“And true celebration cannot be according to the calendar, that, on the first of November you will celebrate. Strange, the whole year you are miserable and on the first of November suddenly you come out of misery, dancing. Either, the misery is false, or the first of November is false; both cannot be true. And once the first of November has gone, you are back in your dark hole, everybody in his misery, everybody in his anxiety.
“Life should be a continual celebration, a festival of lights the whole year round. Only then can you grow up, can you blossom.
“Transform small things into celebration. For example, in Japan they have the tea ceremony. In every Zen monastery, and in every person’s house who can afford it, they have a small temple for drinking tea. Now, tea is no longer an ordinary, profane thing; they have transformed it into a celebration. The temple for drinking tea is made in a certain way–in a beautiful garden, with a beautiful pond; swans in the pond, flowers all around. Guests come and they have to leave their shoes outside. It is a temple.
“And as you enter the temple, you cannot speak; you have to leave your thinking and thoughts and speech outside with your shoes. You sit down in a meditative posture. And the host, the lady who prepares tea for you–her movements are so graceful, as if she is dancing, moving around preparing tea, putting cups and saucers before you as if you are gods. With such respect… she will bow down, and you will receive it with the same respect.