The Meal of Life: Cooking & Being Cooked in Zen and Sufism with Joshin Byrnes and Deepa Patel

Sensei Joshin Byrnes is a Zen priest and teacher in the White Plum lineage of Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Glassman Roshi (and a dharma successor of Roshi Joan Halifax), who founded the Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community in 2017, to be a hub for community-engaged Zen practice in Vermont. Alongside his religious vocation, Joshin spent much of his career working for social change nonprofits in the areas of HIV/AIDS and prevention, child welfare, homelessness, and community based philanthropy.

In this episode, Deepa and Daniel center their dialogue with Joshin on the concept of literal and metaphorical cooking in Zen and Sufism, the home traditions of Joshin and Deepa respectively. Together they explore: grandmother-cooked family meals, Zen master Dogen's Instructions to the Cook, various metaphors of 'cooking your life, 'kissing' the parts of ourselves we may consider 'garbage,' the way our attitude and energy affect food, Dogen's 'three minds,' prasad  (food offerings), being more connected to taste apart from eating, the multi-sensory nature of food, Joshin's experience of taking communion on a 'street retreat,' the 'community living room' at BLMZC, potlucks, fasting and the increased appreciation it brings, skillful hunger as opposed to destructive hunger, insatiable appetites for spiritual experience, finding a balance of 'spices,' ritualistically feeding hungry ghosts, Mevlana Rumi's poetic imagery of cooking, Deepa's experience of learning to 'whirl' with the Mevlevi Order of Sufism, learning to want the unwanted, Dogen getting schooled by an old Zen cook, 'slender sadness,' and the Zen concept of 'one taste.'

Bread Loaf Mountain Zen Community

Charis Foundation

Golden Turtle Sound