. Matcha instead has many positive mental effects and releases energy and caffeine at a steady level before slowly decreasing, which stops that crash from happening.
The reason why the Buddhist monks of Japan found Matcha aided them in their meditative practices was that, in many ways, drinking Matcha was able to simulate effects very similar to meditation. The caffeine in Matcha combined with the amino acid and the ‘L-theanine’ in particular help to promote alpha wave production in the brain. Alpha wave activity is also increased by meditation, which is why the combination of the two was rather noteworthy for those monks and in my opinion is why it should still be part of everyone's meditative practices today.
Personal Practice
Not long after I first tried Matcha, I instantly knew that preparing it traditionally and taking my time with it was going to be such a good way for me to practice a form of meditation.
From the moment I got my first Chawan and Chasen I have never looked back and still after all these years It’s tea I reach for when I just want a break from the world. I take around half an hour of my day to prepare Matcha and let go of everything on my mind, to be present and release any tension from my body. It’s definitely worth setting aside a small amount of time in your day to do this.
It's so easy to create a meditative ritual around Matcha that absolutely anyone could do! As someone who suffers with a chronic illness, this small amount of time in my day when I am not in too much pain is such a great way to get a little bit of an escape from almost constantly being in some sort of pain. The pain is still there of course but it enables me to become much more relaxed and gives me a break from constantly having to focus on fighting the pain. While I would recommend that everyone try mixing meditation and Matcha, I highly recommend it to people who suffer with chronic illnesses because it will provide you with such a fantastic time of escape and peace.
Sure you could probably prepare this using non traditional teaware and just use whatever you have but I highly recommend getting yourself a Chawan (Matcha bowl) and a Chasen (Matcha whisk) along with a Chasaku and a sieve. It sounds like a lot but it’s worth it! The meditative experience when preparing Matcha traditionally is much more all encompassing and definitely allows for more of a disconnect from the world, where you can be present and focus on the tea and nothing but the tea and you can relax your mind and body like you never have before.
The reason I suggest adding the extra addition of a sieve is because you should always be sure to sieve your Matcha before you prepare it to avoid lumps because nothing is more disappointing in a lovely bowl of Matcha than a big lump in your mouth while you sip. A lot of the process of preparing Matcha this way requires you to go slow, take your time and be more patient than you would in other parts of your life but after a while you'll start to see that you start to implement those things much more in your daily life as well.
I prefer for there to be no extra noise during my session with Matcha but you can definitely introduce things like calming music and things like that into your Matcha and meditation and just design it around whatever helps you be more mindful. Each person is different and as such, nobody’s meditative practices will be the same as others.