Good morning. Today marks the end of the first week of our practice period. and I've been talking about the Tenzo Kyokun, Dogen Zenji's Tenzo Kyokun. But before I give my talk, I want to say a little bit about Saturday morning. I would encourage all the people or anyone in the practice period to take advantage of our Saturday morning schedule for the practice period. If you have the opportunity, consider doing the full Saturday morning, even though it may be a little out of your ordinary way.

[01:14]

Think about that, because it's a wonderful opportunity. You know, we have the morning Sangha, and the afternoon Sangha. They're almost two different Sanghas. There's a little overlap. But Saturday morning is a time when the whole Sangha can come together. So I just want to encourage you to think about that. The wonderful thing about Dogen's Tenzo Kyokun, his instructions for the head cook, is that we can come into it anywhere and relate to it. So this is my third talk. So I'm going to have to use all my talks during this practice period, including Sashin, in order to get through it. In this part, Dogen says, Strengthen your resolve and devote your life spirit to surpassing the refinement of the ancient patriarchs or ancestors and being even more meticulous than those who came before you.

[02:31]

How do we apply our life aspiration so that it will function for the way? If great teachers in the past were able to make a plain soup from greens for only a pittance, we must try to make a fine soup for the same amount. This is very difficult to do. Among other things, there are great differences between ages past and today, so even hoping to stand alongside the teachers of former times is no simple matter. Yet, being attentive in our actions, and pouring our energy into those actions, there is no reason why we cannot equal the ancient masters. We must aspire to the highest of ideals without becoming arrogant in our manner." You know, Dogen often compares the people of the present to the people of the past. And that's not just Dogen, you know. I think in every tradition the people of the past become larger and larger, the further we get away from them.

[03:39]

Buddha was a wonderful person, but as he retreated further into the past, people started to deify him. So, I think this is true with all religious leaders. And Buddha probably had some faults, you know. We should know what those are, but unfortunately we can't. Dogen also has faults. Any good teacher has faults. Every person in the world has faults. And if you believe in God, even God has faults. Otherwise, people say, why did this happen? We love God so much. Why did He desert us? Well, God has faults. It's a radical teaching.

[04:44]

So, faults are part of life and we have to include them. Anyway, but the people of the past, you know, the great teachers of the past, we still honor them and we honor their good points and we accept their faults. But they do set examples. And Dogen's encouraging us to follow their examples and saying that even as superior as they were, they were just like we are. And we can be just like they were. It's possible. And you can even surpass them. But if you can just come up to them, it's enough. up to their spirit. But he says, we must aspire to the highest ideals without becoming arrogant in our manner.

[05:50]

That's very important, to not become arrogant in our manner. There's an old saying, you should hide your good qualities and just let everything hang out. to let people see who you really are, but not to flaunt your good qualities, and not to create an ego personality on your accomplishments. If you have enlightenment, the first thing you should do is let go of it. If you base some kind of personality career on your enlightenment, than strutting around, you know, showing off or being very stern and strict and creating an art of Zen out of your accomplishments.

[06:57]

That's worse than deluded. So, I think it's good to show your delusion. reveal your delusion, then everybody will love you. I want to say that today we have the one-year memorial for our late Dharma sister Meili Scott, who passed away just about this time last year. And she actually epitomized this kind of attitude. She started practicing in about 1970, 71. And over a period of time, developed her understanding and her practice.

[08:01]

She always practiced with humility and with great energy. As her practice developed, she became more and more devoted to practice until there was nothing else but practice in her life. and she was always on the forefront of social change and activity and helping people and was a great resource for women in the Sangha and she was She never thought of herself as anything special, but she was very special, and encouraged everyone, and epitomized this kind of attitude that Dogen's talking about. So this gives me a good opportunity to mention her today.

[09:11]

So Duggan says, these things are truly just a matter of course, yet we remain unclear about them because our minds go racing about like horses running wild in the fields, while our emotions remain unmanageable like monkeys swinging in the trees. If only we could step back to carefully reflect on the horse and the monkey our lives would naturally become one with our work. We talk about the monkey mind, you know, how to control the monkey mind. This is Zen practice, controlling the monkey mind without controlling anything. The mind is like a monkey jumping from one thing to another, restless. Monkeys, of course, are very agile, and this is their life, you know, so we should be a little like monkeys, agile and carefree at the same time, concentrated and directed.

[10:30]

So monkeys have good qualities, wonderful qualities, but at the same time, if our mind is kind of like the monkey, swinging around, we should be able to concentrate and collect the mind. So the horse, you know, there's a story about a horse, Yama Roshi talks about this horse story where the horse and the rider are galloping along and the horses something's frightened the horse and the horse is just taken off and the rider can't control the horse and the horse starts running through town upsetting all the apple carts and grocery carts and just flying along uncontrollable and

[11:38]

So one of the cart vendors yells out, what are you doing? And the guy who's riding the horse says, don't ask me, ask the horse. Uchiyama Rochi uses this little story as an example of what's happening in our world. The horse is running uncontrollably, turning over all the apple carts, and the rider has no control over it. So then he says, if we would step back to carefully reflect on the horse and the monkey, our lives would naturally become one with our work. Becoming one with our work is very important. Doing so is the means whereby we turn things even while simultaneously we are being turned by them. It is vital that we clarify and harmonize our lives with our work and not lose sight of either the absolute or the practical."

[12:48]

So there's a lot of stuff in this sentence. Suzuki Roshi gave a talk one time about should do and want to do. Want to do is like our desire, our dreams. And should do is what really needs to be done. So we always have this kind of conflict between what needs to be done, what we should be doing, and what we want to do. So our life is practice when what we should do is what we like to do, and what we like to do is what we should do. But then we say, well, how can that happen? Master Rinzai said, I control the world. So we say, well, how do you control the world?

[13:54]

He said, everything is just the way I want it to be. Difficult, difficult. And turning and being turned is a phrase that Duggan uses to harmonize by Turning is like controlling or making things happen. And being turned is like allowing yourself to be turned by things. So, there are personalities which are always turning things, but who never really want to be turned by things. And there are personalities who are always being turned by things but never can turn things.

[14:56]

So a balanced, harmonious personality is to turn and be turned. And to know when to be turned and when to turn. When to assert and when to step back. So that you dance with things. We say following the wave and driving the wave. When you are a surfer, you know, a good surfer follows the wave and drives the wave at the same time. So when you have that balance, then you ride the crest of the wave and you go with the wave. So the wave carries you But at the same time, you are creating this opportunity for the wave to do that.

[15:58]

You're putting yourself in place. So to always be flowing with that balance and harmonizing with your surroundings, harmonizing with our circumstances, knowing when to assert and when to allow ourselves to be turned. And this is the same as It's like letting go of self and at the same time acknowledging self.

[17:12]

So we always stay within the non-duality of the situation. If we say, I have no self, that's only half right. If we say, I am only self, that's also only half right. So, no self includes self, and self includes no self. What we say is a self is not a self. But not-self also includes self. Otherwise, why do we need to say non-self if there wasn't a self? So if you fall into one side or the other, you have a problem. So the point is how to remain in the absolute realm while operating in the relative realm.

[18:18]

So Dogen, in this Tenzo Kyokun, he talks about the practical aspects of cooking. And then he switches to the more philosophical, and he kind of goes back and forth. So now he's talking about how to do something. He says, handle even a single leaf of a green in such a way that it manifests the body of the Buddha. This in turn allows the Buddha to manifest through the leaf. This is a power which you cannot grasp with your rational mind. It operates freely according to the situation in the most natural way. At the same time, this power functions in our lives to clarify and settle activities and is beneficial to all living beings. to see the Buddha nature in a leaf, to see the Buddha nature in a person, to see the Buddha nature in the pots and pans.

[19:41]

If we look for the Buddha nature in things, then everything comes alive. There are no dead things and live things. Everything is alive. And when we treat things as part of our life, then the world does come to life. The bell has a life of its own, so to speak. The mokugyo has a life of its own. But only when we bring out that life. So, things come to life through us, and we come to life through things. We create the bell, and the bell creates us because whatever we interact with is creating us. So it's a mutual situation, a situation of mutuality.

[20:47]

We tend to think that I am here amongst all these objects, but there is no me and objects. There's simply the interaction of life flowing through me and life flowing through objects. And to connect with that life is our life. So we are created by our surroundings and we create our surroundings at the same time. He says, after all the preparations for the meal are complete, clean up thoroughly, putting everything back where it ought to be. When the drum sounds and the bell rings, both morning and evening, be sure not to miss Zazen, nor going to see the teacher to receive his teaching. When you return to your room, shut your eyes, he's talking about the head cook, right?

[21:51]

You should shut your eyes and count the number of people in the Sodo. Sodo is another name for Zendo, except that it means usually used for the place where the monks sleep. They sleep in the Soto and also do Zazen in the Soto. Do not forget the elder priests and the retired monks, plus those living in single rooms. Include those in the infirmary or any other elderly people. In addition to these, any monks who are on leave and others who may have just arrived, but are not yet living fully within the community should be taken into account. And finally, those living in any of the sub-temples within the complex must be added. If there are any doubts, check with the heads of the offices or those in charge of the various residences where people might be staying. In other words, account for everybody when you're cooking.

[22:54]

Don't leave anybody out. And make sure you know who's not there. So then he says, when you know the exact number in the community, then calculate the amount of food to be cooked. For every grain of rice to be eaten, supply one grain. In dividing one grain, the result may be two half grains. That's mathematics, right? Or possibly three or four. On the other hand, one grain might equal a half a grain, or perhaps two half a grains. Then again, two half grains might be counted as one whole grain. You must be able to clearly see how much of a surplus will be created if you add one unit of rice, or whether there will be enough if you take away one unit. So, you think, be very careful about how you portion out the food.

[23:58]

You really don't want the perfect thing would be to have a meal come out just right so there's nothing left over and everybody's satisfied. That would be ideal. That never happens. Sometimes happens. It sometimes happens. But that should be a kind of goal for the cook. And then he says, when you eat a grain of lu ling rice, you may become the monk Guishan. When you add a grain, you may become the cow. Sometimes the cow eats Guishan, and sometimes Guishan pastures the cow. Now, there's a lot of background. If you don't have the background, you don't know what he's talking about. So here's the background. One day, Guishan said, A hundred years after my death, I will be reborn as a cow to a parishioner on this mountain.

[25:07]

On the flank of this cow will be written, I am Guishan. If you say that the cow is me, you will be wrong because it is just a cow. And if you say it is just a cow, you will be wrong because it will be me. So what should you call it? This is Guishan's koan. Guishan was a very famous Zen master in China in the Tang Dynasty. Guishan and Yangshan. Yangshan was his disciple. And the Guiyang school of Zen, one of the five schools of Zen, comes from Guishan and Yangshan. And when you read the stories about the Guiyang school, Yangshan is always asking Guishan a question and then they discuss it. Very interesting. You should look up the

[26:09]

Guiyang school to read some of the dialogues between Guishan and Yangshan. So Guishan lived on Mount Gui. In Japanese, Isan. You may be more familiar with Isan. Isan was what he's called in Japanese. So Mount Gui is where he lived, that's where he's called Guishan, Gui Mountain. But Guishan taught, one of his ways of teaching was through circles. He had a hundred circles and he used them in different ways to teach, as teaching devices. And he also used water buffalo. In China, a lot of water buffalo and sometimes they're called cows.

[27:10]

So the cow and the circle were used as teaching devices, probably coming from Guishan. The ten ox-herding pictures, which you may be familiar with, is a kind of, I'm pretty sure, a later development of Guishan circles. And Tozan also used circles in the five ranks. But the cow is somewhat attributed to Isan or Guishan. Guishan has a circle and he puts the character for a cow in the circle. And the cow in the circle is a cow eating patient's grass. The circle with the character for the cow is a cow eating patient's grass. That's a wonderful image. Eating patient's grass is like

[28:13]

Well, here's a little story. From priest Daoan Yuanzhi, who lived on Mount Isan, he said, I have lived on Mount... I told you the story. I tell you the story all the time. I have lived on Mount Isan for over 30 years. I have done nothing but eaten Isan's rice and shit Isan's shit. I learned nothing from my master Isan. The only thing I have accomplished was to tame a water buffalo. When he wandered off the road, I yanked him back. And if he trampled after others' fields, I struck him with my whip. After a while, he became quite tame. Such an adorable one. The only problem was that he would follow anyone who called him.

[29:16]

But now, he's changed into a pure white beast who stays next to me and always looks serene and bright. Even if I try to chase him away, she stays right there. So, pure white beast, there's nothing racial about this. It's simply don't take it the wrong way. It means pure in a sense. Back to Guishan's water buffalo, his cow. He says, 100 years after my death, I will be reborn as a cow to a parishioner on this mountain.

[30:22]

On the flank of this cow will be written, I am Guishan. If you say that the cow is me, you will be wrong because it is just a cow. And if you say it is just a cow, you'll be wrong because it is me. So the cow is like form. And Guishan is like emptiness, Buddha nature. So Dogen, I mean, Guishan is not, this is what he means when he's talking about the cow. The cow is like the person. And, you know, in the ox herding pictures, the little boy is searching for himself. He's searching for his true self. And in order for him to understand his true self, he has to realize emptiness before he can realize who he is.

[31:33]

So, is Guishan form or is he emptiness? Is he Buddha nature, or is he Guishan, or is he, what is he? Which one, if you say he's one or the other, you fall into delusion. So what will you say? So then, Dogen says, consider whether you have thoroughly understood these matters and are able to make these calculations. He's still talking about the food, right? When you eat a grain of Lu Ling rice, you may become the monk Guishan. Lu Ling, there's a koan also about what is the price of, a monk says, asks the master, what is Buddha nature? And the master says, what is the price of rice in Lu Ling? So he says, when you eat a grain of Lu Ling rice,

[32:41]

you may become the monk Guishan. When you add a grain, you may become the cow. Sometimes the cow eats Guishan, and sometimes Guishan eats the cow. So the cow eating Guishan is like stillness within activity. Guishan eating the cow is like activity within stillness. Consider whether you have thoroughly understood these matters and are able to make these calculations. I was talking about the rice. Back to the kitchen. Go back over everything again, and when you have understood these details, be prepared to explain them to others according to their capacity to understand. Not as to... Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Use ingenuity in your practice. See the cow and Guishan as what?

[33:43]

but not as two, even though temporarily they appear that way. In your day-to-day life, do not forget this even for a moment. So, even though we appear to be independent, there's only an independency, as Suzuki Roshi says. Things have an independency, a tendency to be independent, or an appearance of independence, But actually everything is not independent, it's interdependent. And independent, interdependent, and non-dependent, and dependent. If someone comes to make a monetary donation for the food, Consider the other officers concerning how that money is to be used. This has been the custom in Buddhist communities even down through the ages.

[34:46]

As for other kinds of donations to the community, such as items which will be distributed among the residents, again, consult the other officers. In other words, do not infringe on the authority of other officers or make decisions outside the boundary of your own responsibility. This is a very important point. That part is like, you should consult with people. If you bypass somebody in a chain of the working chain, even though you may think it's not necessary to let somebody know what's happening when you do something, that person will resent the fact that they're not informed and create a big problem. even though it's not a problem at all. So you have to be mindful of who needs to know something, even though they don't have anything to do with what you're doing. So how to disseminate information and to let everybody who needs to know, even though they don't need to know, about something that's happening.

[35:57]

Because when you bypass somebody, They don't like it, and they cause a problem. The other part of this is, just do your thing. You know, often we see, well, the bathroom is not being taken care of by the person who takes care of that, so I'll do it. Uh-uh. Just let it go. Don't do somebody else's work. Otherwise, that person will never know there's a problem. you're supposed to be doing the work, and they'll just let you do it. Or you'll be embarrassing them by doing their work. Or you'll be taking something away from them they should be doing. Just mind your own business. Do your work and let somebody else do their work. And if they're not doing it, the fact that they're not doing it will catch up with them if nobody does it. for them, then they'll know, oh, problem here.

[37:05]

Then the right person will tell them. The person whose responsibility is to tell them will tell them, not you. If somebody is doing something that you don't like, that you feel is, they're not doing their work right, don't correct them. the work leader or tell the manager or somebody so that person can talk to them. Otherwise, you create a personal problem. As soon as you start taking the responsibility on yourself to correct somebody, you're creating a personal problem. We should understand this. Most of our problems come up because of that. So, you tell the zendo manager, if something's happening to Sashin, somebody's breathing heavily next to you, or you know, snoring, or they're not doing the arioke right, or something. Don't say anything to them.

[38:08]

Tell the zendo manager, or the Sashin director. And that person has the authority to talk to the person. And then, it doesn't become a personal... Anytime you tell somebody something, it becomes a personal problem. So, avoid that, please. After each meal has been carefully prepared, place it on a table. After each meal has been carefully prepared, then you place it on the table, put on your rub, you're talking to the monks, you put on your okesa, and spread out your zago, you're bowing that, and facing the sodo, or the place where you eat, where everyone does zazen, offer incense and bow nine times. Afterwards, carry the meal into the sodo. So we do that, and we bow in the zendo here, so people can see that this is the cook. and the cook is offering the meal, and we respect that. Actually, that happens in the kitchen, but we bring it into the zendo.

[39:16]

All day and all night, the tenzo has to make arrangements and prepare meals without wasting a moment. all day and all night. It's just, that's a little extreme, you know. But you understand what he means. If he throws all of his energy into whatever the situation truly calls for, then both the activity and the method by which it's carried out will naturally work to nurture the seeds of the Buddhadharma. Just taking care of the function of the Tenzo enables all the residents in the community to carry on their practice in the most stable way. That doesn't go just for the Tenzo, when everybody is really into their position, taking care of their position. I don't want to say job, into their position, their Dharma position, their practice position, then you control the whole practice. When you're doing your practice thoroughly, even if it's general labor or the gardener or whatever, toilet cleaner, when you're doing your job thoroughly, you are controlling the whole practice.

[40:27]

It's not like the person at the top is controlling. Yeah, the person at the top is controlling their practice, is controlling their practice from their position, but you're also controlling the practice from your position, without controlling anything. But because you are doing your practice thoroughly, the practice works. When you're not, there's something wrong, because it's one body. The practice is one body when we're all together practicing. And these are all the parts of one body. And when all the parts are working thoroughly and correctly, wholeheartedly, the body feels good. The body's healthy. So Tatsagami Roshi, one of my teachers, used to say, look at Tathagata. The Sangha is one monk. Just one monk.

[41:30]

And these are all the parts of that one, all the guts and members with some fingers, noses. It has been, where did I go? This is a long section. Okay. It has been several hundred years since the Buddhadharma was introduced into Japan. This is, he's talking, he's in the 13th century. Yet no one has ever written about the preparation and serving of meals as an expression of Buddhadharma. nor have any teachers taught concerning these matters. Much less has there been any mention of bowing nine times prior to offering the meal to the residents. Such a practice has never entered the minds of people in this country, Japan.

[42:31]

Here, people think nothing of eating like animals with no concern for the way they eat. What a pathetic state of affairs. It truly saddens me to see things this way. Why must it be like this? Well, Dogen is very meticulous about how everything we do is practice. And in the next episode, he talks about how his practice is influenced by the cooks that he met in China. It was a big eye-opener for him. Also, you know, in Buddha's time, Buddha did talk about cooking because the monks didn't cook. In India, there was no cooking.

[43:33]

It's only begging. The monks' total support was through begging. They were not allowed to cook. They were not allowed to carry money. They were not only allowed to have three bowls and a rope. In China, the monks couldn't live the way they did in India, so they developed their own gardens and fields, as well as being given donations. And in Japan, the monks also tended the fields, and also started cooking for themselves. In China, the monks started cooking for themselves. So, Buddha did not have that kind of vinaya. But, if you read the vinaya, the 250 rules for monks, you find that Buddha talks about how to eat.

[44:39]

In India, the monks eat with their, everybody eats with their hands, fingers. They don't have chopsticks and forks, so the custom is to eat with your hands. So he talks about how you eat with your hands, you know, how to eat a rice ball and how not to... don't stuff it in your mouth, you know, and wait until you've swallowed what you've eaten before you take another bite. And, you know, he talks about all the aspects of how to eat with your fingers. So it's not peculiar to Dogen to talk this way. It's right there in the Vinaya. And Dogen is simply trying to uphold the Vinaya. And he introduces his own, you know, he's introducing this practice to Japan, actually. So do you have any questions?

[45:42]

Hi, thank you very much for that comment. I just wanted to say that, make a comment with the question, is there not also when you're doing somebody else's job, not only taking away from that person and the integrity of the space, really, because what you really are doing is want to affirm the integrity of each other's Right. Well, you're invading someone else's space, that's right. That's right. Right, and the fact that you think that you're doing something wonderful is also a kind of pollution of the space. Yeah, so we have to be very careful about that. How not to enter someone else's space and take it over.

[46:51]

Just to testify that I talk to you about my house a lot. Yes, you do. I have adjacent neighbors and I always took care of neglected property and over over the almost 14 years I've been there, as a result, I have blight on both sides. I have a lot of resentment. I mean, actually, in this last year, it's smoothed out a lot, but I really finally saw the light of... I thought I was doing it kind of in a... in a detached way. I would just tend to neglected areas, and really, I got a lot back that wasn't good. I know exactly what you're talking about. Things have been better since I have just let it be. And I'm beginning to see people do their own thing now. I think, you know, wherever we are, we create our space. And whatever the world, you know, whatever is going on around us,

[47:59]

If our practice, you know, we create our practice space, you know, our practice and our space is the same thing. And just to set up that within the chaos of the world, whatever that may be, you know, is how we influence the world. not by trying to change the world, because you can't do that, but just by being yourself and making your space what you think it should be influences the world. One morning in Tassajara, I was a breakfast cook, and the Tenzo told me to make X amount. And I said to her, I didn't think that was enough, and we had this discussion. And she said, no, only make this amount. So I was cooking, and I got more and more nervous, because I knew it wouldn't be enough. So I had to make a decision. Do I obey the Tenzo, or do I make what I think is enough?

[49:01]

And finally, I opted for making more. She got very annoyed with me, but actually if I hadn't done it, there wouldn't have been enough. And I never did feel quite sure about the decision, but I was so concerned about there being enough. But she was annoyed with me. Well, the situation there is that as long as you're willing to take responsibility for what you're doing, I was. I mean, I paid for it, but I felt it was worth it. Yeah, so that's right. So you take responsibility for it. You say, I'm, you know, as long as you know what you're doing and say, well, I'll take the consequences of this by adding more, right? You're willing to do that. So whatever happens as a result is what happens. You have to accept. But that's taking responsibility.

[50:03]

So, yes, you know. But it would have been okay also to not do it. To not add. And then the Tenzo would have had to say, well, it was my mistake. So, either way, you know, it's a good problem. Very good problem. One way, the Tenzo takes the responsibility, and in the other way, you take the responsibility. for what happens. So the meal came out right, but you still had to take a little flack from the tensor because you overstepped the boundary. But you have to accept that. It's part of life. It doesn't come out as justice. Oh, Catherine. I was very interested in the teaching, Become One with your work.

[51:05]

And I do have the experience often of becoming very focused, very into my work. I mean, everything else falls away. If someone speaks to me, I may not even hear them. And I'm not sure that's what's meant. And I also hear that treat every leaf of green as if it were Buddha, you know, you saw the Buddha nature. As it is Buddha nature, it's not as if, no. As what it is. Sometimes after we've had one of these talks, or I'm in session or something, I'm becoming one with my work, but then I find myself doing this mental thing of this That's right. See the Buddha nature and everything, but don't say this is Buddha nature.

[52:08]

As soon as you start intellectualizing it. Is it possible to become too engrossed in your work? Well, as Dogen says, don't get so engrossed that you only see this narrow thing and don't see the rest. So, it's not like some super concentration, you know, that's not it. Super concentration is just super concentration. It's like being at ease with things. You know, slower, fast, real, concentrated on one spot. In Zazen, you don't try to concentrate on one spot. You concentrate on everything. You go over the points of your posture. Sometimes it's your breath. Whatever you're one with. It's like not being self-conscious.

[53:14]

Self-consciousness has two aspects, as I like to say. One way of self-consciousness is division. It's like, I am self-conscious, so everything around me is an object. That's called self-consciousness. You can't do anything, you know, because you're so self-conscious, you get stage fright, because you're separated from, you're not one with what you're doing. So, the other self-consciousness is to see everything as yourself. be conscious of everything as myself, then there's no separation. That's to be one with your activity. Totally self-conscious. But that's conscious. I mean, it's not like you're so absorbed. It's not like you're super absorbed. Simply that you're at ease with everything as yourself. And you're aware. Peace out.

[54:17]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ