Ed Brown is a Zen Priest and chef. He's produced a lovely DVD called How to Cook Your Life. Cooking lessons, meditation, walking, chanting and bowing at Tassajara and Green Gulch.
He went to Tassajara first in 1966 where he got a job as a dishwasher, learned to make bread and soups, and scrub the floor. His anecdotes are humorous and heartwarming. After several failed attempts at breadmaking, he had success and wrote a book The Tassajara Bread Book and later another The Tassajara Recipe Book
There are clips from the early days of his teacher, Suzuki Roshi, a laughing and joyful man. David Chadwick wrote a wonderful full biography of his life and called it Crooked Cucumber
Ed Brown talked about his Mum, who died when he was three years old. He said something that grabbed my heart and held on. He said, "she was getting ready to die". That's often how I feel when I meditate (not in a morbid way) ... a letting go, and it feels right. I used to say, when people asked what I was doing, "I'm learning how to die", but "getting ready" is a better description.
I rented this DVD, but I think I may buy it ... it really is lovely.
