How to Cook Your Life

• DVD Details: Actors: Edward Espe Brown, Doris Dörrie, Fidelis Mager, Franz X. Gernstl, Richard Sterling
• Directors: Doris Dörrie
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 ; Number of discs: 1; Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: May 6, 2008 ; Run Time: 94 minutes

In the thirteenth century, Zen master Dogenâ€"perhaps the most significant of all Japanese philosophers, and the founder of the Japanese Soto Zen sectâ€"wrote a practical manual of Instructions for the Zen Cook . In drawing parallels between preparing meals for the Zen monastery and spiritual training, he reveals far more than simply the rules and manners of the Zen kitchen; he teaches us how to "cook," or refine our lives. In this volume Kosho Uchiyama Roshi undertakes the task of elucidating Dogen's text for the benefit of modern-day readers of Zen. ! Taken together, his translation and commentary truly constitute a "cookbook for life," one that shows us how to live with an unbiased mind in the midst of our workaday world.HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE - DVD MovieDorris Dörrie's jazz-inflected documentary should come with a disclaimer: Don't watch on an empty stomach. While it doesn't cover the basics of food preparation, How to Cook Your Life offers a delectable introduction to Buddhist living. Yes, subject Edward Brown is both pastry chef and Zen priest, but Dörrie's approach is more holistic than instructional. (For culinary specifics, viewers can always pick up Brown's bestselling how-to guide, The Tassajara Bread Book.) In other words, home cooking--as opposed to fast food and pre-packaged goods--isn't just healthier and better for the environment; it connects the creator to the product of their efforts. And it helps if they know more about the tools of their trade. Hence, the director of 2000's Enlightenm! ent Guaranteed and a Buddhist practitioner herself, also i! nterview s organic gardeners, cookware salespeople, and the like. Throughout, Brown shows students in the US and Austria how to prepare vegetarian pizza, fruit tarts, and other wholesome delights. All the while, he talks about the connection between the body and the spirit. Fortunately, Brown isn't some kind of holier-than-though type. Little things, like hard-to-open packages, can set him off, but he's just as quick to laugh. To him, cooking is a way to nourish yourself and others. As he likes to say, "When you wash the rice, wash the rice." (True, he sounds like Yoda at times; it’s actually quite charming.) Like Super-Size Me, How to Cook Your Life is an elegy for those long-lost days of leisurely dinners with loved ones. --Kathleen C. Fennessy