TOOLS FOR ZEN-CUISINE: MINDFULNESS, INTROSPECTION AND EQUANIMITY

“Be open to what it is that wants to be done in this world, then conscious doing happens through you.”  Eckhart Tolle

 
 

Along with useful kitchen gadgets and appliances, an additional set of utensils is helpful in the practice of zen-cuisine. These utensils are the basic mental tools of mindfulness, introspection, and equanimity.  By employing these tactful tools, we stay balanced as we think about making a meal, and as we prepare beautiful, delicious food.  After setting our intentions to be calm and clear-thinking during our time in the kitchen, we prepare food with care and love. 

We use the first tool of mindfulness to help us remember these constructive intentions. As we cook, we can frequently pause, take a deep breath, and recall what we have chosen to concentrate on during our time in the kitchen.  Then we use our skills at introspection, the second tool, to make certain we actually are concentrating our thoughts according to our intended purpose.  With this process of investigation we can see if we have gone awry.  If we are off-track, we can then use our mindfulness to realign our thoughts and actions with what we originally intended to do during our time in the kitchen.

The third tool which provides us with skillful ways of cooking is our practice of equanimity. We use this ‘non-judgmental awareness’ to prevent our thoughts from wandering into the realm of the catastrophizing mind. Lacking reason and balance, this out-of-control mind is always busy, spinning out delusion in its addiction to drama. When a situation unfolds, our catastrophe-thinking causes us to react in an unrealistic fashion.  We get caught up in confused and impractical thinking.  We find ourselves lost to the reality of the present moment, imagining all sorts of dire consequences and dreadful circumstances which “could” result.  Instead of calmly assessing conditions arising in the kitchen, this irrational mind ends up creating an unhappy, and often painful reaction to the what’s happening. Such deluded thought processes jump to the conclusion that whatever is happening is a horrible disaster, or at least, a bad thing.  Sometimes, the catastrophizing mind goes overboard in the other direction, becoming wildly excited about a possible beneficial outcome.  Like its negative counterpart, this positive reaction is unrealistic, without any relationship to what’s actually happening in the given situation. Since either type of overheated imagination causes the mind to lose its balance, this means we step out of the present moment, moving away from the practice of zen-cuisine. But with practice, we can call upon our zen-cuisine tools of mindfulness, introspection and equanimity. 

Skillfully, we ground ourselves in the present moment, and once again we turn the situation into a pleasant experience. The kitchen returns to being our zendo, a peaceful and motivating place to practice.  We practice zen-cuisine, aware of feeling balanced and inspired. As we learn to use these three tools when we cook, we are giving ourselves some good strategies for nurturing and supporting our meditative practice during food preparation.  Our kitchen then becomes a place where creativity and chemistry interact with artistry and flavor.