I vow to face the truth of how the darkness works. Good morning. Good morning. Last lecture I gave here, I said that we should use the Tenzo Kyokun as a kind of textbook for our practice. And so I want to use it as a text for my talks during this Sashin. And I'll explain a little bit about it. Some of you already know something about Tenzo Kyokun. But I'll speak as if you didn't.

[01:08]

Dogen Zenji, of course, is the fountainhead of our school, his teaching. His written, Dogen Zenji wrote quite a lot for Zen Master, and his written works fall into two categories, more than two, but there are two categories, general categories. One is the Shobogenzo, and the other is the Shingi. Shobogenzo is a more philosophical and cerebral type of presentation.

[02:29]

And the Shingi is Dogen's, how Dogen taught people how to practice. And for the philosophical world at large, Shobogenzo is very important. And when people in the world look at Dogen, they call him a great religious philosopher, looking at the Shobogenzo. But for people who practice, the Shingi is actually as important or more in a certain way more important than Shobo Genzo. So for people who practice, it's important to have some understanding of Dogen's Shingi, of which the Tenzo Kyokun is a part.

[03:32]

So, Shinggi is more practical explanation or encouragement of how to practice. But it's also not just dry bones. It's not like Abhidhamma. quite wet, moist. It has all of the philosophical and deep understanding within the practical. So Tenzo Kyokun has been translated a number of times.

[04:41]

Some of the other Shingi have not been so well translated and remain to be, actually should be. But what Dogen does is he takes the example of the Tenzo the chief Zen cook in the monastery, and explains our practice from the point of view of the head cook. So tenzo has shades of meaning. It means the person, the head cook, but it also means the person who oversees the kitchen. And in Dogen's time, his focus was that the head cook should cook all the meals.

[05:52]

But in our present time, the head cook doesn't cook all the meals. We have Fukuten, who actually does most of the cooking. And Tenzo oversees the whole affairs of the kitchen. When Uchiyama Roshi translated or commented, wrote his, he didn't write the book, someone else helped him write the book, but he named the book Refining Your Life. cooking your life, how you cook your life. I remember one time when we were sitting in Sashin, years ago, Suzuki Roshi spoke during Zazen and he said, we are all like bread, loaves of bread in the oven, or like

[07:05]

vegetables cooking in the pot. That's the way he described our zazen. Sashim, you know, zazen, and especially sashim is like a big pressure cooker. And within the pressure, we get cooked. And our life is like that. Life is like a big pressure cooker. And within the pressure of life is where our life gets cooked. And we get either burnt up, or underdone, or well done, or medium rare. tender, just right, depending on how we harmonize with things.

[08:24]

So sometimes zazen is described as or compared to creating diamonds. You know, diamonds are a kind of carbon. I don't know their physical composition so much, but I do know that they're created under great heat and pressure in the earth. It takes an enormous amount of heat and pressure to create something as hard and indestructible as a diamond. And that's what sushin is like. You build up a lot of pressure. If you relieve the pressure too much, you don't cook so well. So when we sit zazen, we all have to learn how to sit.

[09:37]

And Sashin helps us to do that. Especially new people, I want you to learn how to sit Zazen. If you don't learn anything else, you should learn how to sit Zazen well. How to deal with pressure. and equalize yourself moment by moment. I remember when I was driving through Mexico a long time ago and the roads were very bumpy and I heard this big knock and then an explosion and my tire had gotten a big bulge in it and then exploded because it couldn't equalize the pressure.

[10:43]

Pretty hot, you know. So we should be careful. What we're doing in Zazen is, in Sashin, we have a lot of pressure and sometimes it builds up in one area. And we should be careful to equalize, constantly equalize the pressure so that we don't let it build up in one area. So it's a lot of work. Sitting is a lot of work. You have to actually work continually. Just like the cook in the kitchen. In the kitchen, the cook is, that's the cook sashimi. The cook is sitting sashimi in the kitchen, constantly dealing with something, moment after moment.

[11:45]

And when things get too hot for the cook, he doesn't go outside and cool off. He keeps cooking because he knows we all have to eat. And if we're sitting here waiting for it, at noontime and he's out cooling off. We won't like it. So, Dogen Zenji starts by talking about the people who run the monastery.

[13:10]

Although it looks like this text is directed toward how you live in a monastery, you have to remember that monastery is just a microcosm of the world. So when you're talking about a monastery, you're also talking about the whole world, how we live in the world. And the fundamental principles of how we live in the monastery is not different than the way we live in the world, although it may look different to you, to us. Monastery is just basic life. basic lifestyle. And life outside the monastery is expanded lifestyle, includes many, many things.

[14:11]

And we may or may not find our way through that maze of many, many things. But monastic lifestyle just is bare essentials of life. But basically they're not different. So what applies, when Dogen Zenji is talking to the monks, basic truth is also applicable to all of our lives, otherwise it doesn't make sense to discuss it. So when we deal with this kind of teaching, we need to see how it really fits our own life. So what we're really talking about is our own life. And in the development of our lay life, it's important to know how

[15:24]

to transmute Dogen's teaching into our lay life. Suzuki Roshi said that as Americans, we're looking for some way of, true way of life, true way to live our life, which may not be living our life the way Dogen Zenji lived his life. But in order to understand our practice, we have to understand Dogen Zenji's meaning. It doesn't mean we have to follow Dogen Zenji's way of doing things, but we have to understand Dogen Zenji's underlying principles in order for us to practice our practice in this present life. The form may be different, but the underlying principle has to be understood before we can know how we change our forms or how we develop our form or our way.

[16:51]

So Dogen starts out by talking about the officers of the monastery or the people who take care of things for everybody. And he says, from ancient times, in communities practicing the Buddha's way, there have been six offices established to oversee the affairs of the community. The monks holding each office are all disciples of the Buddha, and all carry out the activities of a Buddha through their respective offices. Among these officers is the Tenzo, who carries the responsibility of preparing the community's meals. A little later we'll talk about who the officers are, but these particular officers are the administrative side of the community. And the community is divided into, not the community, but the

[17:59]

leadership of the community is divided into administrative on one side and teaching on the other. And Dogen here is only dealing with the administrative side, or mainly with the administrative side, which is the director, the assistant director, the tenzo, the treasurer, and the work leader, and the person who takes care of guests in the outside world. And that's the administrative side. The teaching side would be the Abbot, the Sado, the Tanto, and the various teachers who are not administrative but just have various teaching positions.

[19:23]

So those are the two sides. Sometimes they're called the two halls. And you know the famous koan of Nansen cutting the cat in two. The monks of the two halls were arguing about the cat. So the two halls are probably the administrative side and the teaching side. They lived in different parts, or they sat in different parts of the monastery. So he says, it is written in the Chan Yuan Huin Gui, which is an old directory of how to take care of the monastery, that the function of the Tenzo is to manage the meals for the monks. This work has always been carried out by teachers settled in a way and by others who have aroused the Bodhisattva spirit within themselves. Such a practice requires exhausting all your energies.

[20:27]

If a person entrusted with this work lacks such a spirit, then that person will only endure unnecessary hardships and suffering that will have no value in that person's pursuit of the way." So this particular point is very important. The kind of responsibility that Tenzo has is to arouse bodhisattva spirit. That's the main thing. It looks like the main thing would be to cook so everybody can eat. Eating is one part. Eating is very important. But the most important part is arousing the bodhisattva spirit and working out of that spirit.

[21:30]

That's why there may be a lot of wonderful cooks. People work in French restaurants and have lots of cooking experience, but they're never put in the kitchen. The most important factor for a person being the head of the kitchen is that they have bodhisattva spirit and that they manifest that and bring that out of others arouse it in others and actually feed when we eat the food when the food is cooked and served what we eat is bodhisattva spirit looks like we're eating cereal and vegetables but you know you can taste If you eat day after day in a certain place, you can taste the flavor of the person's practice who is cooking the meals.

[22:40]

I've practiced with many different tenzins, the tassara, and I can tell you for sure that someone who is always angry or resentful or carrying something around with them. You can tell it in the food. I mean, it comes right out of the food, in the food. Someone who's very kind and benevolent, always giving up their angry mind, giving up their resentful mind, and really intent on serving. Their food tastes wonderful. kind of quality, even if it's just almost the simplest thing. He says, if you have that bodhisattva mind, then you will be happy doing what you're doing.

[23:50]

If you don't have it, then what you're doing just feels like drudgery. And how often do we encounter in our practice our tired mind, tired body and mind, like we're practicing uphill. We feel like we're practicing uphill and we can't continue so well. Usually it's because we think of what we're doing as work. It's a real sticky point, you know. In our particular practice, our way of practicing here, everybody works very hard in their life, and we don't like to take on any more than we can do, because life gets very difficult when we do.

[24:52]

But within the or area where we can do something and where we can take on a position and a way of working without, you know, where we have that freedom to do that. Within that, what makes or breaks us is whether or not we have the correct attitude of mind. Someone can work, can just go and go and go and never feel tired, never feel, even if they're tired, it's a surface tiredness, not a basic tiredness. Because when you completely give yourself up, use yourself up, then you become renewed.

[26:06]

It's like breathing. When you completely breathe out, then you completely breathe in. As soon as you exhaust all of your breath, your breath becomes renewed. But when you're only using half your breath, breathing in a very shallow way, then what you take in is very shallow. And you never feel that you can, that you have enough. This is really right, the secret of our practice is right there. When you can fully do something, even if it's only for one minute, then you can be renewed for one moment, for that one minute. I'm not talking about overdoing yourself or stretching yourself in some way that's impossible for you.

[27:16]

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about when you do something, you do it wholeheartedly, completely. And that's what Dogen's talking about. Then there's no question of being burned out. We have this phrase called being burned out, which actually is a very sensitive point. But I'm not talking about doing too much. I'm talking about when you do what you can do, And Dogen here is talking about the kind of spirit that you work with, the kind of spirit that is necessary.

[28:18]

The work has always been carried out by teachers settled in the way. Settled in the way means that you know what you're doing and why you're doing it. and by others who have aroused the bodhisattva spirit within themselves. Such a practice requires exhausting all your energies. If a person entrusted with this work lacks such a spirit, then that person will only endure unnecessary hardships and suffering that will have no value in pursuit of the way." Everything would just seem like a hardship if you don't have that spirit. and everything would just seem like too much. So he says, then he says that Chan Nguyen Huy Nguy, which is the text that he's always quoting, says, put your awakened mind to work.

[29:37]

make a constant effort to serve meals full of variety that are appropriate to the need and the occasion, and that will enable everyone to practice with their bodies and minds with the least hindrance. Down through the ages, many great teachers and patriarchs or ancestors, such as Guishan and Dongshan, have served as Tenzo. Although the work is just that of preparing meals, it is in spirit different from the work of an ordinary cook or kitchen helper. When I was in China, I talked in my spare time with many older monks who had years of experience working in the various offices. They taught me a little of what they had learned in their work. What they had to say must surely be the marrow of what has been handed down through the ages by previous Buddhas and ancestors settled in the way. we should thoroughly study the Chan Nguan Quingley concerning the overall work of the Tenzo, and moreover, listen closely to what those who have done this work have to tell us regarding the details."

[30:47]

Well, that's my introduction to this text. Tomorrow I'll continue. Later on in the text, Dogen talks about the three minds, three bodhisattva minds, which one is big, magnanimous mind, The other is joyful mind, and the third is parental mind, taking care of everyone. But joyful mind is very important. How to arouse or bring forth joyful mind?

[32:03]

in our practice so that it seems light and not heavy. In this session, a schedule is not so difficult. It's really not a difficult schedule.

[33:07]

Not something insurmountable. And what I really want to encourage everyone to do is to sit as strongly as possible. Move if you have to move. When I talk about move, I don't mean, we're always moving in some way, straightening out our posture. That's not the movement I mean. When I say don't move, I mean keep your legs crossed. If you choose a position, choose a position that's easy. Take an easy position. And then keep it. If you have to move, if you really have to move, move. But make an effort to sit still. Make an effort to see your way through without moving.

[34:15]

You can see your way through without moving, you'll have a deeper understanding of what Zazen is about. So I really encourage you to do that. Don't waste your time. This is about seven days. If you make a good, big effort, you'll find some ease in your sitting.

[35:23]

But otherwise, you can't find it. So if you have any big problems, And I'm quite happy to talk with you about it. But the easiest way to get through seven days is to put yourself completely wholeheartedly into it. That's the easy way. Thank you.

[36:26]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ