In Buddha's kitchen : cooking, being cooked, and other adventures in a meditation center

by Kimberley Snow

Paperback, 2003

Publication

Imprint: Boston : Shambhala ; 2003. Edition: First paperback edition. Responsibility: Kimberley Snow. OCLC Number: 56454358. Physical: Text : 1 volume : 182 pages ; 20 cm.

Call number

Cook / Snow

Barcode

BK-05905

ISBN

9781590301470

CSS Library Notes

Description: Kimberley Snow offers an outrageously funny and honest account of her adventures as head cook at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center. With her earthy sensibility and sharp sense of humor, the author shows this world in a light devoid of preciousness-while expressing with heart the integrity of the spiritual work being undertaken. We come away from our visit to this exotic realm having found it both extraordinary and surprisingly familiar. The neuroses, obsessions, and petty concerns exposed by Snow-both in herself and her fellow staff members-prove to be grist for the mill for discovering the grace inherent in life just as it is. -- from back cover

Table of Contents: Part 1. Boned, minced, reduced by half: 1. Retreat doing?
2. Religious roots
3. Nina, the evil kitchen elf
4. Meditating not
5. Insight
6. Shhhh
7. Living dharma
8. They used to call me god, but they'll never call me Buddha
9. Soup
10. Kitchen talk
11. Jizo ceremony
12. Impermanence
Part 2. Don't expect applause:
13. Restaurant voices
14. My short but violent career as a chef
15. Transcending dualism while whipping egg whites into high, stiff peaks
16. Relaxing the mind
17. Bread
18. Naming
19. A cup of tea
20. Dzogchenpa among the Presbyterians
21. On having a teacher

FY2008 /

Physical description

182 p.; 21 cm

Description

Kimberley Snow offers an outrageously funny and honest account of her adventures as head cook at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center. With her earthy sensibility and sharp sense of humor, the author shows this world in a light devoid of preciousness--while expressing with heart the integrity of the spiritual work being undertaken. We come away from our visit to this exotic realm having found it both extraordinary and surprisingly familiar. The neuroses, obsessions, and petty concerns exposed by Snow--both in herself and her fellow staff members--prove to be grist for the mill for discovering the grace inherent in life just as it is.

Language

Original language

English

User reviews

LibraryThing member AnnaOok
I wasn't too impressed by this book. It's got some nice anecdotes, but for a Buddhist book by a committed, practising Buddhist author, it's got a lot of "me-me-me" in it...
LibraryThing member hafowler
I've read many books on theory about Buddhism, but I swear I learned more about walking the walk, Living the Path, from this book than anything I've read so far. The stories are touching, funny, and give real insight into what the sometimes abstract teachings of Buddha really mean in a modern
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world. Highly recommended for any student of the Way.
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LibraryThing member infinitechoice
A series of somewhat disconnected essays about Snow's experiences in a variety of settings, including as a university professor, executive chef, and cook at a Buddhist retreat center. Although there were many stories of interest, Snow's habit of skipping back and forth between times and places left
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me somewhat confused. She would often reference a person, place, or event, and then explain it many pages later.
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LibraryThing member debnance
Snow has a wandering spirit. Somehow it leads her from work as a professor in a university to a cook in a kitchen to a chef in a monastery. The time she spent in the monastery seemed to help her and, in the end, she seemed a stronger person.
LibraryThing member zenhead
With humor and honesty, Snow recounts her adventures as head
cook at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center. She shares this world in a light devoid of
preciousness—while expressing with heart the integrity of the spiritual work
being undertaken. We come away from our visit to this exotic realm having
Show More
found
it both extraordinary and surprisingly familiar. The neuroses, obsessions, and
petty concerns exposed by Snow—both in herself and her fellow staff
members—prove to be grist for the mill for discovering the grace inherent in
life just as it is.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cindywho
Snow wrote a pile of essays about her experience in kitchens at a Tibetan Buddhist retreat center and at other times in her life and published them as a book. Some are better than others (I could've done without the dinner theater piece) some sad, some insightful - if you are interested in other
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peoples insights into themselves (which, sometimes, I am).
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Rating

(24 ratings; 3.4)
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