Zen priest teaches life's lessons through cooking

Noted Zen priest, cooking instructor, author and lecturer Edward Espe Brown dropped by Sisters last week for lunch with friends. Brown was in Central Oregon for the Indie Reels film series screening of his 93-minute documentary "How To Cook Your Life." The event was sponsored by BendFilm and the Tower Theatre Foundation.

Directed by German filmmaker Doris Dorrie, the critically-acclaimed documentary was filmed during Brown's cooking classes in Austria at the Scheibbs Buddhist Center and in California at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center near Carmel and the Zen Center in San Francisco.

"I'm the main character. It's about Zen and about cooking," Brown said.

The film comes with a message of inspiration. It encourages people to try things like cooking even if the result is not perfect or like pictures in magazines.

"As we grow up we get quite interested, and partly it's our nature, in being right and not wrong and in being good and not bad, because we're going to get approval and recognition. But what it means at some point is that something like cooking, we're not going to do it because we're not good enough," said Brown.

The goal of the movie, according to Brown, is to help people get beyond the point of feeling the need to be perfect before doing something.

"It encourages people to do things their own way and learn from their experiences. The important thing is for people to share with others and enjoy one another's company, to offer what they have to offer and serve people," he said.

"I use cooking as a metaphor for all of this. Nothing in the universe is hidden. There's a big difference between actualizing or realizing yourself as opposed to 'how do I do this so everybody likes it.' As I say in the movie, 'if you're trying to do things so everybody likes it, it's terribly frustrating. People are so different, and you can't please everybody. For one person the oatmeal is too runny. The other person says its too thick. Some are unhappy about raisins in the oatmeal."

Brown has been practicing Zen for some 40 years. He is best known for his international best selling cookbook "The Tassajara Bread Book" that was first published in 1970 and re-released in 1995 in a 25th anniversary edition.

Brown who had never been in Sisters before last week's visit, immediately connected with the town.

"I'm delighted by the mountains and the trees. Marin (County where Brown lives in California) is so yuppie and sophisticated. When you walk into a store they kind of look at you like: 'Are you sure you have enough money to be in this place?' Here it feels much more like I could live here. It would be OK for me to be 'me' here," he said.

"How to Cook Your Life" comes out on DVD on May 6. To view a film clip go to http://www.cookyourlifemovie.com. For more about "The Tassajara Bread Book" visit http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/978-1-57062-089-8.cfm.