We've long admired the Poet Laureate columns on our sister home site, and in that vein we now welcome Dana Velden to our weekends in The Kitchn. Dana lives in San Francisco and will contribute meditations on kitchen, home, and hospitality. Welcome Dana!
It's an interesting experiment to occasionally challenge our assumptions about what is a pleasurable activity and what is pure drudgery. Washing the dishes is a classic let's-get-this-over-with task. We've even invented a machine to do this for us, which basically just creates a new chore as we endlessly load and unload the beast.
But imagine this: lingering over a sink full of warm, fragrant bubbles, maybe listening to Bach or some old-school reggae or a favorite soundtrack as thoughts and the long, crazy day disappear down the drain. Sounds kind of nice, yes?
It's also a great time to hang out with your sweetie, talking about the day or planning your next dance party as the rhythms of wash/rinse/dry and the limbic resonance of shared activity stitch together an ordinary but precious intimacy.
Children, casual guests and good friends all make good washing-up companions, too. And if you're a monk type, there's always the cultivation of in-the-moment satori as you carefully wash your one bowl, one fork (in silence and with unscented soap, of course.)
In the Zen vernacular, when you wash the dishes, the dishes also wash you. In other words, when you completely give over to the task at hand, something is unwound, revealed, opened up. It's not about making everything perfect and scrubbed clean. It's more like allowing something a little more wild and mysterious and unknown to come forward. Everyday life holds just as much possibility for this as any ashram or meditation hall, it just takes a willingness to engage the moment without any ideas around how it should be.
There's a beautiful practicality here as well because, those dishes? They may wash you but they won't wash themselves. So roll up your sleeves, take a breath and plunge in completely.
(Photo: Dana Velden for The Kitchn. Dana says: These photos are taken of my collection of teeny tiny Buddhas that preside over my kitchen sink. )
This post is by Dana, a weekend contributor of meditations on kitchen, home, and hospitality. Welcome Dana!
I agree--I've always considered washing dishes one of my calming chores, so I usually wash them by hand and just use my dishwasher as a drying rack. I like how you relate it back to the Zen philosophy of just focusing on what you're doing. Did you see the movie "How to Cook Your Life"? Zen Chef Edward Espe Brown talked about it and applied it to the practice of making bread--instead of thinking about a million different things, especially the stressful or trivial issues going on around us, just think about making bread and leave everything else to itself until you can turn to it and focus completely on it.
view OneWallKitchen's profile
Great post Dana! Now if you only lived a tad closer, we could "practice" washing dishes all the time here! :^)
No dishwashing machine here -- loading it and unloading it is way more work, and way less pleasurable, than just doing them.
I need a little jizo to go on my stove, too............
But what I really want is the mindfulness bell I discovered at Tassajara -- I'm sure folks here would love hear about it in a future post!
view breakawaycook's profile
I love the act of washing dishes. It has not only been meditative and relaxing, but there is something very loving and caring about the process. Thank you so much for this, and I love your little buddhas :)
Daigan
view Daigan's profile
When I was a young girl we had to wash the dishes by hand before they went into the dishwasher, my mother still doesn't trust the machine! When I was given the "chore" of loading the dishwasher I fell in love with this activity. I enjoyed making a game of placing the dishes in different design patterns each night. Now, I don't have a dishwasher but I still love ending a meal with doing the meditative act of washing dishes. I think the dishes help wash the food more smoothly through my body! I look forward to seeing what new designs or patterns the activity will reveal in me. Thanks for sharing this practice with me Dana!
view Trishadish's profile
Hey Dana, I feel so lucky! I've tasted the wonderful food you've presented as the head cook at San Francisco Zen Center's temple in San Francisco. I've worked in the kitchen under your direction and washed, chopped, stirred food and washed dishes, dishes, dishes...and then some more...I hope one day you'll write about making Stone Soup...do you remember the day I walked into the kitchen and said, "Guess what, I didn't realize we were going to offer lunch to about 40-50 extra people today? And your reply?
A bow to you, true dharma
view truedharma's profile
Hey, I wanted to weigh in in support of loading the dishwasher as a mindful and fulfilling activity.
Also... Great blog Dana!
view stupahead's profile
aloha,
Thank you internet! i google "washing dishes meditating", now im here. Awesome to have found like minded folks, i meditated up this movie scene, meditate any where, shower, toilet, bed, bus, etc...how to "change the way you look at things and the things you look at change", i love to cook but love more to clean! more to wash, more time to meditate. let me chop the onions, tears of joy, practicing/perfecting my brunoise. "imagination"...spongebob.
view edwardvu's profile