The Sundance cable channel recently offered an interesting and offbeat documentary on Edward Espe Brown, a "Zen chef." The documentary, titled How to Cook Your Life, follows Brown to Buddhist monasteries -- mostly the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California -- as he gives workshops on bread-making and life philosophy.Brown is the author of a number of cooking books, including the classic Tassajara Bread Book which dates back to the 1970's. In this documentary he uses food preparation as a vehicle for teaching a simpler and more hands-on life style to the participants who are presumably there to learn about Zen as well as bread-making.
He stresses the importance of using our hands for more than mousing and clicking and on the need to focus on what we're doing. He quotes his Zen teacher, Suzuki Roshi, who said, "When you're stirring the soup, stir the soup." In other words, pay attention to, and immerse yourself in, what you're doing.
The current cook at Tassajara, as Brown once was, is shown kneading bread. He says, "When people ask me what I'm doing, I say 'baking bread.' When they ask me how I'm doing, I say 'baking bread.'" The ideas are simple and appealing and enhanced by the context, since the workshops are presented at simple and elegant monasteries in beautiful natural settings.
After watching this, my wife, who learned how to make bread from that same Tassajara cookbook, said she is going to start making bread again. And I'm going to practice thinking about washing the dishes when I'm washing the dishes. And so on.
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