A HEART FULL OF TEA…
Birthday Tribute to our Teacher
“The heart is a thousand-stringed instrument that can only be tuned with Love.”
― Khwāja Šams ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Šīrāzī
How blessed are we to have been called into the presence of a being, who knows about the sacred art of tuning the thousand-stringed instrument of the heart, who skillfully guides us to become the musicians of our lives, hollow vessels through which the Divine can play its eternal song – our teacher! On this special day today our hearts align to sing in joy and deep reverence as it is the birthday of Igor Vamadeva Kufayev.
Happy, happy birthday to you, beloved teacher of the Heart!
Not only are you teaching us to realign with the cosmic vibration hidden in our hearts, you also show us that this is the Path of Beauty; that everything in this marvellous universe can become the gateway into the ecstatic realm of one’s Self, when sensory perception is refined enough. Everything. The smile of a child and the pine cone in the mud – but especially the dark green leaves of Japanese tea.
“… At the magic touch of the beautiful the secret chords of our being are awakened, we vibrate and thrill in response to its call. Mind speaks to mind. We listen to the unspoken, we gaze upon the unseen. The master calls forth notes we know not of. Memories long forgotten all come back to us with new significance. Hopes stifled by fear, yearnings that we dare not recognize, stand forth in new glory. Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their color; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece…”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea
What makes perception creative is to perceive a certain order, harmony, coherence – tapping into that is tapping into that rhythm. When one’s field is open to that, one may be in for the most amazing way how light shimmers – the colors and shapes of reflecting light! Sensing that in nature is in our capacity…
to always sense that…Beauty is not just a concept, but the foundational, underlying quality of all experience. That sense of harmony is already sense of Oneness. Something taps into and recognizes that sense of harmony. We can conclude: God is beautiful and he loves Beauty.
― Igor Kufayev
Having gathered in the tearoom of the heart, our cups are being filled with the exquisite and intoxicating jade green nectar of infinity – and on your birthday today we offer you these overflowing cups to rejoice in the fullness of being and the rasa of ecstasy and wonder…
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“…Meanwhile, let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things…”
― Kakuzō Okakura, The Book of Tea
We offer our deep gratitude and heartfelt pranāms to you, beloved Teacher, the One Self, the One Light, who guides us safely on this pathless path and calls us to live our birthright, to claim our Self and stand as Consciousness.
May you be showered with infinite blessings today and always –
and may the morning sencha continue to reveal its manifold wonders…
With Love, Joy & Gratitude to you ~
Jai Guru Deva
Jai Adi Shakti Ma
TEA-m Flowing Wakefulness
Responses
Dearest Master-ji,
I am wishing you a very joyful & blissful birthday today! Thank you so much for being the channel of divine blessings and such a great example of selfless service in our lives!
I hope there are moments where you feel the gratitude of our hearts, whom you help spiritually and in such a wealth of ways.
With all my love
Prema
On this special day on which we will revisit together many times I wish to share the wisdom teachings which will stand the test of time:
Love is the most precious gift of God to us.
Let us use it for all good. Let our life be full with love.
Let us love and be loving, and spread grace around us.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Whatever you behold whatever you perceive, behold it tenderly. It is alive and throbbing with possibilities of which each and every one of us is an expression of love in its pure potentiality.
Igor Kufayev
Salutations to the Guru,
Who by the power of Self-knowledge burns
up all the karma accumulated through countless lives.
Guru Gita verse 34
Thank you for your many blessings and love you so tenderly show.
Jai Guru Dev
Amrita Ma Devi
“Out of compassion this existence was given to you; out of compassion give it back.”
“This individual experience is only possible because there was this act of sacrifice. Hence, reclaiming the state of oneness can only be done through the way that oneness was dismembered, fragmented. . . . That original rupture has to be bridged, sealed, healed. And in order to feel the totality and wholeness and to feel truly, truly whole again, that sacrifice is paramount.”
(From the discourse, “Offering”)
Dearest Igor~Vamadeva, thank you for coming, for being here. Thank you for the ineffably awesome sacrifice you made to bridge, seal, heal that original rupture. And thank you for living this truly, truly whole again state to us through the inspiring example of your Life and Teaching, reminding us that healing the original rupture through our own sacrifice is our path and duty too. And thank you for your patience, love and divine guidance as we embrace this journey.
In gratitude and love,
Jai Jai Guru Dev,
Jai Vamadeva-ji
Your student, Karen
Dear Friends, Companions of the Beloved ~
What a sweet surprise it was to open the Journal to find this fine tribute so creatively put together! This finely illustrated letter has cheered and moved me greatly. All these images, of your private settings, all the cups of tea! It’s sweet and profound, and tender, and funny, and filled with the spirit of celebration of your teacher’s conscious obsession with tea, which of course is, but an excuse for worshiping beauty and simplicity in a direct and palpable way on a daily basis, in a most casual and unpretentious manner possible. It gladness the heart to see that you’ve understood that the teaching is steeped in this flavor. I feel so blessed, for the shared moments of eternity and the feeling of gratitude is a deeply shared one…
I’m bowing in gratitude for this fine offering and for all the loving attention went into the making of it, but above all else to the intention behind it, and for the exquisite comments gracing this fine tribute with words of wisdom and love.
From the Heart
Jai Guru Dev
Igor Vamadeva