Satisfied Buddhist - Domo Geshe Rinpoche

Heriloom tomatoes from our garden (we seed saved for this years planting also)  Our local farmers market carrots naturally fermented in whey, apple cider vinegar and salt  dehydrated and chopped vegetables 

"There is a subtle essence to everything. When offering food before eating, we do not offering the plate of food itself, but the subtle essence of it. This is offered to the inner process at the heart center and not outside to a statue or universal energies. Recite the offering mantra OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. This is all that is really necessary. There are longer prayers and other practices such as tsok offering at meal time used in Tibetan system that have many nice meanings. However, an important part of the offering is the OM AH HUM. Perhaps it's easier to remember the meaning if we are not reciting a longer verse. So, chanting OM AH HUM, OH AH HUM, OH AH HUM, visualize that the essence goes interior, more energetically. We do not need to visualize beings or colors. Then thinking, "I am going to partake of the gross food with my gross body. However, before I even do that may the actual nature of the food be transformed into its original nature. And may that ori...

I have been thinking about cooking lately and looking through my recipes trying new combinations. Living out in the countryside as I do, surrounded by hay fields and mooing cows off in the distance, getting  exotic ingredients is impossible. I often substitute what I have, lots of fresh eggs, goat and cow milk, and herbs from the garden for ingredients that we can only order on the Internet. While digging in the cupboard to make something new, it occurred to me how very similar meditation is to cooking. Over the next several days I would like to share my musings with you. You know, in Tibet, I do not recall that we ever followed recipes, but perhaps that was because I never cooked. In the monastery, we ate the food provided and upon arriving in America in the mid 70’s, I discovered creativity in the kitchen that made me somewhat famous with my students at that time. Some even encouraged me to write a cookbook. However, It is only here in my new life, since May of 2000, that...