Tea as an aid to meditation

 In addition, the monks used tea every day as an aid to meditation. It was drunk as a beverage, but from the Buddhist point of view there was more to it than the physical refreshment they received. As an elixir of sobriety and wakeful tranquility, tea was also a means of spiritual refreshment and the ritual of preparing and partaking of it was an occasion for spiritual conviviality, a way to go beyond this world and enter a realm apart. Thus taking tea gradually evolved into a spiritual practice in its own right and became a Way. Lu Yu became the first secular priest of this Way of Tea.