The Sacred Kitchen with Karen Wang Diggs
Course Description
Salepage : The Sacred Kitchen with Karen Wang Diggs
Delivery : Online With Any Device
What You’ll Learn Over the Next Seven Weeks
Through an edible spiritual journey that re-connects you with the nurturing hearth of the home, Karen will lead you through the essential skills and competencies you’ll need to recover the sanctity of cooking and eating throughout this 7-week transformative intensive.
Module 1: The Vipassana Kitchen: Creating Sacred Space in the Kitchen (May 11)
How might the kitchen once again serve as a place of holy gathering where people may connect and nurture their bodies, hearts, and souls?
You’ll start by becoming familiar with the elements in your own kitchen and learning about their relationships to the environment, the universe, and you.
The five holy elements of water, wood, fire, earth, and metal are all present in the kitchen, which is an old hearth. You’ll harmonize these components this week and reclaim your kitchen as a holy place.
You’ll create a straightforward altar in your holy kitchen to foster generosity and turn food into offerings. and rekindle your senses with her Five Elements Spice combination, with a little aid from the Buddha’s own ancient meditation technique, vipassana, which he used to achieve enlightenment.
Being attentively present, or vipassana, allows us to view things for what they truly are. Every facet of cooking in the holy kitchen may be used to this. Every action then offers the chance to develop enlightened consciousness.
You’ll discover how to use your senses deliberately to create spiritual culinary experiences as well as taste as a metaphor for enlightenment.
Finally, Karen will discuss fresh ideas on the connection between your body’s desire for nourishment, awareness, and spirituality, as well as recipes for awakening your sense of taste.
… and conclude class with the first of many guided culinary ritual offerings.
You’ll learn this week also:
Discover how the 5 Senses Meditation may awaken moments of tasting, smelling, touching, hearing, and seeing. Discover how recognizing the fundamental nature of one flavor can free the mind.
Discover a unique technique to quickly heighten, enliven, and deepen the sensation of taste.
Learn a novel way to communicate with nature’s elements in the hearth-kitchen.
Discover the spiritual art of knife maintenance and sharpening. In honor of the Mahasiddhas and Zen Masters who attained enlightenment in the kitchen, Karen prepares gomasio and mindfully and artistically chops carrots for a dish of matchstick carrots and burdock.
Nourish the Body as a Vehicle for Enlightenment, Module 2 (May 18)
It was said by the Buddha, “Your body is priceless. It serves as your means of waking. Be careful with it.
You’ll learn about your body’s holy role as a vessel for nourishing your mind, body, and soul this week. You’ll explore the alchemy of digestion and its outer, inner, and secret layers of feeding, as well as the physiological link between mindful eating and immunity.
… and see how living cultured foods support the health of your stomach, brain, microbiota, and how they relate to mind, body, and spirit healing.
Karen will discuss how your microbiome, which contains billions of bacteria, influences your sense of self and why preparing food at home respects both your health and the environment.
Along with creating healthy, spiritually-aligned food choices as a road to higher enlightenment, you’ll learn strategies for breaking attachments and addictions to comfort foods, sugar, carbs, alcohol, and alcoholism.
Karen will conclude by providing recipes for stimulating your sense of smell and regulating your microbiota. and end the week with a unique gastronomic tradition.
You’ll learn this week also:
Be directed by your five senses. Meditation with a focus on fragrance in particular
Learn how to improve your sense of smell and how to use it in a practical test to determine how well-nourished your body is.
Learn how your sense of self is influenced by the trillions of microbes that live in your gut.
Honor the metal element while learning more about how to utilize knives as a kind of meditation.
Watch Karen make sauerkraut in real time while getting advice on fermentation
Discover the culinary ritual of Clouds of Nourishing Fragrance.
Module 3: Alchemy in a Pot: Five Fermentation Techniques and Seven Stages of Spiritual Alchemy (May 25)
Alchemy is at work as you go on a spiritual awakening journey as your thick self-identity gradually changes into the gold of enlightenment. The actions that take place in your sacred kitchen’s alchemical processes are comparable.
This week, you’ll learn about the five different types of fermentation and the seven phases of spiritual alchemy, which include using your hands to prepare food in order to build connection and attention.
Traditional ways of food preparation may be utilized to activate, develop, and comprehend the transforming processes of our own alchemical journey, much as ancient alchemists employed procedures in their laboratories as exterior meditations to promote interior changes.
Additionally, you’ll learn how fermented foods may help you on your path to enlightenment and how your hands’ microbiome affects the flavor, nutritional value, and vitality of your food.
Last but not least, Karen will show you how to fold empanadas and provide recipes for stimulating your sense of touch. finishing the work week with a spectacular meal.
You’ll learn this week also:
Be led in the 5 Senses Meditation, paying particular attention to taste.
Discover a technique to improve your sense of taste, as well as how it links to your sense of smell.
Discover the five different types of fermentation, the seven steps of spiritual alchemy, and how fermented foods may be allies on the path to enlightenment.
Learn how the microbiome of your hands may alter the quality of the food you make and how your gut microbiota affects your thoughts and feelings.
View Karen’s demonstration of empanada folding.
Participate in a culinary ceremony to commemorate the earth element and the soil’s living creatures.
Cooking With Compassion: Module 4: Fostering the 4 Immeasurables (June 1)
It is a wonderful task to cultivate the Four Immeasurables of love, compassion, joy, and serenity because it allows you to perceive others and yourself for who we actually are: indivisible.
You often measure out components in specific proportions when you follow a recipe. This week, you’ll understand that everyone has a distinct physiology and needs certain foods to support it.
By doing this, you will develop the ability to cook with the Four Immeasurables, which will enable you to enlarge your awareness into unbounded realms of generosity and love that are immeasurable and raise your level of love and joy in order to appreciate and enjoy your sources of nourishment.
You embrace the diet that is best for your health, mind, and soul while also being kind and compassionate to yourself.
Additionally, you’ll learn about the Five Tastes of Traditional Chinese Medicine and how focusing on them when making meals helps you feel more connected to nature and optimizes your body’s digestion of nutrients.
Karen will conclude by providing recipes for enhancing your vision and improving your mood. finishing the work week with a spectacular meal.
You’ll learn this week also:
Be led in the 5 Senses Meditation, paying particular attention to sight.
Learn how preparing food with a compassionate heart has its own unique flavor.
Learn about herbs and spices that might improve your enjoyment of The Five Tastes of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Develop empathy and objectivity when thinking about the morality of consuming meat.
By not wasting items, such as liver, bones, carrot tops, and onions, you are showing respect and gratitude to your food sources.
Watch Karen make a mocktail while making it.
Participate in a culinary ceremony honoring the element of wood to deepen your relationship with the ground, the sky, and your transformation.
Zazen in Motion, Module 5: Merging Form & Emptiness (June 8)
The Heart Sutra of Buddhism declares that “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”
The Doctrine of Two Truths, which is the doctrine of relative and ultimate truth, is distilled within the words of this sutra.
This week, you’ll pay homage to this antiquated literature in your holy kitchen by first paying respect to the materials you use to prepare a meal… then giving it for the benefit of all beings.
You’ll learn about the shojin ryori, or temple cooking, method used by Zen practitioners to honor all sentient creatures and the natural cycles by choosing and using sustainable, local, in-season foods.
You’ll discover the advantages of cooking and eating from a position of profound inner quiet, and you’ll learn to balance meals and your body using the concepts of the Five Tastes. and learn more about the characteristics of tea and how it could contribute to enlightenment.
Karen will conclude by providing tips and recipes for enhancing flavor and hearing. finishing the work week with a spectacular meal.
You’ll learn this week also:
Be directed by your five senses. Meditation with a focus on hearing in particular
Create balance in your meals using the principles of the 5 Tastes — and colors that match with bodily organs in the body. Learn to concentrate on listening and appreciate stillness as the audible nothingness that allows our inner souls to be heard.
Examine the contemplative eating style known as “just enough,” or oryoki, which is practiced in Zen monasteries.
Learn how tea culture, or camellia sinensis, promotes spiritual growth and why it is an important aspect of monastic life.
View Karen’s demonstration on how to brew green tea properly.
Enjoy cups of elixirs as part of a culinary ceremony to commemorate the element of water.
Puja in Your Sacred Kitchen: Ceremonial Spices and Herbs for the Physical and Spiritual Body, Module 6 (June 15)
Many spiritual traditions perform pujas, or offering rituals, as a form of adoration, thanksgiving, and prayer.
Numerous elements of a puja closely connect to the activities you perform in your own kitchen on a daily basis. You’ll learn more about puja this week, including its components and how the five senses are reflected in them.
… and come away with a firm grasp of how to employ this important process in a straightforward yet reverent way when making a meal.
You’ll discover how to bake a torma ceremonial cake as an offering, as well as the function of particular spices, herbs, and ancient grains in pujas.
Karen will conclude by discussing ritualistic dishes and exercises for awakening your “sixth” sense. and end the week with a unique gastronomic tradition.
You’ll learn this week also:
Follow the instructions for the Five Senses Meditation, paying particular attention to the “sixth” sense of proprioception and intuition.
Learn which spices and herbs are suitable for offerings and how they may enhance both your bodily and spiritual health.
Learn how to prepare ancient grains for the best nutrient absorption, transformation, and digestion.
Watch Karen make an incense recipe while she makes it.
Use a straightforward handmade incense recipe to participate in a culinary ceremony honoring the element of fire.
Module 7: Preparing the Sacred Meal and Cooking It — A Prayer (June 22)
You’ll review everything you’ve learned so far in this last lesson and get advice on how to keep your holy kitchen and spiritual cooking practices in good shape.
… then prepare a lunch with Karen using the sacred cooking’s practical as well as spiritual qualities.
You’ll also make an offering to the shrine in your holy kitchen, designating the area as a place of worship and any food cooked there as food for all living things.
The ingredients for this dinner should be gathered in advance, but you can also just follow along by watching Karen make it.
In the most recent class, you’ll:
Improve your five senses Using meditation, one may change common sensory experiences into moments of awakened hearing, taste, feeling, and seeing.
Make a sacrifice to the shrine in your holy kitchen.
Get an understanding of the menus, ingredients, and how they apply to this lesson.
You will keep your holy kitchen and spiritual culinary practices as Karen focuses on the most significant events of the last six weeks as you prepare a dinner with your students.
Learn strategies for interpreting and using the course material on a regular basis.
As you dedicate your cooked food to the nutrition and welfare of all sentient creatures, experience a closing offering and prayers.
The Bonus Collection for The Sacred Kitchen
You will also receive these exclusive goodies with top visionaries and instructors to supplement Karen’s revolutionary 7-week online course and advance your knowledge and practice even further.
