On the morning of April 19th, with clear skies, the monks and guardians of the South Shaolin Temple gathered at the Jiulian Mountain tea garden to begin their annual spring tea picking activity.

　　After breakfast, the crowd lined up and walked into the tea garden. I saw tea ridges winding along the mountain terrain, tender buds turning green, and clouds and mist like gauze. Subsequently, the monk led the public to start the morning picking with a grateful heart.

　　In the tea garden, the master bent down and lightly pinched the tender buds, while the layman carefully harvested them. Sometimes they exchanged tips on tea picking, and sometimes they let out gentle laughter. An old layman smiled and said, "Picking tea with the mages is particularly joyful in my heart." Several young volunteers who participated for the first time also sighed, "So labor can be so peaceful and happy

　　The Southern Shaolin Temple has always adhered to the ancestral motto of "equal emphasis on agriculture and Zen". Picking tea is not only a way of climbing, but also a practice. Cultivate your mind while focusing on picking, eliminate my slowness while bending down to work, and cultivate gratitude amidst the lush greenery in the basket. The case of Master Zhaozhou's "Go for Tea" illustrates that tea and Zen are essentially the same - a leaf soaked in the rain and dew of the mountains, baked over fire and rubbed by hand, can achieve a fragrant taste; Practice is like making tea, it requires polishing to see its true nature.

At the end of the slope, the tea leaves are fully loaded and will be left to dry, green, and knead. This batch of spring tea will be used for offering to Buddha and for bonding with believers from all directions.

Green mountains remain silent, but the fragrance of tea is trustworthy. The South Shaolin Temple celebrated a joyful morning of tea picking, bringing traditional agricultural Zen to life in the present and allowing more people to experience the tranquility of "Zen in tea, Zen never leaves tea".