Word: zens
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Enthusiasts say part of the attraction is tea's Zen appeal and calming effect; others point to its communal nature. "I love tea's social aspect," says Helen Kim, 24, a Stanford graduate student who throws monthly tea parties. "It's fun to introduce people to different types and send them home with samples." Tea is a connoisseur's delight. Just as the grape produces a profusion of wines, the Camellia sinesis plant yields many variations dependent on region, temperature, time of year and part of the plant plucked. Indeed, a tasting--or cupping, in tea parlance--reveals a kaleidoscope...
Amazingly, there is. Charles Seife's Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (Viking) is the more accessible of the two. (The other book, The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero [Oxford], while philosophically deeper, is self-consciously obscure; its author, Robert Kaplan, writes in Zen koans and could have penned the Fendi tag line...
Rowers often talk about a particular "zen" to rowing. From a spectator's perspective, it is the aesthetics that is most breathtaking. Especially in late October, when the fall foliage creates a brilliant backdrop on the water's edge, boats cut seamless through the water, leaving behind only a shimmering trail of ripples. It is a sight that must be seen to be remembered...
...focus on the goal and not the process, you inevitably compromise." He spits out the word. "Businessmen who focus on profits wind up in the hole. For me, profit is what happens when you do everything else right. A good cast will catch a fish. It's like Zen archery"--he believes in a brand of philosophical Buddhism, a surprising pursuit for a French-Canadian Catholic raised in Maine. "Success has nothing to do with sticking an arrow into the bull's-eye," he says. "It's all about practice--practicing taking the arrow out of the quiver, practicing notching...
...motion it seems he is drawing currents in the air. His back is to me; I study the latticework creases in his neck. After a few casts, he hooks a female cutthroat that shimmers gold and silver as it resists and bends his rod into a bow, like the Zen archer's. When he pulls in the fish, it wriggles under the arc of the bow before he moves it toward his hand. The trout looks up at him in desperate wonder. He reaches for its mouth and sets it free...