Visited Rainbow Grocery after the Shojin cooking session in San Francisco. Of course bought sesame seeds so that I can grind some sesame myself at home… have been using my Cuisinart to make Tahini sauce and pesto sauce but I am now ready to at times, embrace the inconvenience of slow foods as to quote from Kyoto Journal’s interview with the famed Chef Toshio Tanahashi to the question,
“Shojin cuisine does not strictly equate to vegetarianism. How are they different?”
Chef Tanahashi answeres: “Shojin abides by Buddhism’s Five Prohibitions, the first of which is “don’t kill.” However, one of the most important teachings of Buddha is also to accept all suffering and pleasure with equanimity. The same is applied at the dinner table. Buddhists should receive all food that is offered, and not distinguish between meat and vegetables. So, Buddhists are in fact permitted to eat meat in certain cases. Out of choice, however, Shojin cuisine only uses vegetables. Shojin cooking may seem limiting, but actually it is very liberating. Convenience will destroy humanity. Inconvenience leads to freedom.”
So in search of that “freedom”, I might sometimes forego Cuisinart as I hear him saying “mottainai” – what a waste – in his opinion, we lose a little life, that is, small pleasures inbedded in our ordinary daily life. What he illuminates by this comment is that there is this perfect opportunity to “experience” a precious moment, a ritual… yet, mindlessly, you are bypassing that opportunity by the short-cut in using a modern appliance. Need not go to any temples, shrines or monasteries to find the Zen in the ordinary… in the kitchen, on the floor…To him, it’s a chance to strengthen your core with your abdominal breathing, a chance to meditate and be at present with the experience as aroma of sesame wafts through the air you breathe. Indeed, I experienced Pranayama, Meditation and Aromatherapy all at once! Who would have thought grinding sesame in the special mortar* and pestle** to be so Zen. The labor of love then makes for the gastronomic bliss…of tasting the painstakingly prepared foods for the divine.
*Mortar – It is a ceramic bowl with very narrow – 1-2mm grooves in them for grinding small seeds like sesame.
** Pestle – in this case was special wooden one made from Sansho wood. Sansho, Japanese pepper is from Japanese prickly ash, or Zanthoxylum piperitum tree… Chef Tanahashi explained that from Ancient times it was known that this wood has properties to kill poisons, and along with salt and vinegar, was used to prevent food poisoning, etc. back when refrigeration was unavailable. So while grinding, very very fine wood oil will seep into the sesame to make the process even more beneficial. Unlike the regular ones at home, this wooden pestle was quite big… very solid in your hands but light enough to allow continuous grinding in circular motions possible – it’s quite a trance!
Hope he will make these tools available in US as well… or we will be looking into finding a local tree that may serve as a good substitute. Any ideas anyone? Oh, no, as tree huggers, perhaps we shouldn’t be chopping down trees? Only if we could replace that tree with baby trees … Having said that there’s lots of fire wood on sale on our street as our neighbor just cut down a giant tree from their back yard… sigh… Mottainai?
In reality, his way of time consuming cooking may only possible in monk’s world or as for that matter a nun’s… but to bring it into today’s context with so much yearning for the mindful, meditative, peaceful way of life, we can at least have the tools to create that or teach our kids the beauty that lies in simple pleasures of the ordinary everyday. Why do we always need to be entertained ? It’s yoga in the true sense.
It’s a cliche nowadays but yoga is how you live off the mat… at present, listening to the inner wisdom so what’s truly within us can shine bright. Such teaching resonates with the kind of teaching Judith Hanson Lasater, Ph.D. shares in her precious book filled with yogic wisdom: Living Your Yoga – Finding the Spiritual in Everyday.