How To Cook Your Life: from the zen kitchen to Enlightenment

In the thirteenth century, Zen Master Dogen (the founder of the Soto Zen Tradition, one of the main schools of Buddhism in Japan) wrote a practical manual of "Instructions for the Zen Cook." In drawing parallels between preparing meals for the Zen monastery and spiritual training, he reveals far more than simply the rules and manners of the Zen kitchen; he teaches us how to 'cook' or refine our lives.

This volume presents a translation of Dogen's original text along with a commentary by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi which undertakes the task of elucidating Dogen's text for the benefit of present-day followers of the Way. Taken together, this translation and commentary truly constitute a 'cookbook for life', one that shows us how to live with an unbiased mind in the midst of our workaday world.

Translator's Introduction

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ZEN COOK - Tenzo Kyokun, by Zen Master Dogen

HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE - Jinsei Ryori no Hon by Kosho Uchiyama Roshi

1. The Tenzo Kyokun and Shikan-taza
2. Concerning the Religious Life
3. The True Form of the Self
4. Everything You Encounter is Your Life
5. Seeing the World Without Holding Worldly Values
6. On Parental Mind
7. Having a Passion for Life
8. Direction and Goal
9. Making Life Calculations
10. Working with Clear Vision
11. Living Through the Life of the Self
12. On Life Force and Life Activity
13. The Function of a Settled Life
14. Throwing Your Life into the Abode of the Buddha