Pay a Close Attention to what is Happening Now

Pay a Close Attention to what is Happening Now
(Vinod Anand)

It often surprises me when people say they intensely dislike cooking; I wonder if it is because they think it is too complicated or if they are often in a hurry to get it all done with.

Though something to keep us alive and well, cooking is, above all, an art and a practice. We give it our time and attention; we revel in our tools — our ingredients and also our basic cooking implements.

So many houses have lovely kitchens and modern appliances, but awful knives and chopping boards! I learnt some years ago to keep just a few cooking pots and get rid of those that saw hardly any use, and to invest in a few knives of excellent quality.

But I do confess to the extravagance of having several sets of plates for different moods. - Why call it a ‘spiritual’ practice, though? Cooking, when we learn to slow down and pay attention, engages the senses and the body in a way that reminds us of the gifts of life and beauty all around us.

While cooking, we are so directly, immediately and blessedly in touch with God’s creation, generosity and blessings. Pastor John O’Hara writes that cooking” teaches us to live in sync with the rhythms of the Creator.”

The tangible elements of preparing food can be meditative. There is much to be aware of and enjoy —the gentle rinsing of rice in cool water; the regular action of slicing an onion; the bursting freshness of a ripe tomato; a satisfyingly thickening batter. There’s also the vital greenness of fresh herbs, the heady fragrance of dried ones; the hiss and splutter of tempering hot oil; the tangy scent while squeezing a lemon; the subtle aroma when peeling a cucumber.

And we remember to give thanks. I learnt also, to light a candle at the end of my work in the kitchen as a gratefulness pause. If it is a gentle aroma candle, washing up is made that much more pleasant. Zen Buddhist teachers from ancient times recognized this well. They teach that cooking, like life, is about transformation.

In a lecture, Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi speaking on ancient Zen Master Dogen’s work, ‘Instructions for the Cook said: “The real point is whether one engages in this kind of activity as a refinement of one’s own life. Someone may say: ‘I worked in the kitchen the whole time,’ and still not understand that to cook the food is to cook yourself. To prepare the food is to prepare yourself. To refine the food is to refine your own practice.”

An interesting aspect is that in a Zen kitchen, meal preparation always begins with cleaning the kitchen thoroughly before cooking starts. Then too, Zen teachers keep us aware and grateful for the ‘seventy-two labour & that bring food to us—through the farmer, transporter, seller, cook, server, the dishwasher and many unseen and otherwise unacknowledged others.

Contemporary master Edward E Brown, who has authored several books on food and cooking, points out that giving a hundred percent of ourselves while we are cooking is a spiritual practice that goes against the grain of our current emphasis on multi-tasking. Brown challenges us to experience the holiness of unit asking while cutting carrots, making bread, and stirring in ingredients of a recipe.

A spiritual practice usually lays emphasis on being present, paying close attention to what is happening, and growing in caring and sharing; and cooking, like many simple ‘everyday practices’ is in this way understood as another beautiful and effective spiritual practice.