Food according to the dharmaOur practice focus May - August 2025Here at Sanshin, we’re using sesshin food as an important dharma gate. In addition to growing some of our own food for sesshin, we get food from local farms. It ‘s an opportunity to investigate teachings about the two kinds of food: shomyojiki and jamyojiki.
Food often comes at the cost of the lives of other beings, whether plants or animals. Sometimes it’s the production method of the food that costs lives, or the transportation method. Shomyojiki is food obtained the right way, but also food that’s wholesome and beneficial for mind and body and supports practice for ourselves and others. It makes best use of resources, including the lives of other beings. Food practice can help cultivate gratitude and empathy for the life source of the ingredients, and to deeply see the interconnectedness of the lives of the people who are cooking and eating together. In general, food should be of good quality but not extravagant, cost effective but not necessarily the cheapest option if that's not healthy or appealing. As part of your practice, you can consider seasonality, what’s available where you live, etc. if you wish. Tai 体 : Materials There are some specific guidelines we observe when making food for sesshin that point to overall food practice in the temple. We don’t use the five pungent herbs or what we might call aromatics: onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, chives. This comes from a very old teaching; aromatics were considered by Hindus to be rajasic (expanding) foods that stimulate passion or the intellect, clouding the mind and interfering with sitting practice. This doesn’t mean that you can’t ever eat pizza or onion rings; it means we get the chance to step back and look at our habits. Hoko says, "When I started cooking this way years ago in my first sangha, sesshin participants commented that the food always tasted fresh; they could actually taste carrots and potatoes. There was no lingering heavy aftertaste that you wanted to wash away with peppermint tea, or that you noticed in your digestive system during subsequent zazen periods." The point is to nourish people and support practice, not to serve an impressive dish that feeds your ego. Shiki 色 : color As for color (and by extension, taste), there are very specific guidelines. We make sure every meal includes the six tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, mild, and spicy, to the degree possible. The choice of ingredients affects what dish looks like as well as how it tastes, and the nyoho of color helps ensure the meal is nutritionally balanced, as well as visually appealing. We include ingredients from all five color groups: red, white, black, green/blue, and yellow, again to the degree possible. In a formal meal, typically the first bowl is grain, the second is protein and the third is some sort of produce. If we overlay six tastes, five colors and three bowls, we have the basis for a balanced meal plan. In other words, we don’t serve a meal of oatmeal, peanut butter toast and cinnamon applesauce -- while it tastes good and it's nutritionally balanced, it's all brown. Likewise, we'd avoid a meal of rice, cream soup and cauliflower because it's all white. Ryo 量 : Amount or size One expression we hear a lot in the training temple is mottainai もったいない : what a waste, or don’t waste anything. Interesting, this expression has a connotation of something irreverent or sacrilegious. The expectation is that you don’t lose even a grain of rice. In a temple, all food comes from donations, whether it was directly donated or bought with money donated by members, and we’re not allowed to treat donations in a wasteful or cavalier way. All donations are an offering to Buddha, not different than the flowers and incense on the altar. The practice is to find a way to use almost everything. If you boil vegetables to make a soup stock, use them in a casserole. If you have leftovers, you turn them into a new dish. If all else fails, you make compost and use it to grow more vegetables. There’s an understanding that almost no garbage is produced in the kitchen of a great tenzo. This is not like cooking for family reunion, where you might decide to just cook twice what you think you need to make sure there’s enough for everyone. Instead, the practice is to pay attention and cook right amount. If there’s no one at your center or at home to eat leftovers, that’s a waste. Not only is it poor stewardship financially, but in the temple all of that food was a donation. Outside of the temple, a lot of beings, human and not, contributed to making that food available. |
Resources for nyoho food
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