Hello, hello radio headspace family. Welcome to Friday and to this new moment.

So the other night I woke up from my sleep wanting to know what practices are used in

the Zen tradition for mindful eating. Random, I know. But I went online and found a book called

Instructions to the Cook, a Zen Master's lessons in living a life that matters. Since reading it,

something that's been on my mind is this idea of using the so-called ingredients of our lives to

create what the book refers to as a supreme meal. In other words, a life that is lived fully and

wholly with no holding back. And what are the ingredients? Well, whatever in our lives is present for us in the

moment. Our thoughts, our emotions, feelings, our bodies, relationships, our actions, behaviors, everything in our

lives can be used and we make the most of what we have. The metaphor in this book was cooking, which as a

fellow foodie, I could relate to. See, cooking is an alchemical transformation that can be likened to the

transformative nature of our lives. There's a process, it's experiential. Somehow, the mix of a few

items can create the most divine meals or epic chemical reactions. When we cook, we don't try to

change ingredients, but we simply use what we've been given. It's the mind that can make it seem like

we need more sweetness, more spice, less bitter. But it's not about having more or less. It's about

recognizing that the flavors of our lives are unique and certain ingredients are needed at certain times.

A supreme meal moment for me was when I recently moved to my new apartment. Now, of course, when you

move into a new apartment, you're expecting it to be moving ready. However, that was not the case for me.

For the first two weeks of living in the new digs, I had no hot water or heat in an unseasonably

cold LA winter, which was fine for the first few days, but eventually it got old. I had to shower

out of friend's house and was sleeping in a big puffer jacket at night. Somehow, beyond the

frustration I kept on asking myself, how can I make the most of the situation? Because in the moment,

these conditions were the ingredients of my life. Character development at its finest.

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