The Wonders of Tea

Tea-Drinking

The first cup moistens my lips and throat;

The second cup breaks my loneliness;

The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs;

The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores;

At the fifth cup I am purified;

The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.

The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.

Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

by

Lu Tung, a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

Some interpret it in this way:

The first cup: quenches thirst.
The second cup: leads to the awareness of Oneness.
The third cup: is a laxative.
The fourth cup: purges colds and flus.
The fifth cup: purifies the entire body, including the skin and the bones.
The sixth cup: opens the doors of perception.
The seventh cup: zen.