The Silent Taste The Zen Practice of Food Valérie Duvauchelle

- through Francois Leclercq

Published on

The silent taste walking slowly in sacred Japan, that is to say on a plate. We learn through these pages that Zen is lodged in each grain of rice, each vegetable, each gesture. Valérie Duvauchelle lived for several years in Zen temples, where she learned to make meals an opportunity for awakening. The kitchen becomes, here, the laboratory of the soul. We follow the fascinating journey of this foreign woman in a country and a spirituality that she discovers; foreign to herself also until the day when she understands that the meal is an opportunity to reconnect with the essentials of her life, because food connects us to the cosmos. She straightens out her existence thanks to Buddhism, which is above all a practice of the real that awakens, a way of activating the miracle of reality through a posture of being that begins in a bowl of rice. Because, like the bowl, we can receive the universe, awaken the body of the earth in us.

We understand through these pages to what extent nature is the essence of the spiritual. Here, the dishes taste from the heart. Valérie Duvauchelle writes that "awakening through food is simply getting back in line with our completeness, allowing ourselves to be penetrated by all the flavors of the world". His book persuades us to the point that the last page turned, we enter his kitchen with a new step and we rediscover the grace of a meal

photo of author

Francois Leclercq

François Leclercq is the founder of Buddhist News, a website which aims to disseminate information and practical advice on Buddhism and spirituality. François Leclercq was born and raised in Paris. He studied Buddhism at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where he graduated in social sciences and psychology. After graduating, he devoted himself to his passion for Buddhism and traveled the world to study and learn about different practices. He notably visited Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, Japan and China.

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