Buddha and the Orange Cake

I am sure that if Prince Gautama was sitting with me in earthly form he too would have enjoyed each crumb of the most delicious orange cake I have ever tasted. It was possibly the best cake full stop. True manna manifest!

It may have been the surroundings, it may have been the cake. The surroundings were a small lodge set in the gardens of a magnificent Georgian manor on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds near Pocklington. This manor is the home to a Buddhist retreat in the New Kadampa Tradition, a tradition that is a little less than traditional according to a certain Mr HH The Dalai Lama!

Nevertheless the orange cake was stunning. Each mouthful moist without being wet, crumbly without being crummy, sweet without being cloying, tart without being acidic. A perfect balance. A balance to be enjoyed each mouthful at a time. The initial bite and fullness in the mouth. Each movement of teeth and tongue releasing new flavours, new textures. The crumb of the cake, the soft sandiness of the buttercream, the tartness of the orange jam, the sweet smoothness of the orange glaze.

A cake in perfect balance. A cake in the Buddhist tradition.

The teaching at the retreat is everything you might expect from a Buddhist scholar and yet it is more. It is a vibrant teaching with humour, spiritual and secular, mindful and worldly, a curious invitation to utilise what they believe to be a true solution to suffering. One of the four noble truths of Buddhism, that there is suffering. Fortunately for us a second noble truth of Buddhism is that there can be a relief to suffering.

The day was presented as a retreat for Loving Kindness and the opening teaching was to share with us a heart warming story. When Venerable Lodro was a student he was to be taken out for a birthday treat. A special visit to the secular to contrast the spiritual. The journey was apparently a short one as they went to a local hospital to visit the mortuary and to speak to the mortician.

A lesson was learned, the most valuable lesson. To make any transformation in our lives be made truly lasting we must accept that death is certain and the only uncertainty is that the time of our death is uncertain.

With acceptance of this knowledge we can truly free our minds and live a liberated life. The only thing worse than fearing death is not to fulfil our lives because of it.

It was a truly magnificent orange cake.