and unsurpassed, and treated again, and perfected. Good morning. It's the first day of autumn, I believe, is that correct? Yeah. So welcome to a new season. And today we are having our one day study session. We're gonna have two sessions of study One now and then one in the afternoon.

[01:07]

And our subject for the day is Dogen Zenji's Tenzo Kyokun, Instructions for the Cook. I was, I hope that some of you got to read it, that you sent out. And I hope you enjoyed it. One of the reasons that I'm thinking about Tenzo Kyokun is because today, our Tenzo Susan is training some new people to be cooks. And I think it's really helpful, it was really helpful to me to have these instructions guiding me when I was learning to cook. And they're ever timely. When I was reading over the familiar stories and connections in Tenso Kyokun that remind me of more familiar stories.

[02:20]

And, you know, there's part of my mind just thinks, oh, everybody knows that. And an old man, repeating himself to the dismay of his children. But in fact, when I look around, I think there's a lot of you who have heard these stories, or encountered this text, and probably more of you to whom it's new than us older folks who have heard it. And these, the story, the texts, the books are, I think they were foundational for many of us, and we really absorbed them. So the text that I'm working from today is taken from, this is one of those books that used to be called Refining Your Life.

[03:34]

And this was the version that I read in the 80s. And this particular version was Sojins. And it is just completely full of pencil notations. I think it now is called Instructions to the Cook. Is that correct? From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. It's gone from red to brown. That seems to be a marketing decision. Same book. The other, so the Tenzo Kyokun is one of the texts in what's called the Ehe Shingi. The Ehe Shingi, this is a wonderful book. It's called Dogen's Pure Standards for the Zen Community, the translation of E.E.

[04:40]

Shingi, translated by Taiyen Leighton and Shohaku Okomura. And it has a number of parts. The first section of this book is a Tenso Kyokun, and I strongly recommend this as well. It also consists of A number of different texts, all of which are about how you together in a monastic community. And this was written in, it was completed or assembled in 1037, while Dogen was still, he had not yet moved to what was He was at Koshiochi, which is in little south of Kyoto. And that was the monastery that he had, is the first monastery that he had created in Japan.

[05:48]

A few years later, he moved out into the boondocks to Eiji, to what became Eiji. But then The shingi itself, there's a tradition of what's in Japanese called shingi, which is these rules for monastic life for the various positions. So traditionally, aside from the monastic community itself, there are six key roles. monastic community. There's the Tenzo is one. There's two administrative roles, the Tsusu and the Kansu. There's the Fus, who is the treasurer. There's the Eno, which position Ross Blum holds now, who is basically oversees the operations, the temple.

[07:01]

There's the Shisui, which we might call the work leader, who's responsible of the grounds and the buildings. And there's also the Shika, who is the guest manager, who basically assigns quarters, tracks the coming and going of monks. So the Tenso, these are really key roles. So in the second paragraph of Tenso Kyokun, so there are various Shingi. The earliest one that we don't have, we have reference to, but we don't have the full text was the Yakujo Shingi. assembled by Yakujo, or by Zhang, in Tang Dynasty China in 800 for one of what was evolving as an early Chan Zen monastic community.

[08:18]

And then the one that gets referenced quite a bit in this text, in Japanese it's called the Zen-en-shin-gi, and that was assembled for monastic life, Soto Zen, monastic life in around 1100. So those are models for rules of comportment, practice, and actually how you do your jobs. And they're, they're really interesting for us to consider. We have to see several times Sojin made an effort to assemble Shogaku-ji Shingi, our temple.

[09:27]

I should I want to look back through the lectures, maybe find that. But we do have our own shingi. It's really remarkable to me. We have all these ways of doing things. I was struck by it this morning because Genpo, my son and I went to do several days of sesshin. in Los Angeles with Shota Harada Roshi, an inside teacher. And you got the feeling that they were figuring things out, step by step, how to do things in the space they were at. And I was just struck today, how settled we are.

[10:29]

the basic way that we do things, how people are trained and educated, how to move in the Zendo, how to work with each other, what you do with your mats and passing out the books, how to chant. We have a way of cooking. We have a shingy, which may not be fully articulated, but It's palpable, it's easy to take it for granted, but it's really, it's really precious. And also, once you really start thinking about it, it's pretty complicated. There's a lot of nuance, and we've been trained in nuance, we've been trained in how to ring the bells.

[11:32]

how to do, how to lead the chanting, how to serve the food, how to cook the food. And we're so fortunate to have these things of our practice, which allow us to do the essential, to do two essential things. The first of all, And this is true in, as we study this, the shingi, the way we do things, the training that we have, fully supports us to be in relationship to each other, in relationship to all of the things, if you will, that we encounter.

[12:37]

So, how the cooks and the servers and the eaters are in a dynamic relationship is marvelous and subtle. How the servers are in relationship to the spoons in the pots. How the cook took to the ingredients, how the cook cleans up after themselves. And that was part of my training is when I finished something when I finished with a knife or finish with a pot, if I can business to be able to clean up behind myself. So we don't leave a pile of things to do for the next person. So this is the subtlety of our, our own Shinji.

[13:47]

So Dogen writes, so this, the Tenso Kyokun, let me just say, I don't think we're going to get as deep into it as as we wish in the course of one day. And maybe we should study it. But the Tenzo Kyokun itself seems to break up into two essential sections. The first section is pretty detailed. It gives you some context for the nature of the Tenzo's role, but it also gives some very clear guidelines and instructions for what the Tento does and how they do it. The second half is really extended from the Tento's role into the whole of our practice.

[14:59]

And it's using our relationship to Tenzo's, the folks' relationship to the food as emblematic of our relationship to each other and to everything as really full guidelines for practice. And in the course of this all, there's some wonderful stories and I'll try to touch on some of this. But first, just Contextually, Dogen says, the monks holding each office of the temple leadership are all disciples of the Buddha, the activities of a Buddha throughout their respective offices. It is written in the Chanyuan Ching-bi,

[16:02]

that the function of the Tenzo is to manage meals for the monks. This work has been carried out in the way and by others who have aroused the Bodhisattva spirit within themselves. In other words, aroused Bodhicitta, which is the mind of enlightenment that focused on helping all beings free themselves. That is the Bodhisattva spirit. And he says, this work has always been carried out by teachers. So when I was practicing in Japan at Zuyo-ji, the position, some of the positions that we

[17:04]

that were guiding us had titles. So the Tenso, whoever was in that position was the Tenso Roshi. And whoever was the Eno was the Eno Roshi. We may not be so big on honorifics, but I think to pay attention to the real respect that comes with the responsibility of holding these positions. So today, Susan is the Tenzo Roshi. You can see that Dorma is shining on her head right now and reflecting off of her silver hair. So you can see she's a luminous bee. So, practice requires exerting all your energies.

[18:13]

If a person entrusted with this work lacks such a spirit, then they will only endure unnecessary hardships and suffering that will have no value in their pursuit of the way. The Tsinghua and Shingi also says, Put your awakened mind to work, making a constant effort to serve meals full of variety that are appropriate to the needs of the occasion, and that will enable everyone to practice with their bodies and with the least hindrance. So one of the things I would say about that is, and it gets into it, he talks about the ingredients and working with the ingredients that you've been given, but we wanted full of variety and appropriate to the need in the occasion.

[19:16]

It's also really important when we're cooking to move beyond the initial place that we are from, It's not a performance. So the cooking, really, some of the best foods that we have in Zendo meals are very simple. And there's something eating in this context that makes simple foods delicious. Something that you might You might not order if it was on a menu in a restaurant, and yet when it's offered to you at that moment, even simple rice and simple soup just come completely alive.

[20:18]

It's really great. So Dogen talks about the day of the Tenzo. I shall now take up the work of the Tenzo covering a period of one complete day. The Tenzo should go to the Susu and the Konsu, the administrators to get the rice, vegetables and other ingredients from the storehouse for the following morning and noon meals. Once he has these, He must handle them carefully as if they were his own eyes. That's how delicate you are with the food.

[21:20]

The tento should handle all food with respect as if it were to be used in a meal for the emperor. Uncooked food must be handled in the same manner. When deciding on the amount of food and the number of side dishes for the morning and noonday meal, the Tenso should consult. Here, they basically consult with the Abbott or the cooks. If there's daily cooks, they consult with the Tenso and then the menus are run by the Abbott and make some changes usually not because mostly our cooks are pretty experienced and they know kind of what works. But sometimes we learned a lot working with Sojin.

[22:27]

And also he had ways that he liked the food, but also particular elements of balance. So you want to balance hot, cold, color, texture. You need some variety. All of these things should factor into the tensile thinking about the meal that they're serving. Then you prepare the meal for the next morning. I'm not going to read all the detail, but what you're looking for is if the Tenzo offers a meal without a harmony of the six flavors and three qualities, it cannot be said that they serve the community. So, the six, six flavors are,

[23:40]

bitter, sour, sweet, salty, mild and hot. And the three virtues are light and flexible, clean and neat, conscientious and thorough. And these relate to as all as all these things do we can extrapolate them, and extend them to all the aspects of our practice. So it's not just about food. There's a wonderful passage here, which is a koan. When you lose rice, 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.

[24:44]

When you look at the sand, see also the rice. Xuifeng Yishun was once the Tenso under Dongshan Yangsheng. Dongshan was one of the founders of the Soto School. One day Xuifeng was washing the rice. Dongshan happened to pass by and asked, Do you wash the sand and pick out the rice? Or do you wash the rice and pick out the sand? And Shui Feng said, I wash, throw away both the sand and rice together. Then what on earth do the residents here eat? Dongshan pressed again. In reply, Xue Feng turned over the rice bucket.

[25:48]

On seeing that, Dongshan said, the day will come when you'll practice under another master. So I think that the rice and sand are, represent wholesome and unwholesome views. The rice being wholesome, sand being in the category of unwholesome. And Xuifeng, who is taking this kind of really stark and absolutist Zen vision said, I throw away, I wash and I throw away both the sand and the rice together.

[26:58]

I throw away all views. So they're talking here, they're talking about how we This is not really a discussion about food, except that Dongshan says, well, what do people eat here? Because, and Shui Feng's response was to . In other words, he just, again, he's taking the position of getting rid of all views. and you can see you know there's that you have to understand it's not just about this abs it's you don't live by getting rid of all views you live you have to find find a way

[28:11]

to live with our views, which means in a sensible fashion, we have to separate the rice and the sand. And you need to know this if you're actually going to feed people. Very well to have this deep insight into the non-self of all views. But we also depend on these views. The issue for a Tenso, the issue for a practitioner is to be free in the world of views, in the world of wholesome and wholesome, wholesome and

[29:12]

be able to go straight ahead in order to take care of living beings. To take care of living beings, you have to separate the rice and the sand. In the same way, the greatest teachers from earliest times who were settled in the way have carried out their work with their own hands. 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 Atenzo is actualized by rolling up your sleeves. a story that Dogen tells upon landing in China.

[30:26]

Actually, there's two stories. First, he talks about when he was at Mount Tiantong, his teacher Mu Jing's temple. When I was at Mount Tiantong, a monk called Lu from Chinyuanfu. One day after the noon meal, I was walking to another building within the complex when I noticed Lu drying mushrooms in the sun in front of the Buddha Hall. A bamboo stick but had no hat on his head. The sun rays beat down so harshly that the tiles along the walk burned his feet. Lou worked hard and was covered with sweat. I could not help but feel the work was too much of a strain for him.

[31:31]

His back was a bow drawn taut. His long eyebrows were craned white. I approached and asked his age. He implied that he was 68 years old. Then I went on to ask him why he never existed in existence. And he answered, other people are not me. That's one of those lines that I think when I first heard it really pierced me. Other people are not me. This is my responsibility, and I need to see it through. You're right, I said. I can see that your work is the activity of the Buddha Dharma, but why are you working so hard in this scorching sun? If I do not do it now, when else can I do it?

[32:36]

There was nothing else for me to say. As I walked out, walked on along that passageway, I began to sense inwardly the true significance of Enzo. So this is paired with another story that comes from when he landed, Dogen journey from Japan to China. with the objective of finding a true teacher. And he arrived in the spring of 1223. So that's 800 years ago. Years ago. And we're reading this today. I arrived in China, but being unable to disembark immediately,

[33:40]

I stayed on board ship in the port of Ningbo. One day in May, while I was talking with the captain, an old monk of age came directly to the ship to buy mushrooms from the Japanese merchants on board. I invited him for tea and asked him where he was from. He said he was the Tenzo at the monastery on Mount Aiwong and added, from Zhishu, although I left there over 40 years ago. I am 61 this year, and I've practiced in several Zen monasteries in this country. Last year, while living at Goyun, I visited the monastery on Mount Aiwong. My time there, totally confused as to what I was doing. So that's kind of typical inverted Zen speak that he was totally confused means he was really absorbed in the practice and everything was great.

[34:49]

Totally confused about what I was doing. Then after the summer practice period last year, I was appointed Tenzo, which kind of demonstrates that he probably knew what he was doing. Tomorrow is May 5th, which is a festival day, but I have nothing. the monks. I wanted to prepare a noodle soup, but I did not have any mushrooms put in it. I came here to buy some. I asked, when did you leave Aiwong? He said, after lunch. Is it far from here? About three months. Let me go back to the temple. I'm planning to return as soon as I've bought the mushrooms. Dogen says, you can't imagine how fortunate I feel that we're able to meet unexpectedly like this. If it is possible, I wish you would stay a while longer and allow me to do something more. Natenza said, I'm sorry, that's impossible just now.

[35:56]

If I am not there tomorrow to prepare the food, it will not be well made. But surely there must be others in a place as large as Iowong who are capable of preparing. They will not be that inconvenienced if you are not there, will they? Tenzo said, I've been put in charge of this work in my old age. It is, so to speak, the practice of an old man. How can I entrust that work to others? Moreover, I did not ask for permission to stay out overnight. Dogen says, but why, when you were so old, do you do the hard work of Tenzo? Why do you not spend your time practicing zazen or working on koans of former teachers? Is there something special working particularly as Tenzo? He burst out laughing. My good friend from abroad, you do not understand yet what practice is all about.

[37:03]

Nor do you know the meanings of characters. can mean words, numbers, but he's really saying, you don't know, you don't really understand truly the way things are. Characters you could see as phenomena or just the unfolding of life. When I heard this old monk's words, I was taken aback and felt greatly ashamed. So I asked him, what are characters and what is practice? He replied, deceive yourself about this problem. You will be a man of the way. In other words, he wasn't gonna tell him. You have to find out for yourself.

[38:05]

And Dogen says at the time, grasp the meaning of his words. If you do not understand, please come to Mount Aiwong sometime and we'll talk about the nature of characters more fully. With that, he rose quickly. It's getting late and the sun is about to set. I'm afraid I can't stay any longer. Then he left for Mount Aiwong. And now I've got all my pages out of order here. Okay, here we go. In July of the same year, I stayed on Mount Tiantong, again, Ruching's temple. One day the Tenso from Ayawang came to see me. He said, as the summer practice period has ended, I shall be retiring as Tenso and plan to return home. I heard that you were here and wanted very much to talk with you and see how you were doing. This is the magnanimous

[39:09]

magnanimous this afternoon. It's one of the three minds, Taish and big mind. The heart of the practice was there was something real that had happened in that shipboard between Dogen and his Tenzo. And Tenzo didn't wait for Dogen to come to him. He wanted to know how this young man was doing. At this point, he was like 23, 24. And so he came to seek him out. I was indeed, this is very moving, really, really moving. I was indeed happy to see him and received him cordially. We talked about various things and finally came to the matter he had touched on. the practice and study of characters.

[40:13]

He said, a person who studies characters must know just what characters are and one intending to practice the way must know, must understand what practice is. I asked him characters. One, two, three, four, five, he replied. What is practice? There is nothing in the world that is hidden. Although we talked about many other things, I will not mention them here. Whatever little bit I have learned about characters and practice is largely due to that denso. One, two, three, four, five. Just the natural unfolding, the sequence of events in our lives.

[41:21]

One thing, next thing, next thing, next thing. Everything follows in this sequence. And to ask about practice, nothing is hidden. The response just Everything is completely there for us to see. There's nothing hidden. We feel like we don't get it when it's actually right before us. Every moment. And it's right before us just unfolding from one perspective. unfolding one, two, three, four, five. When I met again with my teacher Myozen, so Myozen was his teacher.

[42:27]

Myozen had been the primary student of Dogen's first Zen teacher in Japan, Eisai. It's not clear whether Dogen actually met Aesai or not, but he was very close with Myosen, and Myosen and Dogen together went to China to look for a teacher. And while he was there, Myosen died. He was young, I think he was like 43. So Dogen says, when I met again, this is after the dialogue with Tenzo, When I teach him, Yozen, in China, and told him of my meeting with the Tenzo, he was extremely happy to hear about it. Later on, I came across a Gata, a verse that Shuedu had written for one of his disciples. One, seven, three, five.

[43:34]

The truth you search for cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. The dragons jewels every wave. Looking for the moon, it is here, in this wave, in the next. One, seven, three, five. The truth you seek cannot be grasped. As night advances, a bright moon illuminates the whole ocean. The dragon's jewels are found in every wave. Looking for the ocean, looking for the moon rather, it is here, in this wave, in the next. Looking for the moon, there is nothing hidden. It's reflected in everything. We go from one, two, three, four, five,

[44:40]

That's one way of looking at the world. In our everyday life, we see that seem to be sequential. Another way of looking at the world is one, seven, three, five. There's a randomness to this ability. that even though there may be an apparent sequence, there's also a way of looking at the world, at the events of our lives, the things that happened that are totally unexpected and that happened by reason of cause and effect that we may not see. Some of that cause and effect can be certainly of our own volitional action.

[45:47]

We call that karma. Some of it could be a forest fire, an earthquake, a terrible illness that comes. The seeming randomness of life is another way to look at our life and we have to contain that in our practice. So Dogen says, I used to see the three, four, five. Now I also see six, seven, eight, nine, 10. So he sees, he's looking further. And he says, future students must read that side from this side, as well as this side from that side.

[46:57]

Or as Sojan sometimes said, to read the other side of the page, to read one side of the page, and also to see the other side, to read the other side of the page, that there's always another side. And I think that's the juxtaposition of these stories speaks to that. Duggan says it quickly. Students must be able to see that side as well as this side from that side. Practicing with intense effort, using all your ingenuity you will be able to grasp genuine Zen that goes . So that goes to one, seven, three, five, not just one, two, three, four, five. To do otherwise only results in being led about by variously tainted Zen that will leave you incapable of preparing meals skilled.

[48:10]

The community, so this is where it comes back to the cooking. So these terms, genuine Zen and variously tainted Zen, actually have a... The literal translation is a little... So this genuine Zen is known in Japanese as Kimi Zen. which means one flavor. And the one flavor of Zen, one flavor of Buddhism is the flavor of awakening. It's the flavor of Bodhi. And he says, you'll be able to grasp genuine Zen that goes beyond the surface of characters to do otherwise. led about by variously tainted Zen that will leave you incapable of preparing meals skillfully for the community.

[49:20]

Variously tainted Zen is more literally called gomi Zen which means five flavored Zen meaning All of these, meaning all the different goals that we may have, instead of being pointed towards just the goal of awakening with all beings, you know, we have objectives, we have self-improvement projects, we have all these different motivations, self-centered motivations. We're seeing the main chance, the central thing. So I'm going to stop there and just leave.

[50:24]

We have a little time for discussion and I'm looking to go maybe a little late, but since this is a study session, I think that's okay. So people here can, raise their hands. Are we passing the microphone? Candid? Yeah. You have? So people, please raise your hand for questions or comments. And people online can also raise your digital hand. Anyone here? Ellen? This is just a regard. A little closer to your mouth because we can hear the ear.

[51:27]

I'm sorry. This is just a question. And I just wondered in those monasteries, I've heard various ways of people sort of pointed to these steps, but also needed. So, you know, was it a term or how did the term impact? Yeah, he actually talks about that. In the text, basically the term these positions were a year long terms, basically, or that's what that's what he talks about. I don't know if that was the same everywhere, but there was it was definitely a term. And. Also. It was not unusual for people to go from monastery to monastery to work with. to experience different communities and different teachers. And these different monasteries, you know, there was not a kind of unified curriculum.

[52:32]

So different places would have different strengths and different things to offer. Yeah, I guess I was also struck and, you know, I get the story, I really do. You know, nobody but me can do this. You know, teaching or transferring, always isn't it. You know, you just, I heard that a little bit. You were heard? I'm sorry. I heard that, you know, in the Tento's comment, nobody but me could do this, or I don't do this, nobody could do it. You know, it sounded a little bit like, you know, Yeah, I don't think that was the case. I think, I think what he was saying was, you know what, this is my responsibility. And this is what nobody else has this ability. So it's not mine to kind of delegator or shuffle off.

[53:36]

And later also in this festival, Dogen pretty scathing. about uh what he sees what he's he's seen as in japan uh as people holding nominally the position of tensos who you know are phoning it in uh but i think in these cases the people the tento just felt the primacy of that response Yeah, we aren't all in this together. Yeah, I don't hear it quite that way, but yeah. Yeah, but that's good. It's good to bring out, yeah. That's a couple up here. Rich and then Ross. Thanks, Hazan.

[54:39]

Can you say something about kitchen practice as azazen? Yeah. Kitchen as zendo. Yeah. But, you know, used to be, or sometimes, but what used to happen in Sashin, these long Sashins, it's like people would get put in the kitchen and they would say, oh, I don't want to do that. I mean, I'm missing so much, you know. And Sochin always felt this is an essential act of our practice. It's not different. You know, we have to find out how to locate our mind in that activity. And I think each of us who's in experience, Tenzo has had to work with that and come to find that.

[55:46]

I find that for me, I love to work. And the element of concentration is a clarity and concentration and rhythm to the activity that brings me to very, pretty much the same arrive at from seated medication. Partly because that's the mind that I'm intentionally bringing to it. So that's why I have to get beyond the performative aspects of being a Tenso to where, I mean, the same thing, honestly, the same thing is true with Azan. When I started here, like we have one day, the session director would post the positions the night before.

[56:54]

And I, you know, I would like rush over and because I wanted to know what position I had, you know, and, and it was meaningful. I can't explain, but it was about me. And, you know, when you would ask Sojin, well, how do you prepare for Sashin? He said, I don't prepare. You know, I just, I just come. And that seemed boggling to me until that's kind of what happened. I don't think about it in advance. And it's like, you know, I just went to Sashin in LA, and it's like, you know, just like, okay, just, I'm here, tell me what to do.

[57:56]

And that's, that's when you really, when you're settled in practice, that's your attitude towards towards any of these positions. They're all, they're all fine. It seems like that line, the way to actualize the basic minor of the tenzo is to Roll up your sleeves. Yeah, roll up your sleeves. You do want to roll up your sleeves because otherwise they dangle in the soup, which is not good. Ross? This is a how question. So you open up your talk with the regulations for the monastery. And I thought about Master Shen Yen and so just regulate your life. I'm curious about how those two relate, regulations and regulate. Also, with regard to the genzo has to work with the ingredients they're given. And I think about the ingredients that comprise me and working with those ingredients.

[59:04]

So could you say how you work with those kind of four elements of what we're given and what we... work with to kind of respect those gifts? Well, you've asked two questions, right? Maybe let me answer the second one first. Given our mind, we're given certain things by virtue of where and where we were born and into what communities And I think one way to work with them is that these are, these are all the ingredients for the supreme meal of Buddhahood. And in that sense, each person has this opportunity to cook them into something

[60:13]

that'd be nutritious and tasty, even though there may be some bitter ingredients in there. So we need to find what's the balance of our life that are going to help us awaken and help us help others awaken. So we're always looking for this balance. And I think that the balance, I was thinking about that, you know, we're doing this class with Yossier Chadli about a good life. So I think that another way I'd like to talk about it next week is just a life of balance. Alignment with awakening.

[61:15]

And this regulate and regulation, it's the same root. You know, it's a Latin root for rule. And it's very rich. In certain ways, there are natural regulations. Or there's the regulations that, and they change, like the regulations of my body change, like because of the circumstances of my knees, I'm sitting in a chair now. And I can get caught on that and think, oh, this isn't really sasa the way I want to do it. Or I can find a way to settle into that as you're working with this. and in various ways all of us have these challenging circumstances of our life that provide they provide a wider context of regulation and then we have we have regulations within the regulations here and part of our practice is this dimension of discipline and regulation

[62:39]

within those structures, we have a really clear opportunity to see ourselves. So that's, that's what it's, that's what it's. Anyone out there in Zoom land? Not seeing anyone, anyone here? Time for one more. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Thank you for your talk. I really enjoyed it and your comments. I was wondering if you could say more about understanding the practice means being confused. Well, I think

[63:41]

that first of all, this is just kind of Zen talk. You know, you don't want to, you don't want to come off in an egocentric knowing way. So you say I was just confused the whole time. But also, I think, again and again, I return to this line from Dogen's Genjo Koan. When Dharma fills your body and mind, you realize that something is missing. You may not know what that is. So it's, to me, the confused The confusion is simply another way of talking about what is mysterious that we can't understand.

[64:53]

You can't fully understand your original mind. I'm going to talk about this in a couple of weeks. The mind that just responds. whatever comes through its sense fields, how do you do that? What makes it work that way? That's confusing. We accept, if we're awake, we really come to fully, but still, how's it work? How is it that we're alive and we're having this conversation? So that's where I would go with that. Okay. So thank you all. And we'll continue this afternoon.

[65:54]

Yeah. A public service announcement? Yes. You know, with regard to regulations. It was brought to my attention that there were six pairs of shoes spewed out across the steps earlier today, which is a trip hat. Please take a moment to place your shoes on the shoe rack. which will provide a safe, spacious pathway going to and from the window. Thank you. Thank you. You should always know where your shoes are. I mean, well, first of all, you might lose them. But second, if I asked you if you know where your shoes are, you need to know the answer. I might ask you that.

[66:42]

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