Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with your help, with imagination
streaming through you, with dough under hand, you are breadmaking
itself, which is why breadmaking is so fulfilling and rewarding.

Recipes do not belong to anyone -- given to me, I give them to you.
Recipes are only a guide, a skeletal framework, to be fleshed out
according to your nature and desire. Your life, your love, will bring these
recipes into full creation. This cannot be taught. You already know. So
plunge in: cook, love, feel create. Actualize breadmaking itself.

Found by Joseph in the introduction to
Brown, Ed. The Tassajara Bread Book. Boston & London: Shambhala, 1995.

Look at her, the divine mother, her plump breasts offering the baby’s first meal, first food. Coconuts, zucchini, eggplant, nature is succulent, her curves are supple. Mmmmm, this food is my body, I eat, I live. No separation between me and the food, it becomes me. Divine union with the earth. “Rasa" is taste, juicy taste, we cross the boundaries with water, the womb, with eating, in love, our bodies and spirits are swimming in water.

‘Te Gusta’ I like you, I eat you. Gustacion. Food is relationship. In our eyes, I eat your spirit, you eat my spirit. It is all food, all medicine, the nose, the mouth, the hand, the ears the energy of the earth enters us and we perceive it.

Inspired by Myrica Morningstar, an Ayurvedic doctor who can be reached at http://www.ayurvedabliss.org/bio_myrica.php

The universe is cooking through you,
food not separate from you,
about to become you.

We eat, saying, "This is my Body,
the image of the Maker,
and the plant, food,
hand of the Sun, hand of God.
This is God pouring into God..."

Food, energy of creation,
transformed by our bodies,
we perform good works
listening to the voice of the universe.
It becomes an instrument of God's Will.

written by Joseph Immel (http://www.greenbookcafe.com)

"This salad is like eating rainbows..."

Found by Joseph browsing the bookshelf at the Lama Foundation kitchen.
p30, Kofalk, Harriet. The Peaceful Cook. Tennessee: The Book Publishing Comany, 1991.

A NOTE ON THE LAMA FOUNDATION (http://www.lamafoundation.org/)

Founded by Sufi Sam, the Lama Foundation sits at an altitude of 9000 feet in northern New Mexico. The cold winds and open skies overlook hundreds of miles of terrain, refreshing the spirit and inspiring union with the divine. I found myself awake mornings at 3am, staring at the full moon and the cast of my shadow on the night forest floor below. Hiking barefoot up to the ridgeline, I encountered a bear. Although I was frightened and cut my feet on rose bushes, the bear calmly turned towards the hill and left a deep, warming impression that still sedates me.

The Lama Foundation is paired in my mind with the more earth and civilization based Hanuman Ashram located in the valley of Taos, NM below. This ashram is dedicated to Ram Dass' guru Neem Karoli Baba. This ashram is colorful, filled with perfumed Ayurvedic scents that encourage meditation. Its light is filled with a golden and pink hue. Scattered around the temple are musical instruments for worship and prasad, or offerings of food to the guru and deity.

If Lama is the Purusha, or male witness to creation, the Neem Karoli Baba ashram is the Prakruti or female energy of creation.

"Here we offer prasad to the diety Hanuman. That means we don't taste the food while cooking, or until after it is offered to the gods." - Dillon, Cook at the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram. (http://www.nkbashram.org/)

This sentiment was echoed by my Ayurvedic teacher Myrica Morningstar (http://www.ayurvedabliss.org)

"Some Native Americans consider corn the symbol of humanity-each kernel a person, the ear joining together all. In the Southwest, Native Americans honor the Corn Mother. Blue corn is used for ceremonial purposes, sprinkled on passing dancers at the start of a ritual and left at shrines as ritual food when prayer feathers are planted."

The legend of corn is that the grandmother scraped the corn off her body while the sons were in the fields. When they discovered this the sons were shocked to be eating their grandmother's flesh. They refused and instead planted the seeds for the autumn harvest.

Found by Joseph browsing the bookshelf at the Lama Foundation kitchen.
p31, Kofalk, Harriet. The Peaceful Cook. Tennessee: The Book Publishing Comany, 1991.

"This soup gathers all of summer's favorite colors and textures in one bowl and blends them into an appetizing whole."

p18, Kofalk, Harriet. The Peaceful Cook. Tennessee: The Book Publishing Comany, 1991.

May the universe never abuse food.
Breath is food,
The body eats food,
This body rests on breath.
Breath rests on the body,
Food is resting on food.
The one who knows this
becomes rich in food and great in fame.

Taittiriya Upanishad 11.7
Tiwari, Maya. Ayurveda - A Life of Balance. Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1995.

Food is breath. In Ayurveda, all sensations are also food because they are absorbed into our body and mind. Including vision, touch, taste, sound, and smell. But the breath, when it flows without hindrance or restriction, unites the mind and body with the food and the greater consciousness of God.

I found this quote at Frank Cook's home in Water's Edge, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

"Food nourishes the mind and senses, and food becomes consciousness..."

p99,82 Lad, Vasant. Textbook of Ayurveda. New Mexico: Ayurvedic Press, Novemer 2001.

Water at sunrise,
mountain spring in the garden,
a fountain of pink and yellow rain;
the rays of the sun
washing over my body
an ocean of liquid light.

Water, your pour out and enter into me,
bringing to me the taste of,
the song of all beings, their mantra.

You are yoga, union,
elixir of merging touch.
Cooking with you, creating,
bringing us together
You are new combinations
new experiences, nourishing us.

The union of two beings,
all of creation, procreation,
in the flow of water that connects us all,
it changes the universe forever.

Cosmic food,
through water your spirit unites with mine,
and the sound we create together, our mantra,
is what we've never exerienced before.

So I pray, food...in water...I'm opening up to you,
your wisdom; your voice in my body,
the unfolding of your gift.

written by Joseph (http://www.greenbookcafe.com)

Transformation, mystical digestion,
energy changing forms, creating body,
human.
Holy, sacred food,
the body prepared you,
made you beautiful.
The body opens its doors
and you enter the temple
to pray.
Food, inside I hear you chanting,
you’re alive now.
Breathe.
Becoming spirit,
becoming God, aware.

The moon unfurls her sail, a glowing pearl.
gliding through the waves of the blue night.

Our organs, moons,
sailing on the breath of prana,
a spacious cool breeze.

Silver dust travels from organ to organ.
moon and blue electricity gathering,
into the third eye where ocean
condenses into sapphire.

-Joseph, Feb 2007

This food before us, an altar;
The temple, you.

My lover and I face each other while eating,
God is in our midst.

Meal brings me home to your holiness,
your divine nature.

And through eating,
we create life together.

Taste buds evolved. Our body created them.
We encountered nature, the bounty,
and the body reduced her permutations
to six.

The body knows the six tastes,
created them, connected them
to cravings, emotions,
the mind, the cry of organs.

Food comes alive in your presence, reaching out, laboring, taking the time, always more to cooking than meets the eye. Each thing asking to be seen, heard, known, loved, a companion in the dark. The body within the body, the place where everything connects. Ripe, succulent fruit, leaves, stems, roots, seeds: the innermost mind awakening, fully manifesting. What are you up to, after all? What is a way of life that is satisfying, fulfilling, sustaining, and sustainable? A sticky honey jar, the half-empty cup of coffee, each asking to fulfill, each offering the touch of the beloved. Enter, plunge into the heart of the matter: an unknown destination, an unknown adventure unfolding with your wits about you and your not-so-wits. Things emerge in life, Life emerging in things. No separation. Concentrating on food, concentrating on myself, with heart opening, hands offering, may everything be deliciously full of warmth and kindness. Coming from the earth, coming from the air, a cool breeze, a spark, a flame, go ahead: Cook, offer yourself, hold nothing back. Cooking is not like you expected, not like you anticipated. What is happening is unheard of, never before experienced. You cook. No mistakes. You might do it differently next time, but you did it this way this time. Things are as they are, even if you say too much this, too little that. And if you want things to stay the same, remind yourself they have no unchanging nature. “Wherever you go, remember, there you are.” O.K.? Go ahead. Keep moving. Watch your step.

Found by Joseph in the introduction to
Brown, Ed. The Tassajara Bread Book. Boston & London: Shambhala, 1995.

says Claudia Welch, Acupuncturist & Ayurvedic Practitioner, over dinner.

says Alana Greenberg, Ayurvedic Practitioner. The beginning of every recipe should be a prayer, and ginger carries the prayer into the food.

Dr. Vasant Lad - Ayurvedic Institute