Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master's Lessons in Living a Life That Matters (Paperback)

~ (Author), (Author) "When I first began to study Zen, my teacher gave me a koan, a Zen question, to answer: "How do you go further from the..." (more)
Key Phrases: supreme meal, payoff function, right livelihood, Greyston Family Inn, New York, Greyston Bakery (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Based on a 13th-century Japanese manual of the same title, this guide to modern-day Zen practice also details the history of Glassman's work in the world. An abbot of Zen communities in New York City and Los Angeles, Glassman is also the founder of the Greyston Mandala, a network that includes a commercial bakery, apartments for the homeless and other not-for-profit community development projects in Yonkers, a suburb of New York City. In Zen Buddhist tradition, the preparation of a meal is used as a metaphor for leading a meaningful life. Glassman and Fields (coauthor of Chop Wood, Carry Water) detail the five main "courses" of life: spirituality, study, livelihood, social action, and relationship and community Most widely recognized of the Greyston ventures is the successful bakery. Besides being a teacher of Zen and a noted social activist, Glassman is a pragmatic businessman. His description of how he and others who work with and for the jobless and homeless of Yonkers dealt with government agencies, banks, suspicious residents and the vagaries of the marketplace will satisfy the appetites of readers whose interest is as much in business practice as in Zen practice. In setting out his guidelines for conducting business, e.g., establishing self-directed management teams and sharing success with the community, Glassman occasionally strikes an imperious tone (reflecting the authority invested in Zen leaders), but the menu he offers is fresh, appealingly presented and thought- provoking. First serial to Tricycle magazine; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Both a manual for spiritual transformation and a call to action." New Age Journal

"Taking the Path of Zen and Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind have introduced scores of Americans to Zen Buddhism in the last two decades. Now, these two mini-classics are joined by a new book that promises to be an even more meaningful introduction to Zen--as well as the growing 'socially engaged Buddhism' movement." --Donn Fry, Seattle Times

"A delicious confection made of down-to-earth Zen wisdom and a deeply heartful demonstration of compassion in action." --Ram Dass

"Instructions is stimulating and insightful precisely because it is so well grounded in the fundamental teachings of Dogen Zenji and others--exceptionally practical teachings, moreover, which chart a course for the development of that 'social-action Zen' (led most forcefully by Roshi Glassman) which promises to become the Way of Zen here in America." --Peter Matthiessen

"A recipe for an enlightened life, Instructions to the Cook speaks volumes about finding nourishment in a voracious world, where so many things--from consumerism to unemployment--can create hunger, and where contentment can seem tantalizingly remote, an aroma from someone else's window." --Deborah Jerome-Cohen, New York Daily News

"A more authentic teaching by a more authentic person than Bernard Glassman, we are not likely to see in our times. He not only teaches all this, he has done it all." --Thomas Berry -- Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Harmony/Bell Tower; 1st Pbk. Ed edition (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517888297
• ISBN-13: 978-0517888292
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #67,284 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Combining Zen and Activism, May 12, 2000

By	Helene Hoffman (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I liked this book because it combined Zen and activism, a rare combination in our culture (unfortunately). Almost as soon as he hit the streets of New York to set up his Zen Center, Glassman was intent on helping the homeless in a meaningful way. What I enjoyed the most is when he focused on Zen principles in doing his activism. When a dilemma arose, he recommended that people meditate to find a possible solution. In the bakery he set up to employ the unemployed and homeless, he erected a meditation center so that people could meditate, if so inclined. I think his merging of spiritual practice, hard work, and activism is probably a good reason why his projects were successful. He realized that business without "more" is not fulfilling, and that spirituality needs to help the community we all live in, as its purpose is not simply to help our individual souls. A most worthwhile book. The only criticism: although he discussed himself, I would have liked to have learned even more about his background, how he came to the place of combining Zen and activism.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Guide to Spirituality in the Street, May 11, 1997

By A Customer

On Becoming a Zen Cook How do you go further from the top of a hundred-foot pole? The answer to this Zen koan, given on the opening page of Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master1s Lessons in Living a Life that Matters (Bell Tower Harmony Books) is simply, 3Live life more fully.2 The Zen 3cook2 writing this book is Bernard Glassman, abbot of the Zen Community of New York and the Zen Center of Los Angeles, with assistance from Rick Fields, editor of Yoga Journal and co-author of the Zen book, Chop Wood, Carry Water. When Dr. Glassman (with a Ph.D. in mathematics from U.C.L.A.) was an aeronautical engineer working on manned missions to Mars at McDonnell-Douglas in the 1970s, he felt a hunger for 3something more.2 He began his practice of Zen and soon became a teacher himself. Glassman vowed to serve the 3supreme meal2 to the world1s hungry. The supreme meal for a Zen cook is life lived to the fullest. By the time he wrote his cookbook, he had created a Zen community in New York, complete with uniquely profitable means of livelihood for its members, as well as several not-for-profit social action enterprises. How did he come to serve up such a full meal? He began by gathering the ingredients at hand at started cooking. Along the way, he didn1t worry so much about doing the 3right thing2 as simply doing the 3next thing,2 which usually proved to be correct. His cookbook, which is also an autobiography of his work, shows that a meal concocted from spirituality, livelihood and service is quite fulfilling. His story, and the teaching he makes from it, has provided me with some of the most inspiring reading I1ve encountered in a long time. I want to pass along some of his recipes here for each of five courses which make up the complete meal. The first course is spiritual practice, such as meditation (or use other methods at hand), to develop the awareness of the oneness of all things. Spirituality also helps us to realize the stillness in the center of all our activities. We need to clear our minds just as a cook cleans the kitchen prior to cooking. We don1t meditate to become enlightened, however, but because we are enlightened, we meditate to keep our stillness in the endless cycle of cooking, serving, cleaning. The second course is study or learning. We need our education to develop intelligence and skills. Rabbi Glassman--of course I should call him Roshi, not Rabbi, but he was born Jewish and his practical, down to earth approach has a Jewish flavor--teaches that we learn by doing. No need to wait until you know everything before you do anything, but you learn like a baby learns to walk, by getting up over and over again until you get going. Then you become more polished with practice. He teaches you to cook with all available ingredients, including your own faults and problems, which are always in plentiful supply. When a series of burglaries into the housing complex for the homeless, for example, began to anger the residents, he used the situation to teach them how much they cared about and wanted to protect their dwelling place. He used this problem to get them more involved in its management, and they learned valuable skills in the process. The third course is livelihood, which requires practical skills put to good use. Although we don1t live to eat, we have to eat to live. No matter how spiritual we may be, finding a way to sustain ourselves in the world is a common necessity. He calls it the meat and potatoes of the meal. Denying donations, Glassman created a self-sustaining businessÐa bakeryÐbecause good food would nourish others and because it could be quite profitable. His tales of creating that business (becoming the official supplier of baked goods to the Rain Forest brand of cookies and for Ben and Jerry1s ice cream sandwiches) is an instructional manual itself in practical spirituality. He saw to it that the employees not only earned a living, but also found spiritual nourishment in their work. He had a double bottom line that he sees as really one: profit and service to all concerned. He didn1t aim merely for profit that served, but also profit that transformed, because the forth course is social action. Creating economically self-sustaining structures that nourished the community and transformed its social landscape, he hired and trained the homeless so they could earn money to own their own shelter. Have a big vision, he counsels, but pay attention to the details. He developed, for example, an 800 number voice mail network for the homeless to communicate with each other and with potential employers. The final course is relationship and community. He and his students lived among the homeless and learned from them in designing their programs. He also engaged local business and government to participate as be began a program of refurbishing abandoned buildings. Glassman has had his critics, people who miss the traditional zendo. They ask, 3But is it Zen?2 He treats the question as a koan, and replies, 3Three pounds of fudge!2

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Building a community is a job for us all, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

Filled with inspiration and common sense wisdom, Glassman shows that caring can become compassion, and in turn can significantly alter our communities for the better. This is a message of hope for those who see government subsidies and the welfare system as our only way to deal with the unemployed or underemployed.

Business owners and community leaders could learn more from this book than from sitting through dozens of meetings filled with people who like to complain, rather than take action. I highly recommend this book both for the joy of seeing that there is light in the world, and as an example of how compassion can reap profits in so much more than dollars and cents.