When you begin to thoroughly appreciate your life, you might develop a sense of elegance and the ability to maintain a degree of relaxation and steadiness. It appears that we have chosen someone as our leader who may have given himself over to this process, not solely in terms of politics but demeanor. It could be that factor that we look for in developing dignity, personal discipline, and emotional restraint. A sense of being self-contained. Everything you need is already there; nothing is missing. Right time. Right place.

Discipline and assurance evolve from a practice of meditative or contemplative techniques, and from that tranquility and one-pointedness of mind is derived. Gentleness and sharpness do not contradict; when the knife is sharp it can easily cut through, without exerting pressure. A mind trained in concentration can remain focused on specifics without distraction, especially of worries and concerns.

Appreciating your life is not just a matter of manners and etiquette, but of attention. We can take time to eat properly, paying attention to how we pick up our fork or spoon. The manner in which we eat and feed ourselves can become sufficient medicine. The way we nourish ourselves can be life enhancing or detrimental.

These days, when the prevailing wisdom is to become more thrifty in our daily lives, we can take time to pay attention and develop awareness with eating and drinking, and do it with attention and care. Do you have enough, too much?

When you can eat properly, then you can walk properly, think properly, relate to other human beings properly. Many of the 250 monastic rules given by the Buddha are connected with how to eat properly.  Eating well is a critically important life skill.

It seems that every sum we hear these days is stated in terms of billions or gigas, while concurrently our personal accounts are shrinking. Attaining a sense of relaxation and balance can be, more than ever, a challenge. Enter the frugalista’s bean.You don’t have to be financially distressed to discover the virtues of beans. There are billions of beans: Giga-beans.

Once you learn to appreciate beans, shedding that queasy sensation of being poverty-stricken, you will discover the nutritionists’ “dream food.”

The bean can provide us a means to relax and reassure ourselves that everything changes. The life of the bean is itself an example of change. Beans go from freshly picked, to dried and preserved, to resuscitation with moisture. Legumes and beans were amongst the first cultivated crops: peas, lentils, chickpeas, fava beans, soy beans.  Combine them with nuts, seeds and grains, and you have a high fiber vegetable protein: black-eyed peas and rice, limas and corn, chickpeas and couscous.

The great jazz musician and New Orleans native Louis Armstrong liked his hometown beans and rice so much that he signed his letters “Red Beans and Ricely Yours.”  The bean and the grin are symbiotic.

A location most admired for its food is Tuscany in Italy. One of the basics essential to Tuscan cuisine is the bean. It is reported that the composer Rossini agreed to an exchange of his services for a few kilos of a special bean.

The silky, creamy and unctuous smoothness of properly prepared beans can challenge even the most discerning palate to succumb to their distinct pleasure. A sense of true richness emerges. The hint of garlic and herb -- feel the gut-filling satisfaction and soft mouth feel that accompanies each spoonful. Beans meet the challenge. They are lavish and sensual and quickly induce satiety. Beans have a very low glycemic index, which results in a very slow rise in blood sugar. They are loaded with fiber, act as antioxidants, low in calories, control blood sugar and reduce appetite. Hail the economical, often maligned, bean!

Some cardinal rules for cooking beans are: cook them at least two hours -- more if old -- gently and slowly, at the lowest possible temperature to barely simmer, and use the best olive oil.  It is recommended to cook them in anything but a metal pot (try ceramic or earthenware), as it destroys their flavor; but really a pressure cooker can come in handy.  Some chefs say to let beans soak overnight, but others feel that they begin to ferment and release gas that can cause discomfort after eating. The approach I often choose is in the recipe for Basic Beans below. Cooking beans properly avoids possible prevailing winds.

Recipes here are only for the cannellini bean. But every culture has its special bean dish: Cuban black beans, French cassoulet, Jewish cholent, Mideastern falafel and hummus, Mexican refried frijoles, Boston and Vermont baked beans, Southern black-eyed peas, Indian dals, Italian pasta e fagioli, the ubiquitous garbanzo or chickpea, and who could forget fava beans with Chianti.

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