Bodhidharma Eyelid Gaiwan

This small (~80ml) hand-painted blue and white Jingdezhen gaiwan is perfect for a personal tea service or for small groups. The abstract pattern resembles the eyelids of Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. In Buddhist lore he is often credited with "creating" the first tea plants, as a way of illustrating the intimate relationship between tea and Buddhism in China. The story goes that when he arrived in China from India, he was given a cave to meditate in by the Emperor. After meditating there for 9 years, he achieved enlightenment, but during those long 9 years of meditation he frequently found himself losing focus and falling asleep while sitting. One day, in his frustration, he tore off his eyelids and threw them on the ground so he couldn't fall asleep anymore. Where his eyelids landed, the first two tea plants grew. This is why tea helps you stay awake and meditate. 

This story is obviously untrue for many reasons - for one, plants don't come about from discarded human body parts, and also tea plants - and the consumption of tea - predate Buddhism in China. But this story serves to cement the relationship between tea and Buddhist meditation, which have been inextricably linked ever since Buddhism's arrival in China. Buddhist monks found that drinking tea before meditation helped to focus the mind and keep them from falling asleep during their practice. 

This lovely blue-and-white gaiwan evokes this somewhat-bloody story without being too graphic. It is appropriate that it features Bodhidharma's eyelids, as a symbol of focus and concentration, as it is perfectly-sized for solo sessions where one's focus can be unwaveringly on the tea inside the vessel.