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Believe it or not, I was first introduced to tea in the jungles of Costa Rica

I was 29, searching for the truth, and found myself living on a 14 acre off-grid permaculture farm with 25 hippies. The resident tea master was a young mystic named Jahendo. He was a yogi, gemini, and more of the mad hatter type than traditional tea master (Glad hatter if you asked him). It wasn’t until a few months later that he told me he would be moving to the Mystical Yoga Farm in Guatemala and doing a work exchange there (karma yoga). I followed him to do the same and after a 45-minute boat ride across Lake Atitlán we ported, and I had arrived. Here I was introduced to tea formally and I didn’t realize it at the time, but Jahendo showed me how to pour gung fu style tea.

I was then invited to help co-create the tea temple at various transformational festivals, including Cosmic Convergence and Envision, with Jahendo and his partner. I would continue this at Lightning In A Bottle and Lucidity later. I didn’t know much about tea, but I knew that I liked the positive effects it had on me; more importantly how tea brought people of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds together in one giant cup under the roof of the tea house. It was a place where deep conversations would take place, where spontaneous musical performances would appear, where the mystical was reflected upon, where the poetry flowed almost as much as the tea, and the laughter would make memories that lasted longer than the last steep. The tea house was this mythical place where you never knew what would happen on any given night. I was hooked.

Having learned the art of the tea party I brought this talent back to the states and began pouring at events and had dreams of traveling the world pouring tea, or perhaps I would open up a tea house. Neither ended up happening and that dream got put to the side for several years as life presented me with a variety of curve balls.

Now older and hopefully wiser it felt right to come back to that dream with a much deeper intention. Along the way I found my wonderful teacher, Bhai Bahadur Singh Ji, and a meditation practice that had transformed me for the better for good and upon reflection I asked myself “What is the most important skill that one can have in all aspects of life?” What came was, "the ability to focus." Concentrative power. The mind and the external world is constantly fighting for our attention, trying to pull us off track. If you aren’t able to focus you aren’t going to stay in your relationships, you aren’t going to reach your career goals, and you aren’t going to be able to progress spiritually in your practice.

What if we could take tea and meditation—two things I love—and use it as a vehicle to share this important message? And do it while cultivating conscious community and building a connection to the sanctuary of peace that lies within every single one of us. With that intention, Drishti House was born.

Drishti House—‘Drishti’ traditionally in Yoga—means “focused gaze” and is a means for developing concentrated intention. Tea just so happens to reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and is loaded with compounds, such as L-Theanine, that help you shift into a relaxed yet active attentive space. We wanted to provide products, services, and a lifestyle that could help people achieve greater concentrative power and a deeper sense of presence through the art of tea.

These days we are exploring the more traditional, medicinal, and meditative aspects of tea. As such, we have began to study under various tea masters from a variety of lineages. These masters work with tea as a way of life and are rooted deeply in both the Chinese and Taiwanese worlds of tea. We are honored to share these valuable resources with our community as the heads of these lineages carry a wealth of knowledge on all things tea.

We are excited to bring a new experience of tea culture to Santa Barbara, strengthening our communities, inside and out and beyond.