This Tenzo Kyokun is not so long, but if I keep talking about it, it gets longer and longer. So I'm going to, I can't talk about every, it'd take about two years to talk about every little part. So I'm going to read a section and then I'll talk about some of the significant parts of the section. Shui Feng Yi Kun, that's Sepo in Japanese, was once the Tenzo under Dongshan Liangchi, that's Tozan Ryokai.

[02:09]

Both of them were actually Tenzos at one time. They were both very famous Zen masters, and they were both Tenzos at one time. One day while Shui Feng was washing the rice, Dong Shan happened to pass by and asked, do you wash the sand and pick out the rice or wash the rice and pick out the sand? I wash and throw away both the sand and the rice together. Shui Feng replied, then what on earth do the residents here eat? Dong Shan pressed again. In reply, Xue Feng turned over the rice bucket. On seeing that, Dongshan said, the day will come when you will practice under another master. In the same way, the greatest teachers from earliest times who were settled in the way had carried out their work with their own hands.

[03:23]

How are we inexperienced practitioners of today able to remain so negligent in our practice? Those who have come before us have said, the way-seeking mind of a Tenzo is actualized by rolling up your sleeves. In order not to lose any of the rice when picking out the sand, do it carefully with your own hands. Again, in the Chan Yuan Quing Gui, we find, Pay full attention to your work in preparing the meal. Attend to every aspect yourself so that it will naturally turn out well. Next, you should not carelessly throw away the water that remains after washing the rice. In olden times, a cloth bag was used to filter out the water when it was thrown away. When you have finished washing the rice, put it into the cooking pot. Take special care lest a mouse accidentally falls into it. Under no circumstances allow anyone who happens to be drifting through the kitchen to poke his fingers around or look into the pot.

[04:28]

Prepare those vegetables that will be used in a side dish for the following morning's meal. At the same time, clean up the rice and leftover soup from the noon meal. Conscientiously wash out the rice container and the soup pot, along with any other utensils that were used. Put those things that naturally go on a high place into a high place, and those that would be most stable on a low place into a low place. Things that naturally belong on a high place settle best on a high place, while those which belong on a low place find their greatest stability there. Clean the chopsticks, ladles, and all other utensils. Handle them with equal care and awareness, putting everything back where it naturally belongs. Keep your mind on your work and do not throw things around carelessly. After this work has been done, it is time to prepare for the following day's noon meal.

[05:33]

First of all, check to see whether there are any insects, peas, rice bran, or tiny stones in the rice, and if so, carefully winnow them out. When choosing the rice and vegetables to be used, those working under the tenzo should offer sutras to the spirit of the kamado, that's the stove. Then begin preparing the ingredients for whatever side dish and soup there might be, cleaning everything thoroughly of any dirt or insects. When the tenzo receives the food from the kusu, who is the officer of affairs, he must never complain about its quality or quantity. but always handle everything with the greatest care and attention. Nothing could be worse than to complain about too much or too little of something or of inferior quality. Both day and night allow all things to come into and reside within your mind. Allow your mind and all things to function together as a whole. Before midnight, direct your attention to organizing the following day's work

[06:39]

After midnight, begin preparations for the morning meal. It doesn't mean that Tenzo works all night. He's just saying before midnight and after midnight, the evening and the next morning. After the morning meal, wash the pots and cook the rice and soup for the noon meal. When soaking the rice and measuring the water, the Tenzo should be present at the sink. Keep your eyes open. Do not allow even one grain of rice to be lost. Wash the rice thoroughly. Put it in the pot. Light the fire and cook it. There is an old saying that goes, see the pot as your own head. See the water as your lifeblood. Transfer the cooked rice into a bamboo basket in summer or a wooden container in winter and then set it on the table. Cook the rice soup in any side dish all at the same time. The Tenzo must be present, paying careful attention to the rice and soup while they are cooking.

[07:47]

This is true whether the Tenzo does the work by himself or has assistants helping him, either with the cooking or the tending of the fires. Even though in the larger monasteries recently people have been placed in charge of cooking the soup or the rice, the Tenzo should not forget that these people are assistants working under him and cannot be held responsible for this work. In olden times, the Tenzo was completely in charge. There were no such assistants. When you prepare food, never view the ingredients from some commonly held perspective, nor think about them only with your emotions. Maintain an attitude that tries to build great temples from ordinary greens, that expounds the Buddhadharma through the most trivial activity. When making a soup with ordinary greens, do not be carried away by feelings of dislike toward them, nor regard them lightly. Neither jump for joy simply because you have been given ingredients of superior quality to make a special dish.

[08:48]

By the same token that you do not indulge in a meal because of its particularly good taste, there is no reason to feel an aversion toward an ordinary one. Do not be negligent and careless just and hesitate to work more diligently with materials of superior quality, your attitude towards things should not be contingent upon their quality. A person who is influenced by the quality of a thing, or who changes his speech or manner according to the appearance or position of the people he meets, is not a person working in a way. Strengthen your resolve and devote your life spirit to surpassing the refinement of the ancient ancestors and being even more meticulous than those who came before you. 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.

[09:57]

This is very difficult to do. Among other things, there are great differences between ages past and today. So even groping, hoping to stand alongside the teachers of former times is no simple matter. Yet, being scrupulous in our actions and pouring our energy into these 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. 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 would step back to carefully reflect on the horse and the monkey, our lives would naturally become one with our work. 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.

[11:05]

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 a most natural way. At the same time, this power functions in our lives to clarify and settle activities and is beneficial to all things. I'll go back to the beginning. Shui Feng was once Tenzo under Dongshan Liangjie. One day, while Shui Feng was washing the rice, Dong Shan happened to pass by and asked, do you wash the sand and pick out the rice, or wash the rice and pick out the sand? I wash and throw away both the sand and the rice together, Shui Feng replied.

[12:07]

A rather radical statement. Then what on earth do the residents here eat, Dong Shan asked again. In reply, Shui Feng turned over the rice bucket. On seeing that, Dongshan said, the day will come when you will practice under another master. He wasn't criticizing Shui Feng. Dongshan was... Usually the commentary will say that The action was a bit overdramatic. And later, Shui Feng went to study with De Shan, a very famous Zen master, De Shan, who is a very dramatic teacher.

[13:09]

He's noted for his 30 blows, whether your answer is right or wrong. If you're right, 30 blows. If you're wrong, 30 blows. Good teaching. And actually, that non-discriminating action is what this is about. Do you wash the sand and pick out the rice, or wash the rice and pick out the sand? In... Tozan is testing Seto's understanding.

[14:16]

not so much about rice and sand, but his understanding of the way, discrimination and non-discrimination. So, Seppo's answer is pretty good. Dongshan's question is very good. Of course, we have to separate the rice from the sand. But which one do you separate? Do you take the rice out of the sand or do you take the sand out of the rice? Interesting question. We put ourselves on one side or the other. Because we put ourselves on the side of eating the rice. So we look on the rice as good, the good part is the rice, because we're on the side of eating rice.

[15:27]

But you can equally put yourself on the side of the sand and take the sand away from the rice. When your mind is not in a discriminating mode, then rice and sand are equal. So first, you see everything is equal. The great equality, wisdom of great equality sees everything as exactly the same. Everything is equal without partiality. And then, because you have to make a decision about something, you discriminate between Bryce and Sam.

[16:30]

We always have to make a decision, constantly. We're constantly making decisions, discriminating decisions. But what are our discriminating decisions based on? And Tozan is probing Sipo about his understanding of the oneness of duality, or the duality of oneness. and set those decisions, he says, I wash and throw away both the rice and the sand together.

[17:47]

That means that he doesn't discriminate between rice and sand. Throwing away is just manner of speaking. What he's throwing away is his partiality or his discriminating mind. In other words, he's sitting zazen. Pleasure, pain, good, bad, right, wrong. He's not looking for one thing in preference to another. But we have to eat. So we separate the rice from the sand, cook the rice and eat it, throw away the sand.

[18:54]

But we don't dislike sand. We just have to make some decision about things. It's not that rice is good and sand is bad. Rice is rice and sand is sand. They're two different things. But yet they're the same thing. sane and different. Seppo is making his decision on the basis of complete understanding of things, not just reaching after something, not just grabbing for something. not just ignoring something unpleasant.

[20:13]

Cepo's life is the life of rice and also the life of sand. Do you separate the rice from the sand or the sand from the rice? I wash them and throw them both away together. It's hard to explain. You can't explain this. And so Xue Feng says, then what on earth do the residents here eat? And Xue Feng turned over the rice bucket. Doesn't say that there was rice in it. He assumed that there was rice in the bucket. It's a great dramatic gesture. There's a scholar who says that what he actually said was he put the lid on the rice bucket.

[21:22]

It could go either way. But the story is that Tozan says, you don't have to be so dramatic. I don't think you're my student. You'll find your teachers. Although I accept what you say. It's a good answer. So then Dogen says, in this same way, the greatest teachers from earliest times who were settled in the way have carried out their work with their own hands. How are we inexperienced practitioners of today able to remain so negligent in our practice? Those who have come before us have said, the way-seeking mind of a Tenzo is actualized by rolling up your sleeves. Good point. Then, later on, he says, conscientiously wash out the rice container and the soup pot along with any other utensils that were used.

[22:33]

put those things that naturally go on a high place onto a high place and those that would be most stable on a low place onto a low place. Things that naturally belong in a high place settle best on a high place while those which belong on a low place find their greatest stability there." True. When we build, we put the big things on the bottom and the smaller things on top. You don't usually build by putting small things on the bottom and then big things on top. That's logical. But this covers so many areas. How do you put something down and pick something up? When we pick up, when we carry something, When we carry the pots, how do we carry them?

[23:36]

If we carry heavy pots way up here, it's really hard on the back, you know? You have to find out where the right place is for you to carry something so that everything works together. And today, you know, I said something about when you're bowing with your tray, in the service of bowing with a tray, if you hold it up here, you have all this stuff balanced on the tray, and it's being held way up here. Whereas if you hold it down here, you can just move your body. This belongs in a lower place. And you're not offending anybody by holding it down here. It's fine. Feels right, feels comfortable. Sometimes people say, well, you should hold the pots high so you don't breathe in them. It's a good idea, but it doesn't surpass this one.

[24:45]

Where you're in harmony with the thing that you're carrying. So you should always look for how we do something in harmony with what we're handling. because our life doesn't exist. We don't really exist separate from the things that we're handling, the things that we're in contact with. It looks like we have some inherent existence. The illusion is that we have an inherent existence, but actually existing, we're being born and coming into existence moment after moment with the things that we come in contact with, and the things that we come in contact with are creating us and we create them, but it looks like they already exist and we already exist.

[25:54]

That's what it looks like, that's called a delusion or illusion, the life of illusion So it looks like everything already exists the way it is, but everything is creating everything else. And we create heaven, we create hell, but it looks like it's a little bit fixed. So how we place something, you know, when the server comes around, to pick up the teacups, where do you place that teacup? And how do you determine where you place the teacup on the tray? Sometimes people just pick up the teacup and put it on the middle, or just put it down. But actually, there's a relationship between the server

[26:59]

the tray, the cup, and the person. And you're actually creating some kind of harmonious relationship at that point. Pick up the cup and you put it in the back row. Because you're also thinking about all the other people in the room. If you put your cup in the back row, then when the back row fills up, the next people can put it in the row in front of that. rather than having to reach over your cup and put it down back. It seems like a small thing, but it's not such a small thing. It's constant awareness of how you're creating harmonious relationships in the world. If you continue to create harmonious relationships in the world, then your life will be harmonious. And if you don't, then your life will be chaotic. If you continually do mindless things, small things, mindlessly, your life will be mindless and chaotic.

[28:07]

And you'll wonder, why things happen to you? Why do things always happen to me? So our Zen practice, especially in the Zen dome, is how to be careful and mindful and harmonious. act in a harmonious, thoughtful way with things so that your life will be, and everyone's life, will be created in a harmonious, thoughtful way. So things are us. And Dogon is stressing that over and over again. It's not that these are objects and this is me. Things are us. The pot is your own head. And in the pot head. In the Orioke, the Buddha bowl is Buddha's head.

[29:10]

Actually, all of our first bowls are Buddha's head. So we treat that in a kind of special way. But the monk's bowl is a round bottom. It doesn't have a flat bottom. It has a little dish that it sits on to keep it stable. That's why when you come with the pots, you know, You put the pot down here. I'm always wondering if you're going to hit the wall. Please move it over. But this is a very important point. How we place things, you know. And if you look at, in your life, how you place things on a table, how you place things, you know, whatever you're using, put it down, how you put it down, how you pick it up. Where do you put it? How do you decide where to put something?

[30:13]

Is it just arbitrary or is it in relationship, in relation to all the things, say, on a table? Where do you, how do you determine where you're going to put something? Sometimes people put something on top of a book or on top of a book and a table and a piece of paper, you know, without even thinking about what they're doing. So how you practice, this is how you practice in your life, in your daily life. One way to practice in your daily life. How you handle objects, where you put them, how you balance them when you pick them up. So our surroundings plus our self is our self. And he says, clean the chopsticks, ladles, and all other utensils, and so forth.

[31:20]

He says, when choosing the rice and vegetables to be used, those working under the tensor should offer sutras to the spirit of the stove. In the ancient world, especially in the East, but I think in the West too, people had a as you know, objects have special ... each object has its spirit. And so they're always offering acknowledgement to the spirit of the stove, the spirit of the wall. The Chinese especially, they still do. They're little gods. They're not gods actually, they're little spirits. personifications of spirits, you feel some spiritual connection with things. If you feel some spiritual connection with things, objects that you use, then you tend to have more of a respect for them, regard for them.

[32:28]

Monastery is always the spirit of the kitchen, or the protector of the kitchen, and of the bathroom, and of the fire station, of the bath. They're not gods, really, they're just personifications of that spirit. And so you offer incense in order to show respect for that object. So the stove really serves us. If you think about it in that way, the stove is really giving a lot back to us. We give something to the stove, and the stove gives back to us. So we recognize that. Even though it looks like the stove is an inanimate object, It's a certain spirit, and the spirit is not just, it has something to do with what we put into it, but it's what we put into it plus the stove, plus the nature.

[33:47]

You notice when you go into a place that's well used, someone's house that's, where there's a certain room, Usually in the kitchen, it's used over and over and over again. People are constantly wiping the counters. It has a certain kind of gleam to it, a certain spirit. And when they move, the place just becomes kind of dead. Now the spirit is gone. I remember the Seals Stadium in San Francisco. was out on patrol, and it looked like it was an enormous place. And then one day they took it down, and it was just a vacant lot. They couldn't believe that it was so small, just a vacant lot. And here was this huge thing that thousands of people went to all the time, and it had this tremendous spirit to it. So then he says, when the Tenzo receives the food from the Kusu, he must never complain about its quality or quantity, but always handle everything with the greatest care and attention.

[35:14]

Nothing could be worse than to complain about too much or too little of something, or of inferior quality. I think that's one of the most difficult things for all of us. It is for me. I find myself complaining about the quality and the quantity of things. But at Tassajara, this practice period, I made it a kind of special decision not to complain about the quality or quantity of things. And sometimes I just take the first spoonful in each bowl and see what that's like, to not get any more. And usually it's satisfying, it's very interesting, just to see whatever lands in there, on the first spoonful.

[36:20]

And sometimes I think, oh jeez, I'd sure like more of that, mark it as gone, you know. because I usually am kind of greedy and like things to be a certain quality. So it's a kind of way of dealing with that. So I think I'll end there. Dogen says, both day and night allow all things to come into and reside within your mind. Allow your mind and all things to function together as a whole.

[37:25]

of higher numbers.

[38:04]

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