Monthly Archives: December 2014

Food Fermentation Basics

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I used to think that the tradition of fermenting food was just a way to preserve food.
I didn’t realize that it also increases the bioavailability of nutrients and provides friendly bacteria that help balance the gut and support a healthy immune system.

I tired once, in my early twenties, to make saurkraut.  I used a large crock and left the cabbage salt mix outside.  I was a little uneasy with the results and they found their way back to mother earth without touching my digestive system.

More recently I became interested in the process of fermentation when I read about the tooth decay diet.  They suggested fermenting grains as well as vegetables.  I thought I’d give it a try.  I was particularly interested in making pickled watermelon rinds, since I had quite a few watermelon volunteers (Yes, only in Phoenix are you still harvesting watermelon in November and December.)

The supplies are rather easy to get.  I ordered mine from Amazon.  First you need to have a container where you can ferment the vegetables in the absence of oxygen.  A glass mason jar with food grade plastic cap and a bubble airlock with a stopper do nicely. I ordered my items separately which ended up costing about $45 dollars.  The caps were the big ticket item ($28).  I choose reCaps, because I could verify that they were BPA & Phthalates-free. Fermentation basics - jar, reCap lid, stopper and airlockIf you are price sensitive you may want to try this beginners kit which is only $25 and essentially has the same items.  I didn’t opt for the beginners kit myself, because, although it was food grade, I couldn’t find information about BPA and Phthalates.  However, the brew doesn’t normally touch the cap anyway and I wasn’t really impressed by the reCaps I used.

The fermentation process does best when it is warm.  If you want you can monitor the temperature with a Thermometer.  Since it is beginning to get chilly in Phoenix, I used a Heating Pad when it was getting below 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Most heating pads these days have an auto off function, the one I used is a rarity.  It stays on until turned off manually.

The airlock comes in three pieces.  The main body, a plastic How to use the bubble airlockinsert and the plastic cap.  Remove the plastic cap and the insert.  Then fill the main body with water about 3/4 of the way full.  There is a “fill line” if your eyes are good and you can see it.  Then drop the insert back in and place the cap in position. See picture to the right.

Extra gas coming up from the fermentation vessel with push the insert up a little and release gas to the space above the water.  The extra gas then leaves through the pin holes in the plastic cap.  This device allows the carbon dioxide to leave and prevents any oxygen from entering, allowing the mixture to ferment anaerobically.

Now for the fun.  What can you ferment?  Anything vegetable and then some!  I started with watermelon rinds and green beans.  Here are my recipes:

Old-Fashioned Pickled Watermelon Rinds (no sugar)

Old-Fashioned Pickled Green Beans (no sugar)

Your purchase using the following links supports TESLI.  Thanks!




Dream Yoga

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In August, when I visited the Shambhala Center in Davis, I picked up the book of Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light .  I don’t usually read popular literature, but it was laid out for free and lucid dreaming has been something I had some limited interest in and thought I might pursue.  I had some limited experience with lucid dreaming and wanted to learn if this might be a tool to clear some of the trauma residues that I still carried in my subconscious and that seemed to manifest in my dreams.

This was my first contact with the author, Namkhai Norbu, but I was pleased to find that he was a recognized Tibetan lama with an excellent Dzogchen teacher.   Both his teacher and paternal uncle achieved rainbow body.  His awareness of ultimate reality and the path to enlightenment came through in the book.  For instance, he clearly understands that dream interpretation or focusing on the content of the dream are not useful activities for one aspiring to liberation.  In fact, pursuing lucid dreaming was not a goal at all.  He says:

dzogchen symbol Ah

White symbol of the Tibetan letter A. (Pronounced Ah) Copyright Paul GNU free

In the Dzogchen system, it is not necessary that one commit oneself to working on dreams.  That will arise naturally out of the practice of the natural light.  The most important thing for this practice, as I have described, is to do the particular visualization of the white “A” before sleeping.  In doing this visualization we use the working of the mind in order eventually go beyond the mind.

I started doing the practice on December 11, 2014 with the idea that I would commit to it for a month and then reevaluate.  His instructions are quite simple, as many effective spiritual teachings are.  The key part is to practice.

I appreciated Namkhai Norbu’s presentation of the nature and classes of dreams. In it he demonstrates a good understanding of dreams.  First, he divides dreams into two broad classes:  Those arising from karmic seeds or traces and those arising from the clarity of the mind.  Those arising from karma can be due to the current state of the persons body, energy and speech or tensions in their mind or they can be due to karmic traces from an earlier time or from the recent past.  Clarity dreams provide insight that allows the practitioner to progress towards liberation.

I highly recommend the book.  You can borrow my copy or your purchase using the link below support TESLI.  Thanks!


Karma

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Karma is defined as the movement of the mind and what it motivates.

It is said that the subtle workings of karma are harder to perceive than ultimate reality itself.  This suggests that the karmic results we see around us are not as simple as direct cause and effect. Many factors go into the results we experience.

In the opening lines of the fourth chapter of the Abhidharmakosa we are told

Deeds (karma) make up the multitude of worlds.

Since many people call the creator of the universe “God” we find here an alternate definition of God as Karma (and vice versa Karma is God).

Another good definition is offered by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  Karma is the force generated by a person’s actions held in Hinduism and Buddhism to perpetuate transmigration and in its ethical consequences to determine the nature of the person’s next existence.

What is “next existence”?  The Buddhist understanding is that we are all changing things and a changing thing lasts less than a second.  So our next existence is who we are in the next moment, and the next, and the next….

Simplified Model of Karma

When one thinks or does an action this creates a seed, trace or mental potential that is held associated with the mindstream.  At a later date, when conditions are optimal, the seed ripens and the karmic result is experienced.  For instance, if I give money to a friend, I create a seed that can ripen into me receiving money from someone in the future.

Four Characteristics of Karma

  1. All actions lead to a result of similar type.
  2. The consequences are greater than the original action.
  3. If you experience something, you must have done the causal action in the past.
  4. Once you do the action the result cannot be lost.

 

The first characteristic means that if I give someone money I get money as a result.  If I instead call them a name, then I create the potential to be called a name in the future.

The second characteristic implies that the seeds that are planted “grow” during their latency period.  Just like an acorn produces a great oak, the seed of giving a dollar has the potential to come back as a thousand dollars.

The third characteristic is that everything you experience is due to something you have done in the past.  No more room for being a victim once you have this understanding.  This also frees us to be able to create our liberation.  Freedom is only possible if we have control over our destiny.

The fourth characteristic is that once you create the seed, it will not just disappear.  However, it you do not want that seed to ever germinate then you can do the practice of the four powers that the Buddha taught.  The instructions are in my book:  The Twelve Steps as  a Path to Enlightenment.