Chapter 15 pine nut tea

My friend came from South Korea and gave me a big bag of raw pine nuts. This is the first time I have seen raw pine nuts. They are crystal clear and white. The association of pine nuts to people naturally has a lofty realm, but the pine nuts that have been picked and manufactured by hand are used to eat, how to eat these pine nuts?I remembered that there was a dish of fried pine nuts in the restaurant, so I asked my friends for advice to put the bag of pine nuts in the oil pan. When the friend heard it, he was shocked: "How can pine nuts be fried in oil?" "In Taiwan, we all eat pine nuts like this," I said.

"Sin, sin, although this bag of pine nuts doesn't look like much, how many pine trees do you think it grew after being tempered by winter snow? Frying with oil not only loses the taste of pine nuts, but also damages the food we eat. The original intention of planting the essence of heaven and earth. Besides, although pine nuts are light and elegant, they are still oily, and they must be eaten in a light and elegant way to taste their true taste." "So, how should pine nuts be eaten?" I asked suspiciously. "Even in Korea, where pine nuts are produced, pine nuts are still considered a precious food. The best way to eat pine nuts is to make tea."

"Make tea?" "When you cook tea, add a few pine nuts to it, and the pine nuts will produce a light oil and produce rosin, making a pot of tea immediately fragrant and smooth, with the air of mountains and flowing water." That night, we drank Songyu tea in the house under the moonlight. As my friend said, adding some pine nuts to the ordinary tea made it extraordinary; Elegant little flowers, and smelling the aroma of the flowers, I think that cooking tea with pine nuts is the most worthy of these pine nuts that have grown on the mountains and experienced ice and snow. "Pine nuts are extremely small things, but sometimes, very tiny things can also be the master of emotions. The poet hears the indistinguishable sound of pine nuts falling in the empty mountains on a moonlit night, and he will think of his sleepless friends far away. Drinking pine nut tea for the moon can also be said to be a unique taste, freeing the world from the world. We always feel that the days are too short when we are happy, and feel that the days are too long when we are sad. It’s a small thing that exists around us.” The friend said.

What my friend said is very reasonable, reminding me that man claims to be the master of the world, but man is not the only master of the world.Take the sun and the moon, which are always shining, for example, the sun gives vitality and power to all things, not just for people to shine; but in the gentle embrace of the moonlight, insects and birds sing, and no one can enjoy it alone under the moon. A small pine nut is also born by absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon. Although we can cook it in tea and put it in a pot, it does not mean that we are nobler than pine nuts. The Buddha Eye monk left two famous sayings in the Zen koan:

The water flows cold from the edge of the bamboo, The wind blows fragrance from the flowers. Water and bamboo have nothing to do with each other, but because the water flows out of the bamboo, it looks extraordinarily cool; flowers are fragrant, but if there is no wind passing through them, the fragrance of flowers will never be known to the human body.It can be seen that even simple things have different meanings through cooperation, let alone people and pine nuts? In my opinion, all human mental activities are abstract, and this kind of abstraction is suitable for association; if a rich man who has all the material things in the world cannot associate, he still feels insufficient; if a poor person has abstract association, he can also pass be happy.This is entirely a difference in realm. The Fifth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism once asked: "When the wind blows the flag, is it the wind? Or is the flag moving?"

The answer of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng can be used as an example: "It's not the wind, it's not the flag that moves, it's the benevolent heart that moves." A benevolent person is a human being.At the moment when people's hearts are moved, everything they see is moving. If people are dull, they will turn a blind eye to the wind and flags.No wonder someone would think of the tragedy of life while walking in the wilderness and sigh: "I only know that the love is so deep and boundless, but I didn't expect the pain of parting to be higher than the sky." But people with mountains, rivers and earth in their hearts can say " The long pavilion is cool at night and the moon is mostly for the guests to relax", and I feel the realm of "use the bright glow as a quilt when you sleep, and use the moon to light the lamp when you wake up" and so on.

Some small pine nuts soaked in tea, a grain of fine sand moored by the gentle sea, a faint sound of insects in the summer night, a bit of starlight slanting in the distant sky...it is all speechless, but with The flow of spiritual thoughts has dazzling brilliance.I remember Shen Congwen said: "Everything that is beautiful has no home. Meteors, falling flowers, fireflies, and the queen mother bird with blue head, red beak and green wings that can sing most have no home. Has anyone ever seen a phoenix? Can the moonlight be bound? A meteor has its own direction of coming and going, and I have my own destination."

The soul is a flag that flutters in the wind. Never ignore the things around you, because it may be able to fly the flag in your heart, even if it is as small as a pine nut. —August 4, 1982