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What can I say? I just love mate! For the past several years I’ve really been into green tea (loose leaf, of course), but since heading to Argentina in 2009 and spending a year there, I fell in love with the ancient drink Mate (pronounced MAH-TAY), which is derived from a Holly plant grown in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Brazil. I’ve reviewed a few brands of mate over the past year, such as “Eco Teas” and “Cruz De Malta.” Today, I’ll be reviewing “Mate Factor” (their Original selection).
The main thing that I love about their mate is that it includes “palos,” which translates to the tiny white stems and twigs of the plant that are included with the mate leaves. In Argentina, it would be extremely rare not to label a mate package without “con palos” (with twigs) or “sin palos” (without twigs)… but here in the States, there’s usually no such labeling on mate packages (not nice!).
In Thomas Merton’s compilation of Chaung Tzu’s teachings in “The Way of Chuang Tzu” there is a small, yet poignant lesson that really speaks to the “ambition” in me that sometimes puts me in hot pursuit of winning instead of the constant journey of joy and appreciation found in every step along the way. It’s entitled The Need to Win:
When an archer is shooting for nothing
He has all his skill.
If he shoots for a brass buckle
He is already nervous.
If he shoots for a prize of gold
He goes blind
Or sees two targets—
He is out of his mind!
Mate is a powerful and magical drink that is traditionally drunk is Argentina and Uruguay. It helps to break-down barriers amongst friends and strangers alike. Mate is rooted in an ancient ceremony of sitting in a circle and spending quality time with people that you love, deepening your affection and gratitude for one another.
Society is a fancy car that lures you in… the drivers being the president, government, and officials…. Then one day, these people in charge turn around with a grin and say “haha… I’m drunk… you better buckle up, because we’re about to crash!”
Imagine if you could disappear? That would rock! That would be pretty awesome. In the world, we fundamentally have two states: form and space. Objects and the space around each object. Now you may look at yourself and say, “I’m an object.” I have a form, shape, and size. This is true. But you are more than an object. Sure, your body is the object — the vehicle. But you also have a mind and spirit. And for the mind and spirit, there is no form, boundaries, and limits. So, in a way, you can disappear. You can ford the division between you (body and mind) and that (object). Absolutely. And when that’s done, there is no division and you disappear.
Why disappear? Because there is no longer “this” and “that” — it’s just One. It’s no longer the entrepreneur and business. No longer the painter and the paint. No longer the gardener and the garden. And as crazy as this may sound, you have completely disappeared in the respect that there is no more effort, no more distinction, and no more “work,” so to speak, at trying to separate yourself from everything else. There’s no more desperately trying to become something, because you now realize that you are everything.
In Thomas Merton’s compilation of Chaung Tzu’s teachings in “
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