A Taste of Heaven and Earth

This is my favorite cookbook for three reasons ... the recipes are good, it's vegetarian, and there are lovely brush paintings scattered throughout

There are contemplative essays and ink drawings to heighten the sensory experience in the kitchen

Since my two years of working in the kitchen at a Zen Center in Hawaii, I appreciate the author's approach to cooking and eating. The kitchen is a place of transformation. In the Zen tradition, serving as Tenzo (head cook) is considered an excellent opportunity for practice. The literature of Zen is filled with kitchen anecdotes and stories of enlightenment coming through simple daily chores.

There is so much more to cooking than meets the eye. Friends think I'm nuts when I say that I enjoy washing dishes and sweeping the floor.

I couldn't decide whether to put this post here or in my book blog. What do you think?

There's another small and lovely book I want to write about ... Sweeping Changes by Gary Thorp, a lay monk who emphasizes the intent surrounding each housekeeping activity, not the end result of cleanliness. Lawns should be mindfully mowed "with every fiber of your being"; dishes should be washed with particular, single-minded care. "Your life and all that's in it are simply on loan to you and are clearly precarious," cautions Thorp, encouraging readers to use certain chores (raking dead leaves, recycling and mending clothes, for example) as occasions to reflect on the transience of life.