PureInsight | February 27, 2003
[In Chinese, "Apricot Forest" is another term for the medical community. For more details see: http://www.pureinsight.org/pi/articles/2003/1/23/1368.html]
[PureInsight.org] Some time ago a friend from China brought me some first-grade green tea from my mother's hometown, and I was elated. I boiled some expensive European mineral water for the tea. But the tea leaves did not fully expand as they should have in the water, and I could barely taste the tea. Patiently, I tried many times to get the tea to brew by using the local water, filtered water, and different mineral waters from various countries. After trying everything that I could think of, the tea still tasted so weak that it was barely noticeable. It tasted totally different from the same tea that I had in China. I realized then that the saying of "not used to the water and soil" (a Chinese saying used to describe not being accustomed to a new environment) is true.
Back in my college days, I went sightseeing in Hangzhou, a famous resort city known for its spring water. There was a tourist site called "Eight Streams and Eighteen Brooks." The water looked so good that I took every chance I could to drink that water. Somehow, I developed an allergic reaction to the water, and blisters broke out all over my body. I genuinely experienced a case of "not used to the water and soil." It occurred to me that after being "immersed" in foreign water, my Chinese tea probably felt just as I did years ago.
Perhaps humans, animals, and plants all have their own natural habitat, in which they are able to communicate with one another. When any of them go to a foreign territory, it's like a barrier or partition has been set up between them, and the newcomer can no longer maintain contact with others.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2003/2/4/20312.html
