Peace Through Sustenance

on Tuesday September 17, 2024 at 6pm, join us in the West Room of the Community Center for this first of a weeklong Peace Festival workshop series. Led by Ed Brown, of Tassajara Bread Book fame, Peace Through Sustenance will take us on the journey of his life as a longtime practicing Zen Buddhist, teacher, cookbook author, cook and bread baker and all the insights he has gathered along the way.

Edward Espe Brown found his way to Zen practice in 1965, and dove in whole-heartedly. He was the first head cook, or tenzo, at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, and in 1970 his best-selling book, The Tassajara Bread Book, was published. His teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, ordained him as a priest in 1971, giving him the dharma name Jusan Kainei (“Longevity Mountain, Peaceful Sea”). In the years since, Edward helped found Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, worked with Deborah Madison in writing The Greens Cookbook, and has written several other cookbooks, including The Complete Tassajara Cookbook, and Tomato Blessings and Radish Teachings. He edited Not Always So, a collection of Suzuki Roshi’s lectures, and in 2007, he was the subject of a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary film entitled How to Cook Your Life, directed by Doris Dörrie.

In 2018, No Recipe: Cooking as a Spiritual Practice, Edward’s book about finding our own way in the kitchen – and in life – was published. One of Edward’s students, Danny Parker, put together a book of his lectures, selected from 30 years’ worth of teaching; The Most Important Point was published in 2019.

In addition to studying Zen, Edward has also done extensive vipassana practice, yoga, and chi gung. He leads regular sitting groups and meditation retreats in Northern California and offers workshops in the U.S. and internationally on a variety of subjects, including cooking, handwriting change, and Mindfulness Touch.