Time & Other Thieves

How To Cook Your Life

June 29, 2022 Sarah B. Season 2 Episode 7
Time & Other Thieves
How To Cook Your Life
Show Notes

In this episode, which originally aired in radio format on February 24th, 2022, I explore some of the ideas presented in the book AND the documentary film, "How To Cook Your Life." The book was first published in 1970 by Zen priest and origami Master Kōshō Uchiyama Rōshi; it consists of his translation of and commentary on Dōgen Zenji's 13th century text, the "Tenzo Kyōkun", or "Instructions for the Zen Cook." The film "How To Cook Your Life" (2007) is about modern-day Zen priest and chef Edward Espe Brown, most known for his Tassajara Bread Book (1970). It documents Brown leading a couple of week-long cooking classes at a Zen center in Austria and at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California. I'll reflect on what Dōgen, Uchiyama, and Brown have to say about cooking as a spiritual activity, and how when we work on food, we're also working on ourselves. As Brown asks, "Is food precious? Is food worth caring about? Are YOU precious? Are YOU worth caring about?"