Mindfulness in Vanilla Cake

I find baking and gardening to be very therapeutic for me. It is a time when I can pause and relax, breathe, think--or not think at all. In the spring and summer, I love to connect with nature and the earth and get my hands dirty when I plant flowers or shrubs. For a moment I am one with the roots and it feels good to nurture something so delicate. We seem to respond to the touch of each other and I enjoy watching the little plants blossom and expand into full-grown, regal bushes with giant leaves and blooming flowers by summers' end. I feel the same sense of connectedness when I bake, only, this is more of a meditative state for me. My hands are creating something that will please the palate and nourish the body. It's a time where I can be mindful and thankful.

I really started to find joy in baking when I moved to Los Angeles. In the beginning, it was my way of feeling connected to "home". Eventually, it grew into my quiet moment in creating something special that I could share with someone else. It's an expression of love and nurturing for me, I presume.

Tonight I decided to bake a homemade vanilla cake. I am going to have to take some notes and read up some more on it but I'd say it turned out pretty good for the first time! It was dense and very buttery, but good overall. It lacked that airy fluffiness that you get from the box cakes. If there were some way to meet in the middle somehow, that would be my ideal. I even made homemade butter cream frosting. It turned out very rich, so I will have to read up on getting it perfect. My first attempt was not a disaster, everyone seemed to like it. And I feel better emotionally and even physically. I have been fighting off a nasty, lingering cold and cough for two weeks now and maybe I just needed a moment to disappear into sweetness, relax and create something to share. :)

Prayer

Osho – Prayer is wonder, reverence. Prayer is receptivity for the miracle that surrounds you. Prayer is surrender to the beauty, to the grandeur to this fantastic existence. Prayer is non-argumentative dialogue with existence. It is not a discussion… it is a love-dialogue. You don’t argue… you simply whisper sweet nothings.

When a man falls in love with a woman he whispers sweet nothings into her ear. When a man falls into love with existence… the same romance: prayer is romance. It is fantasy; it is becoming available to the miraculous. Many people have lost the capacity to pray, because many people have lost the capacity to wonder. They have lost the capacity to be surprised. You go on seeing millions of wonders every day but you are not surprised at all. Your eyes are so full of dust and knowledge that you don’t see anything. A seed is sprouting, and you don’t see any wonder. A new leaf coming out of the tree, and you don’t see any wonder. A bird singing, and nothing happens inside you. A peacock dances, and nothing dances inside you. A white cloud floats in the sky, and you remain untouched. Then prayer is impossible.

Prayer needs a poetic heart, a loving heart. Approach reality more poetically — don’t be too much of a scientist, don’t be too much of a rationalist. don’t think that you know; nothing is really known — ignorance is absolute, ignorance is ultimate. Once you understand that nothing is known, and ignorance is ultimate, you will again be full of those beautiful eyes you had when you were small children.

I have heard… The husband was one of those cynical, sour guys whom nothing moved or impressed. To him, everything was just a big “so what?” He visited a psychiatrist, and after a short examination was given this diagnosis: “You are cold and blase. To you, everything means a big nothing. You are married, eh? Well, here’s what you do. Ringling’s circus is in the town: take your wife and see the show. Take a look at how red-blooded people live and act. Watch the performers who live dangerously; see how they pulsate and glow.”

The schnook took his wife to the circus. Out into the ring came the roaring lions and tigers. The wife was thrilled by the excitement, but the husband yawned and replied, “Yeah? So what?” Finally there came the grand finale where the daredevil was shot out of a cannon three hundred feet into the air, turned several somersaults, and then, pulling out a clarinet, began playing before hitting the net. The crowd roared its appreciation for the act, but the husband, after a few minutes of thought, turned to his wife and grunted in a bored manner, “A Benny Goodman he’s not!”

Prayer is the capacity to be amazed. prayer is the capacity that you had as children, and you have lost. Claim it — reclaim it — because with prayer you have lost all. The day your wondering eyes closed, God became nonexistential to you. Open your wondering eyes again, and you will find him pulsating again. He’s very close by… he’s all around you… he is within and without.

Source – Osho Book “The Divine Melody”

Finding the answer without moving.

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. -Saint Augustine

So often we seek the answers to our universe in the ruins of Rome, the pyramids of Egypt, the histories of men from ancient times. But our universe is perceived in us. The response of a negative event in our life propels us to travel, seek answers, find truths. What we often discover is ourselves, through the deep wandering and distant space between where we were and where we end up in our journey, in the world. Our universe exists in us and in the end, only our spiritual journey mattered. How we treated others mattered, what we did for others mattered. No amount of physical journey by land, sea or air will answer the questions locked inside of us. Rather, quiet meditation that involves no movement is where we find our answers.