About this episode
The episode explores the connections between tea and Daoism with guest Robert Coons.
Today we're exploring connections between tea and Daoism, the millenia-old Chinese religious and philosophical tradition that has had such a profound influence on culture and history in and beyond China. We're joined by Robert Coons, who straddles both the tea world and the world of Daoism. Robert is a well-known tea vendor based in Canada and China and is also a writer, teacher and podcaster on Daoism, qigong and Daoist meditation. Robert tells us a little about his own journey from martial arts and other Daoist-related activities into tea culture, and then we delve into the relationship between Daoism and tea. We begin by looking at some of the definitions, history and relationships of some key practices in tea - chado or sado, chadao and gongfucha - and Robert gives us an overview of Daoism, its core elements, its history and its cultural forms. We explore references to tea in Daoist texts as well as concepts of energy, or qi, in Daoist medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, and Robert explains how both tea and meditation are seen as elixirs in Daoist tradition. We chat about the Daoist role of harmonious energy in chado, chadao and gongfucha, and we look at Daoist…
People in this episode
Host: Ken Cohen
Guest: Robert Coons
Topics covered
- tea
- Daoism
- Chinese culture
- philosophy
- meditation
- traditional medicine
Keywords
- tea
- Daoism
- qigong
- meditation
- Chinese medicine
- chado
- gongfucha
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Tambuli Media
Books & works: Internal Elixir Cultivation: The Nature of Daoist Medititation
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