“If you don’t have the ability to celebrate what you have now, nothing you get—and I mean nothing; nothing material, nothing experiential, no amount information, no amount of experience, no amount of material possessions—is going to teach you how to celebrate.”WuDeToday my friend WuDe returns to the show to drop some mad Zen Buddhist wisdom.In case you missed it, I strongly encourage you to dial up our first conversation. RRP #87: Art & The Importance of Living Tea is a fascinating deep dive into the world, history, and ancient teachings of tea as a means to glean broader truths about health, healing, community, the environment, and oneness – the universal interconnectedness of everything.During that initial conversation, we barely scratched the surface with respect to the extensive knowledge and wisdom brimming from WuDe's soul. So when he returned for recent visit to Los Angeles, I jumped on the chance to have him back on the show. A rare opportunity to more fully mine the philosophy and the traditions of Zen Buddhism to help us better navigate our modern lives.Born in the United States as Aaron Daniel Fisher, Wude was drawn to the East from a very early age. After studying philosophy in college, he traveled the world and ultimately settled in Taiwan, where he has since become a Buddhist monk. A tea master. And the founder of Global Tea Hut– a school and center that harvests tea, educates all comers on the traditions surrounding tea, and welcomes people from all over the world to study the Dao of Tea as a method of spiritual cultivation.I said it in reference to our first conversation. I'll say it again.This just might be the most fascinating and soul expanding conversation you will hear all week.I sincerely hope you enjoy the conversation.Peace + Plants,Listen & Subscribe on iTunes | Soundcloud | Stitcher | TuneInProduction, music & sound design by Tyler Piatt. Additional production by Chris Swan. Graphic art by Shawn Patterson.P.S. - I appreciate all the questions you have been e-mailing me for upcoming Ask Me Anything editions of the podcast. However, it's extremely cumbersome to go through all the mail to find good questions. So I am trying something new. From this point forward, submit your questions HERE and upvote the existing questions you would like addressed. This will streamline and simplify the process on my end. Translation – more Q&A podcasts!P.P.S. – My friend Colin Hudon is the founder of Living Tea, which offers some of the finest, most amazing aged living teas and teaware in the world at amazingly affordable prices. Colin just returned from visiting WuDe in Taiwan with the motherlode of amazing aged tea and teaware, which he is currently uploading to the Living Tea website over the next few weeks. So if great tea is your thing (if it's not it should be), do yourself a favor and check it out. As a further aside, Colin is actively looking for commercial space for Living Tea in the Santa Monica or Venice, CA area. So if you're in the neighborhood and have ideas, See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.