O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Today I'm going to continue with Tenzo Gyokun of Dogon Zenji. Yesterday he was talking about the officers, people who take care of the responsibility, main responsibility in sangha.

[01:17]

and the attitude of those people. He says, I shall not take up the work of the Tenzo, covering a period of one complete day. He talks about what the Tenzo does, what the Tenzo's attitude is, and how he should go about doing certain things, he or she. He uses the word he, but he really means he or she. After the noon meal, the Tenzo should go to the tsus and kants to get the rice, vegetables, and other ingredients for the following morning and noon meals. Once Tenzo has these, he must handle them as carefully as if they were his own eyes.

[02:25]

Ren Yong of Bao Neng said, he's always quoting various people, use the property and possessions of the community as carefully as if they were your own eyes. The Tenzo should handle all food he receives with respect as if it were to be used in a meal for the emperor. Cooked and uncooked food must be handled in the same manner. Next, all the officers meet in a kitchen or pantry and decide what food is to be prepared for the following day. For example, the type of rice gruel, the vegetables, the seasoning. In the Chan-Yuan-Kin-Gui, it says, when deciding on the amount of food and number of side dishes for the morning and noonday meals, the Tenzo should consult with the other officers. And then he says, these other officers are the tsus, the kans, the fus, the ino, and the shisui. The tsus, as I said yesterday, tsus is the director, what we call the director.

[03:28]

The kans, kansu, kans is the assistant director and sometimes a liaison for outside world. And the fus, is the treasurer, the Ino is the head of the monk's practice, and the Shisui is the work leader. So all of these positions, these six positions, are the officers who actually take charge of running the Sangha, the affairs of the Sangha. And when they have chosen the meals, the menus should be posted on the notice boards in front of the abbot's room, as well as in front of the study hall. Strictly speaking, when we have a meal, we should post the menu outside the zendo, or the community room door.

[04:33]

The community room door should be a menu posted. So, Dogen is talking about how the Tenzo should handle what's given to him to work with and also how to consult with people in a harmonious way so that He doesn't overstep his bounds and kind of do everything in his own way. I've been so well trained here at Berkeley by all of you. When I go to Tassajara, I never make any unilateral decisions.

[05:40]

And it's a little bit unusual, you know, because when I first I went to Tazahara and people said, well, what shall we do about this? And what shall we do about that? And I said, well, let's talk to the practice committee. Let's talk to the officers about it. Oh, really? And it's actually been quite beneficial to everybody to have things done that way. It's not that they don't work that way, but they don't always work that way. And they're quite used to asking the abbot What shall we do? And I very rarely answer questions like that. So you've all been very kind to me. Beat me to death. And that's a Doganist thing, too. You consult with six officers over the meal.

[06:44]

Of course, we don't do that. It's too difficult. In Dogen's monastery, it was probably possible, but maybe not even for him. But the attitude is what's important. The attitude of being in touch with everybody, being in touch with your peers, and not just deciding everything by yourself. taking into consideration other people's feelings. When we don't do that, we really find ourselves out on a limb, and we soon get hurt by it. The fine art of relating becomes more and more subtle. And it takes a long time to learn, actually.

[07:51]

The other side of what Dogen is talking about, handling the ingredients as if they were your own mind. This is something that we're always talking about. When I was in high school, junior high, we had a wood shop, electric shop. I don't know if you had those when you were in junior high, but we had the various, for boys, we had the various shops. Girls had sewing and something else. But the boys had wood shop and so forth. And I remember my wood shop teacher, showed me, he showed us how to take a piece of wood and get the most out of it. You know, when you're a little kid and you want to get a shape out of a piece of wood, you just put the piece of your pattern or whatever it is on the piece of wood and cut it out.

[09:06]

But to really, it's not just the piece that you want that counts, but it's the piece of wood that you're approaching that you have to have some respect for. So he showed us how you take the piece that you want to cut out and put it over in one corner so that you still save the rest of the wood and make it useful for some other project. Not just cut the heart out, and throw it away. And I remember when I used to make model airplanes as a little kid. And in the kit, you'd get a piece of balsa wood that was about this big. And on it, it had all the ribs for the wings and parts stamped. And you'd have to cut them out very carefully. And they were put together.

[10:10]

And that one little piece of balsa wood so carefully, so that when you cut out all those pieces, there's almost nothing left over. Wonderful conservation of material and attention to detail. And it seems like in the years since the end of the Second World War, because people have a lot of money and are able to fulfill their desires more easily, that there's less and less respect for materials and how we use them and how we approach them and how we conserve. In some respects, there have been great strides in conservation. In other respects, it's just been total waste. mindless waste, which in a sense, you know, is okay.

[11:18]

Everything, in one sense, everything just comes and goes, right? But in another sense, everything that comes and goes is very precious. And for Dogon, you know, how to use one blade of grass to create a Buddha. That kind of attitude is what is running through what he's talking about. How to actually see Buddha nature in every blade of grass or in each grain of salt or each grain of rice and how to let that, how to let one grain of rice manifest Buddha nature in you.

[12:24]

So we don't need so much. Even though we have a lot, you know, in our society, even though we may not want so much, we can't help having a lot. The nature of our society is that we cannot help having a lot of stuff, even though we may not want it. I've always said, if you have a level table with nothing on it, within a week, it'll be all piled up. When I think about my house, So I think, well, I'm a Zen teacher, you know, and I'm talking about conservation of energy and neatness and attention to things. But when I walk in my house, it's kind of a jumble, you know, a big jumble. It's hard to help.

[13:32]

It's hard to keep track of what's really happening around you in a mindful way. So this practice that Dogen is talking about for the Tenzo, it also extends, you know, is about how we take care of our life. How we use really carefully use things. When we're taking care of the community, it's easier, actually, than when we're just taking care of ourselves, or our family. I think it is. In a community, we take care of one thing, and everybody benefits.

[14:40]

You know, if you're taking care of the kitchen, you're just doing one thing, and everybody eats. And if you're the work leader, you're taking care of that one thing, and everybody benefits. And you benefit from what everybody else is doing. That's a nice thing about community. You don't have to take care of all the different departments, but when you're in your house by yourself, you're the cook, you're the work leader, you're the treasurer, You do all those things by yourself. Much more difficult. Sometimes I think about how many stoves are in all these houses. Everybody, every little dinky apartment in the world, in our world, has a stove and a sink and a tremendous amount of stuff, just so each one of us can take care of our nuclear world.

[15:42]

But anyway, I'm not complaining so much, it's just kind of saying that's the way it is, you know, and it's really hard. It makes life very difficult for us, easier in some ways. But in Dogon's community, the activity of the Tenzo, or whatever your activity is, makes it easier for it to be selfless. Because you're not just doing something for yourself. You're not just taking care of yourself. So then he says, when this has been done, all the things he's been talking about, preparations for the next morning's meal may begin.

[17:15]

You must not leave the washing of rice or preparation of vegetables to others, but must carry out this work with your own hands. Put your whole attention into the work, seeing just what the situation calls for. Do not be absent-minded in your activities, nor so absorbed in one aspect of a matter that you fail to see its other aspects. I think that's a good point. So often it's easy for us to be attracted or get interested in one specific point. We may really like the soup, you know. We're really putting all of our... The soup may be exciting to make, but so we kind of don't pay so much attention to the salad, or don't pay so much attention to the rice, or don't pay so much attention to the people around us, because of the thing that we really want to do the most.

[18:20]

It takes a lot of attention and stepping back to see everything that we do in harmony, to see all of the aspects of each situation, in harmony so that everything moves along with us. All the things that we're working with move along with us. I think the most interesting thing about, one of the most interesting things about working in the kitchen for me is to have all of the things I'm working with in front of me and chop the vegetables or clean things or whatever it is and then when I'm through with one activity to completely clean off the area, and put everything in a kind of place where it belongs, and then start on the next part, and then completely do that, and clean off the area, put everything where it belongs, and then start on the next part, so that nothing is left over.

[19:25]

Sometimes we get into a place where we're really into doing our thing, And then we keep piling up these dishes and pots and pans behind us. This big pile of pots and pans and we're enjoying our little space there. Then the dishwasher comes in, you know. But to kind of clean as you go and keep yourself in order as you go, it's really a wonderful feeling, a wonderful kind of feeling of having things under control, having yourself under control, and having the stuff you're working with under control. I've never worked as Tenzo.

[20:28]

But I've always enjoyed working in the kitchen. Something about it that kind of the limitation and making that space work and working within it, that space. He says, do not overlook one drop of the ocean of virtue by entrusting the work to others. Cultivate a spirit which strives to increase the source of goodness upon the mountain of goodness. I think he means do one right action after another. And he says, again, in the Chang Yuan Qun Gui, which he's always quoting, we find, if the Tenzo offers a meal without a harmony of the six flavors and the three qualities, it cannot be said that it serves the community.

[21:34]

The six flavors are bitter, sour, sweet, salty, mild, and hot. Good to keep these flavors in mind. And the three virtuous qualities are light and flexible, clean and neat, conscientious and thorough. He says, and at the same time, oh yes, when washing, oh yes. If Tenzo offers a meal without the harmony of the six flavors and the three qualities, it cannot be said that he serves the community And light and flexible, clean and neat, conscientious and thorough, and six flavors. There's also more to it than that. It's balance, you know, balance of.

[22:38]

If you have a menu, you have to balance something dry with something wet. You have to balance something heavy with something light. And Japanese people are into color. We don't think so much about color. Sometimes we do. But even balancing colors has some psychological meaning for our digestion. It's maybe not the most important thing, but It's something to be aware of. I think this is one of the most important things for a cook, you know, not to have three chewy, three bowls of food that are the same consistency.

[23:45]

You have to maybe, you know, heavy rice in one, some real heavy beans in the other, some real heavy something else, you know, nuts or something, and you chew and [...] chew. So if you have something heavy, then maybe a light soup, you know, something in between. So these kind of subtleties are very important. Dōgen says we should feed the community as if they were royalty. as if you were preparing a meal for royalty. And it doesn't matter whether you have nice ingredients or poor ingredients. Just take the ingredients you have and do something wonderful with them, even if it's almost nothing. That's attitude. Wonderful attitude. And it's kind of a joyful attitude.

[24:48]

Great challenge, you know, when you get something that looks like nothing much, ingredients, then you make something wonderful out of it or bring out its nature. And this kind of attitude, this kind of conservation and bringing out the nature of seeing the true nature in each thing is our zazen. That's what our Zazen is about. And it's extended into the kitchen. It's extended into everything. He says, when washing the rice,

[25:50]

Remove any sand that you find. In doing so, do not lose even one grain of rice. When you look at the rice, see the sand at the same time. When you look at the sand, see also the rice. Examine both carefully. Then, a meal containing the six flavors and the three qualities will come together naturally. Seeing the sand and the rice Usually, he talks about this later. As a matter of fact, he has quite a long discourse on sand and rice, the meaning of sand and rice, and how you separate them, and how you see them as the same. And what he's talking about is good and bad, right and wrong, and our nature. When you look at the sand carefully, just as carefully as you look at the rice, sometimes, he's saying, without partiality, usually we look at the rice and we say, well that's what we want, and we get rid of the sand.

[27:11]

We don't pay much attention to the sand, we just get rid of it. But he's saying, look at the sand also. as well as the rice. See them both. When you see everything equally, then the meal will come together naturally. The six flavors and three qualities will come together naturally. Pairing meal That's why we stress in Zazen to really sit well and conserve energy.

[28:29]

Conserving energy doesn't mean to save anything particularly, but to do the most with the least. To do the most that you can with the least means. Recognize the true nature of whatever you're working with. Appreciate that nature. Tomorrow, I'll talk about Shui Feng turning over the rice bucket.

[29:50]

But that's too long a story for now. Shakyamuni Buddha.

[30:33]

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