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| Andrew Gillert, photo Black Lake Lily, 2011 |
Zen-cuisine is a practice of being truly in touch with the present moment, and appreciating the essence of each thing that arises in it. Practicing zen-cuisine provides us with the perfect opportunity to use our time in the kitchen and at the dining table to nourish ourselves. We can not only feed our spirits with our practice, but also we can relax our bodies, and rest our minds. And since we include cooking and eating in our daily activities, zen-cuisine is something we can do each day. We can cook and enjoy our meals with joy!
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| Andrew Gillert, photo Black Lake Lily, 2011 |
Walking into the kitchen, no matter how chaotic and crazy the world outside may appear to be, we can rest in our zen-cuisine practice, and create a space and time where chaos does not reign. When we are resentful about having to cook, or allow the stresses of the day to leak into our cooking time, we become as stressed and chaotic as the negative parts of the world around us. Instead we can use our zen-cuisine experience, choosing to be calm and aware. This practice enhances the benefits we reap from our kitchen activities. we find ourselves experiencing the antithesis of those things in life which stress, discourage, and exhaust us. Instead of chaos, we can make a peaceful place for creativity and caring to flourish. In fact, Zen-cuisine is about taking time to feel we are being nourished and empowered as we cook and regroup our energies.
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| Andrew Gillert, photo Black Lake Lily, 2011 |
As always, we begin with our breath: we simply breathe, and ground ourselves in the present moment. Using our awareness, we intentionally set about to create harmony, health and wholeness in our kitchen space. Meal preparation is a way of grounding ourselves in the goodness of reality. We mindfully draw of circle around our cooking time, we craft a deeply nourishing, creative space. Encircling ourselves and our loved ones with the life-sustaining energies of our practice, we ‘enter the zone’, and experience the vividness of the present moment found in sharing lovingly-prepared food. A gift we can offer to ourselves and others repeatedly, zen-cuisine becomes a practice we can look forward to every day.
"Zen-cuisine is like a self-fulfilling prophecy--the more aware we are of possibilities found in practicing it, the more opportunities for practicing it appear.” Mei-Kyo, in Zen-gate, Kitchen-door
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