When the tea room is filled only with aristocrats or commoners, samurai or merchants, nothing is communicated, feelings are not mutually understood and the situation does not move forward. When the dojo* is occupied by only the best students or beginners, nothing is learned. When one is concerned only with the intellectual and works for nothing in the practical world, he or she is in a position of stagnation. Heaven is Heaven, Earth is Earth, mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers, monks are monks, laypeople are laypeople. But what do they mean in isolation? What are mountains without rivers, or monks without the laity?
---William Scott Wilson, in The One Taste of Truth: Zen and the Art of Drinking Tea---
*Dojo is a Japanese term which literally means "place of the way."
Initially, dojos were adjunct to temples.
In the Western World, the term dojo primarily refers to a training place specifically for Japanese martial arts.
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