3 am in the Karma Kitchen...
Take flour out, take out zucchini, start grating, start beating eggs...all done so mindfully and consciously it turns into meditation.
What is meditation? Not the mindless chanting of some mantras or staring fixedly at a point while your mind wanders in all different directions. Meditation is being so engrossed in the activity that you block everything else out... like I heard the Dalai Lama say at a talk I was fortunate enough to attend. How do you eat an orange and turn it into meditation? When you are peeling the orange, just think about that action. As you eat each slice, just think about the taste, the texture and how the orange feels in your mouth. Don't let your mind wander. And that is meditation!
So, fellow travelers on this searching journey, meditate. It is so good for you! And it does not have to be a spiritual or religious meditation which most people try. When you run, just run. When you eat, just eat. And when you play, just play.
Simple? Maybe not... but with practice you'll love it.
In the zone. Focused. Sure. Everything else in your life will start seeming so easy...
Love,
Jhilmil
PS: Check out this interesting yoga class: baking like meditation!
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://balanceyogalounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/bread-baking-9.jpg&imgrefurl=http://balanceyogalounge.com/blog/&usg=__lM2foJpwyI8GnDcXfnVzzXwupR0=&h=1227&w=924&sz=404&hl=en&start=3&sig2=5GLtuA0ZvXHzxjGINQLQkA&um=1&tbnid=rLRt16HJREgl4M:&tbnh=150&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbaking%2Blike%2Bmeditation%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26um%3D1&ei=8a-6SqvKK4aHkQWtg934BQ
September 7, 2009 · Filed Under Living Yoga
Bread baking…a quiet meditation
September 4, 2009 · Filed Under Living Yoga · Comment
Back again this fall- our popular breadbaking as meditation workshop.
Noodle Zoo will share their kitchen Zen Sept 28 at 7pm. The workshop will begin with hands on mixing and kneading of dough and then proceed to relaxing yoga stretches and meditation while the loaves rise. After baking, we will break bread together and spend time reflecting on the transformative process of creating bread and the possible parallels to life itself.
Baking not only demands concentration and presence but also offers a bit of sanctuary. The process of making bread creates a shift in awareness, becoming absorbed- not thinking of yesterday or tomorrow- but giving your attention to the bread, focusing on the dough in your hands.
call Sandy 515-210-8138 or email sandy@balanceyogalounge.com
(limited to 8 participants)
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4 comments:
Very nice! Keep it up. I feel the same way about cleaning, or any manual labor that I enjoy. I wrote something similar once, will try to find it and send it to you.
Am planning on teaching a yoga class like this, but not sure people will come. No one cooks themselves here, will they send their maids??!!
Completely agree. This is meditation- being completely engrossed in whatever one is undertaking, being in the flow completely immersed that the object and the subject become one.
And I was fortunate to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama August in Leh, and fully agree that his teachings are remarkable
Thanks for reading and commenting, Sachdev! Inspires me to write more...
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