I love to taste the words of the Dadadada's words. You can sit up in the front. Morning. This morning, can you hear me okay? This morning I'm going to talk about something from Dogen Zenji's Ehei Shingi.

[01:08]

Shingi, as most of you know, is Dogen's monastic, his commentary on monastic practice, not so much on, not so philosophical, but more practical, and he presents examples of practice by eminent practitioners who have served in these various positions, like the head cook and the zendo manager and the director and so forth. So he brings out these examples of people who've served in those positions and had realization while serving in those positions. Because for Dogen,

[02:11]

practice and realization come together. So he's always emphasizing the practice side. Some people say, doubt, well did Dogen really talk about enlightenment as practice and practice as enlightenment? People think they doubt, some people doubt this or question it. But it's quite obvious that this is what Dogen is always talking about. and especially in the Eheshingi, where he is quoting or presenting examples of teachers, mostly well-known teachers, who had some realization while serving in these positions. So today, I'm going to talk about the head gardener.

[03:19]

Head gardener. He's talking about the head gardener in the monastery, of course. But this is, I think, a really, I've talked about this, I've given this commentary several times. and I really like it, to do it periodically. Because the head gardener is a kind of metaphor for wherever you are working, whatever you are doing, is how to practice. So it's really, you can't hear, huh? Can you hear now? How's that? [...]

[04:24]

That's better. How's that? Anyway, yeah, that's better. Somehow. For our lay practice, this commentary on the head gardener fits very well. You can substitute the word head gardener for whatever it is that you do. And even though he's talking about monastic practice, you know, If we genuinely have a practice, if our practice is genuine and continuous, then wherever we are is our temple. When we go out the door, you know, when we go out the door, we don't bow. We bow when we come into the zendo, and we bow before we leave, but we don't bow as we leave, because wherever we go is where the zendo is extended.

[05:34]

So you can't leave the zendo. Sorry. And whatever we do is practice. So if we have that, if we really have true practice, if we have way-seeking mind, then this is true. So the first thing that Dogen said is, the position of head gardener is most difficult and toilsome and should be served by someone who has the way mind. The head gardener is working all the time. And what is way-mind? Way-seeking mind, way-seeking mind, doshin, way-seeking mind, mind that's involved in the way. The way, what is the way? There are various ways. This is the way of vow rather than the way of karma.

[06:44]

So we talk about two different ways. One is the way of vow and the way of karma. Until we start practicing, we're involved in the karmic way. which is the way of desire and the way of delusion, actually, where we get caught up in stickiness and we can't get out. We become entangled in our karmic life. And then when we get so entangled in our karmic life, we want to get out of it, so we start to practice. And when we turn toward practice, this becomes the way of vow or intentional life. We lead an intentional life in an intentional community of practitioners.

[07:49]

That's called way-seeking mind. So our intention is to pursue the dharma instead of simply creating karmic consequences for ourselves. So he says, the position of head gardener is most difficult and toilsome and should be served by someone who has the way mind. This position should not be filled by someone who does not have the way mind. This person is always in the garden, sowing and cultivating according to the seasons. In this position, Buddha face, ancestor face, donkey feet and horse feet are manifest. It is like being a farmer or a peasant. All day long, she plows and hoes. All day long, he carries excrement and urine for fertilizing, free from self-concern. awaiting the right moment of ripening for harvesting, careful not to miss the right time.

[08:55]

There's a lot in this paragraph. This person is always in the garden sowing and cultivating according to the seasons. So the feeling is this continuous practice. Getting up in the morning is practice. Sitting Zazen is practice. Eating is practice. Working is practice. Interpersonal relationships are practice. going to bed is practice, sleeping is practice, waking up is practice, going to the bathroom is practice, washing your hands, being careful, mindfulness. All these things are continuous practice. So there's never any time that there's a gap in practice.

[09:55]

If we have that kind of understanding, then this is called the life of vow instead of the life of karma. Even though we get off the track, we get back on because we know what the path is. So we're always falling off. It's like in Zazen, we sit up straight, take the position, and think not thinking. But we're always thinking of something. The mind is always being carried off, and then, oh, and we come back. And then the mind gets carried up, oh, and then we come back over and over again. So we're always straying and always coming back, but we know where to come back to. And when we know where to come back to, that's practice. It's not that we never stray. And we also create karma. But the more we practice, the easier it is to practice.

[11:03]

And the more we get into the habit of practice, the easier it is to practice, the easier it is to stay on the path. So cultivating according to the seasons, you know, means that things change. They're not always the same. And we should be able to be flexible enough to change with things when they change, and to realize when a change comes. that we don't get stuck somewhere. Every season has its way of working. So, you know, for a monk, in the East, they used to have summer practice periods. In the West, we have fall and winter practice periods, because it's very hard to have a summer practice period because it's so hot. So we go with the seasons and work with the seasons.

[12:07]

In Dogen's time, they didn't have clocks. They tell time in other ways. They were very aware of the movement of the planets and the movement of the sun and the moon and the effect that the planets have on the earth. And they would get up according to the sunrise, a little before the sunrise. And so in the summertime they get up a little later, and in the wintertime they get up a little earlier. So they were more attuned to the seasons. I remember when I was at Tassajara, Tatsugami Roshi introduced the Bodhisattva Ceremony, the abbreviated Repentance Ceremony, which we do. He used to do it on the first and the fifteenth of the month, but it's called the Full Moon Ceremony.

[13:14]

So we said, this is called the full moon ceremony. How come we don't do it on the full moon? He said, well, in Japan, we always do it on the first and the 15th because it makes everything easier. We go according to the calendar. But we said, no, we don't want to do it that way. We want to do it on the full moon because it feels better, feels more connected. So he's OK. So we started doing it on the night of the full moon. So we have lost a lot of connection with the planets and our feeling for the earth, really lost a lot of our connection to the earth. So we often don't mind destroying it or crampling over it. When I see these advertisements for SUVs, driving over the terrain, tearing up the terrain, and everybody saying, Yahoo! It just drives me crazy.

[14:17]

Anyway, this should be a law. Anyway, so he says, this person is always in the garden, sowing and cultivating according to the seasons. In this position, Buddha face, ancestor face, donkey feet, and horse feet are manifest. Buddha face, you know, is, how can I say it? For Dogen, he says, when you have true realization, your face falls off. And Buddha face appears. That's what he says. So this is Buddha face. Your face falls off and Buddha face appears. And ancestor face appears.

[15:18]

Donkey feet and horse feet are manifest. Donkeys and horses are always some kind of featured in Zen talk. Someone asked Joshu, you know, there's a very famous bridge in the town of Joshu, but it's a stone bridge. And so someone came to Master Joshu and he said, when I was in Joshu, I looked and that little bridge didn't seem like much to me. And Joshu said, donkeys cross, horses cross, meaning Some people are horses and some people are donkeys.

[16:22]

But here, I think he means various people, everybody. It's like being a farmer or a peasant all day. All day long he plows and hoes. All day long he carries excrement and urine for fertilizing. He doesn't make a distinction between things that smell good and things that don't smell so good. He's not adverse to dealing with these things that most people don't want to have to deal with. Awaiting the right moment, he said, oh, all day long carrying excrement and urine, for fertilizing, free from self-concern. So this free from self-concern is probably the most important part of this whole thing. Not worried about himself, simply putting himself totally into the activity so that he actually disappears within the activity.

[17:27]

Carrying excrement and urine, totally being one with the activity. he disappears and there's no self-concern. This is probably the most important part of practice. We get worried about ourselves, we get concerned about ourselves, so we value ourselves above practice. That's still being in the realm of karma. Being in the realm of practice, it doesn't mean you don't value yourself, but practice comes before yourself. Otherwise, you can't see it all the way through to the end. Because in the end, you have to let go of everything. This is a very important point, and it's hard.

[18:33]

This is where We separate out. So, all day long carrying excrement and urine for fertilizing, it also means, you know, taking the bad along with the good, not making a distinction between what you like and what you don't like, but simply accepting it all and dealing with everything, no aversion. free from self-concern, awaiting the right moment of ripening for harvest, careful not to miss the right time. So the right moment of harvesting, you know, could be like being patient and not pushing for realization, simply doing the work. And being patient

[19:35]

to not expect something, but when it comes, you know that that's supposed to happen. So allowing things to develop, and I don't know if you've ever done gardening or farming, but allowing things to develop, you can't rush the process. You can, You can make bulbs flower early by fooling them. But basically you have to wait for the right time and be right in time with things. So being in time with things is really important. So we say just being one with time. Being one with time is called patience.

[20:38]

The patience to let things ripen and develop. So instead of time being our enemy or hindrance, time becomes our being. Dogen says, being time. What am I? I am time. When I am time, there's no time. When I am completely time, time stands still. The two aspects of time, or there are many aspects of time, but there are two. One is movement, and the other is stillness. But we usually think of time as moving. We don't usually think of time as stillness.

[21:44]

So one is momentary time, continuous, discontinuous time, one, two, three, four, five o'clock. And the other is continuous time, which is simply now, which is always just now. This is called eternal time. So we take eternal time and divide it into little pieces. We discriminate it. And that's what we think of as time. But to be one with your activity and disappear into your activity is timeless. Timeless time. This is realization. That's why activity is so important. And how we approach our activity and how we

[22:52]

bring our life to life, or how we bring life to life. There's live activity and dead activity. So to be in time, totally in time, brings life to life. So the head gardener or the person in this position is a great teacher. Actually, if you practice in this way, whatever your position is, you're a teacher. The person who washes the toilet and knows how to wash the toilet in this way is a great teacher. It's not the person who's teaching the sutras, necessarily, that's a great teacher. A great teacher can be someone who doesn't even speak, but speaks through their actions.

[24:01]

So we always look to the person's actions rather than what they're saying. Although what the person is saying is okay, maybe fine, but it's how they practice and what their intentions are and how they devote themselves to what they're doing that actually creates a teacher. And how they let go. Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self, and to study the self is to drop it. forget the self. Just forget the self and throw yourself into your activity. So he says, when she plows the ground and sows the seeds, He does not wear formal dharma robes or okesa, only wearing white under robes and a work robe.

[25:08]

However, at the time when the community gathers to chant the Buddha's names or sutras or do zazen, or listen to lectures, or have interviews, he always puts on the dharma robe and joins the community. So this is actually how we practice. When we get up in the morning, we put on our robe and we sit zazen, and then we go out in the field and cultivate the field, right? Everybody's cultivating some field or another. Your workplace is your field of cultivation. Your study place is your field of cultivation. your students are your fruits and vegetables. All you have to do is cultivate the ground. You don't have to do anything else.

[26:09]

You're always cultivating the ground. That's where dharma joy comes from. And then, surprisingly, we see all these ornaments of the dharma appearing out of the ground. And that's a wonderful surprise and a wonderful gift. But that's not what we're doing. We're simply cultivating the ground. That's our practice, is simply cultivating the ground, enjoying working with the soil. if you've ever done this. When I first came to Berkeley to do this practice and opened the Zendo, my vision, sometimes people say, what's your vision? I don't know, but I realized my vision was to have a Zendo where people in the vicinity could come and practice, and that my practice was cultivating this big garden.

[27:15]

So at Dwight Way, before we moved here, I was out inside all the time cultivating this vegetable garden. So that was my vision, to have a grassroots Zindo, where people who were just around could a common practice, and my practice and anyone else's practice could be cultivating that garden. But that garden is wherever anybody is, and wherever anybody is working or spends their time. So that was my example of how to practice. When we moved here, we became a bigger entity. But I rented a space next door where my hut is and had a garden there until Virginia decided that she wanted to take it back.

[28:32]

So that was a little disappointing. So I haven't had one since. But I do miss that. And I think that it's good for a practice place to not be so off the ground. But our practice is really a grounded practice. We're sitting Zazen on the floor, on the ground. And our practice is not so ethereal except that being on the ground, it does have a big space. So he says, when in the garden, every morning and evening,

[29:35]

The head gardener offers incense, bows, and chants the names of Buddha and makes a dedication to the dragon spirit and to the spirit of the earth. This is ancient Asian practice. Especially in China. China, there's a guardian spirit of everything. And if you've ever gone into a Chinese grocery store, like in Oakland, and you look up on the top shelf, you see all these little figures who are the little demigods, the little spirit people, who are appropriate for every place in the house, different places in the house, and so forth. You can't hear. Okay. So, the dragon spirit and the spirit of the ground. So, it's taking into consideration that there is a ground spirit.

[30:39]

There are tree spirits, even though we don't believe in tree spirits anymore, or grounds. Some people do. But what is that? It's not little sprites, but it's connection, how we connect with things. That's the point. So, at night, the head gardener sleeps in a cottage in the garden, and the assistants and workers often change at the direction of the work leader. So, the head gardener has to allow for new people to come and his prized, cherished workers to go. This is always—in the monastic community there's so much change, you know, everybody's taking on different positions. And whatever your position is, that's how you control the practice.

[31:43]

So you learn different positions. This is why it's important for people to rotate in their positions. In this practice, I like as many people as possible to have some position, even if it's just sifting the ashes at some altar or sweeping the room of some kind, so that you have that connection and you view the whole practice from that position. And when you're practicing totally and thoroughly in that way, then you're controlling the whole situation. If you're washing the toilets, it may seem like, oh, this is the lowest position, but actually it's the treasured position. In the monastery, the head monk's job is to wash the toilets because it's such a prized Activity. But here, sometimes you say, I always have to wash the toilet.

[32:49]

They always make me wash the dishes. They always make me, they don't recognize my talent. No, we take your talent away so that you don't have that to rely on. So, in the karmic world, we have something to rely on. We always want something to rely on for our security, a good job, a name, prestige, money, but in the dharmic world, none of that matters that much. So we take everything away, and you do something that you don't know how to do very well, and you stumble, and you, God, in the karmic world, I'm really revered, and in the dharmic world, I'm just bumbling along. But that's very good. So indeed, the position of gardener has been served by renowned people who have the way mind.

[33:54]

Those who have small capacity are ill-suited and have not been put in this position. So in the community of my late master Tian Tong, that is Ru Jing, his old teacher in China, Old Man Pu of Western Shu district was first appointed to this position when he was over 60 years old. During this time, the positions in the community were stable for almost three years, and the monks were joyful. My late master was deeply pleased." So that's interesting. Because he made this position so stable, it stabilized the rest of the community. That's important. But somebody can be the dishwasher and actually be a stabilizer of the community just by doing their practice thoroughly.

[35:08]

We don't always see what we're doing as important or as significant. But someone else does. Someone else sees that. In this Zen community, we don't pay as much attention to what people say as what they do. And we notice when someone has a trifling or what's considered a low job or position in the dharmic or karmic world, we notice how people let go of themselves and do whatever is in front of them. That's the significant thing about a person's practice. So he said, if we compare this old man Poo with the abbots of many monasteries, they cannot come up to the practice of this head gardener.

[36:26]

I want to say about practicing in the world after leaving the zendo. You see, some people say, and I talk about this a lot, that they don't feel that we practice, have a koan practice. We don't have a systematic koan practice like some other groups do. both Soto and Rinzai. But our practice is practice of Genjo Koan, the Koan of everyday life. It's how our practice is extended from Zazen into our daily life. And the Koan appears continuously on each encounter. on everything we encounter. The koan is always arising. How do we practice in this, with this situation, whatever situation we're in?

[37:54]

So it's not like we're thinking about some koan all the time, but the koan itself is arising moment by moment. And our practice is not to take the zendo and use it as a grid or stick it onto our practice outside of the zendo, but simply to engage in whatever is present with flexibility. So you have to be able to turn or see the actual situation that you're involved in as practice and as the basis for your koan, which is, what is this? So, Kencho koan is to drop body and mind.

[38:58]

How do you do that in every situation? How do you come to every situation with a clear mind? In other words, a mind that's not full of something. You're not bringing your stuff to the situation, but you simply are open to whatever is happening. That's the practice. You don't have a mind of presumption. It's simply so that whatever you encounter, you have a clear picture of, and then you can respond. This is also called practice of shikantaza. Shikantaza is the practice of genjo koan. Shikantaza is

[39:59]

Basically, to let go, drop your presumptions. To let go of the angry mind, to let go of the jealous mind, to let go of actually all the dharmas, and simply have a mind that is renunciation. Renunciation means continuously letting go so that you're not holding on to anything and are open to what's actually present. That's not easy. That's why it's called hard practice. It's not hard practice because of the pain in your legs. It's hard practice because it's hard to keep a clear mind, a non-dualistic mind, and a mind that lets go, so that you're always coming up in clarity.

[41:20]

So, when you're confronted with something, what do you do? That's your koan. We also pay attention to the koans that are in the books. but your living koan is right in front of you. It's your situation. All the koans in the books are about you. They're not about the old Zen masters. They're all about you. If you don't see them as being about you and you just think they're stories, you don't get it. They're examples. Those old stories are examples so that when you are confronted with a situation, you have some inkling of how that situation is a koan for you.

[42:39]

So it's good to study the koans, the old cases. That's what they are. They're old cases, like in a law book. You may study the law books, but when it comes to the law, you have to make your own decisions. You have to see your situation as the koan. Do you have any questions? You say, let go of anger. angry, I feel like anger seizes me. Yes. So it's not clear how I can let go of it. Well, there's a story, a Hasidic story, where this man comes to see the rabbi, And he says, Rabbi, the evil urge is always chasing me around.

[43:44]

I just can't escape from it. It just keeps chasing me. And the rabbi turns to him and he says, well, maybe the fact is that you're chasing it. He said it in a better way than I'm saying it, unfortunately. But you get the picture. Yeah. What does shinggi stand for? Shinggi means for rules, not rules, but practices. Dogon's practices? Yeah, rules for practice or guidelines for practice. Yeah, guidelines for practice.

[44:47]

I know this segment is about Head Gardener, Does he talk about the same, you know, sort of meeting time when he's talking about the other functions, the other positions in that? Well, he's using each one as a different example for different, you know, So, yeah, but he does talk about the different positions. The tenzo, the head cook, and the ino, the head of the practice, and so forth. He talks about each one, yeah. Because you can see how the tenzo would be operating similar to the gardener, right? Don't burn the soup. Yeah, don't burn the soup. Well, you know, when you're talking about the kitchen, you should treat the pots and pans as your own head, and be respectful to everything, respectful to all the food.

[45:51]

So Dogen, when he talks about any article of food, he uses the prefix o. like, you know, this robe is the kesa or kasaya in Sanskrit, Japanese kesa, but he says okesa. O means honorable. And so when he's talking about sweet potatoes, he says, I don't know the word for sweet potato in Japanese, but he puts a prefix O for all of those all the ingredients and for the pots and pans and for everything. So everything becomes an honorable thing and should be respected, a respectful thing. It's like respected, respectful. Everything should be treated in a respectful way. And nothing should be not treated that way. So that's a kind of guideline for the Tenzo. Charlie.

[46:56]

Oh, Manjushri climbing on top of the, the cook who saw Manjushri on top of the pot, right? Dancing on top of the pot or something. He says, what did he say? He said, get out of here. If it were Shakyamuni himself, I'd still bash him for this. Yeah. Oh no, that's before. Long before both of them. It's from China. Yeah. I don't remember who it was. you said, you made a comment, you said, even though we sit on the ground, something like, there's a big space. There is a big space. Oh yeah, big space, yeah.

[48:09]

And then you continued what you were saying before. Well, the more grounded you are, the bigger the space. you know, the bigger the space that you can contain. In other words, when you're really well grounded, then you can contain the whole universe without any problem. That's called zazen. There are other places where Dogen talks about the spirits. Spirit of the Dragon, and is he only referring to that when he's talking about, you know, other sentient beings, nature, trees, rocks? Well, it's interesting because he also says, he does use those terms sometimes, but he also says, don't be misled by the various spirits of the forest and of the, you know, rocks, and said, don't get misled by that.

[49:21]

Yeah. Yes? I just wanted to say that I was thinking about the spirits, or the dragon spirit, or... When, a long time ago, I was head gardener here, and which was really, you know, really challenging, You have to speak a little bit slower. Yeah, yeah. about a garden someone had made, was working on in Virginia, I believe.

[50:31]

In the what? In the state of Virginia, it wasn't here. And there was this feeling about this garden, the people who were doing it had, well, they were convinced that there And I don't know what to feel about that. I have never had that kind of experience. I mean one has feelings about forces and energies when one works with a gardener. But I just remember that I was so touched Well, but that person was thinking about me and the garden, but also it was reminded that there are things that there are, there's a lot that we don't understand.

[51:52]

There's a lot that we, I mean, we have a kind of scientific, somewhat, attitude towards gardens. We don't divide spirit from matter in Buddhism. We don't divide that spirit from matter. But if we're only, you know, if we're totally one with matter, then spirit arises. But we don't say, oh, that's the spirits or something like that. But there's a spirit of something, right? That's like the life of the thing. And without the life of the thing, it's just dead matter.

[52:53]

So the life of the thing is what we call the spirit. And then you can make up various little fairy tales about spirits if you want to, which is okay, as long as you don't believe in them too much. had most marvelous, again, vegetables or ornaments. But someone said, well, how do you do it? How do you, you know, you're just as Pray and spray. Pray and spray. And pass the ammunition. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

[53:55]

Okay, I think we have to stop there. Thank you. Beings are numberless.

[54:14]

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