Good morning. Today I want to talk about our meal chant. some of the things that we say in our meal chant. In keeping with our study period and for our general knowledge, We say, innumerable labors brought us this food.

[01:37]

We should know how it comes to us. Receiving this offering, we should consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. Desiring the natural order of mind, we should be free from greed, hate, and delusion. And we eat to support life and to practice the way of Buddha. I've talked about this before, but these four phrases are very important to understand in our practice. The first, innumerable labors brought us this food. We should know how it comes to us. is talking about the interdependency of our life with all things. It's easy for us to appreciate how something comes to us.

[02:46]

We don't always think about it. And when we do think about it, we may not always think about it in depth. I remember when we got these poles, posts for the Zimbo. We went up to Gary Snyder's place. He invited us to come up and cut down some trees for these poles and posts. And we went up. a group of us and we chose the trees and we cut them down and then we took the bark off, we skinned the bark off and it was kind of a wonderful harmonious way of working together.

[03:48]

And something about the way we did it brought to mind the appreciation for the way things come to us. and the connection we have with things. And when you do something like that, you realize how many different kinds of effort, how many steps of effort by people and animals and weather and earth and elements go into creating things and finally we come into contact with these things and use them and leave our mark on them as well. So when we cut down these posts, these trees, we really felt something about

[04:58]

how air, earth, fire, and water have been cooperating since beginningless time to produce these trees, and how we played some part in their future or in their use. They're no longer trees. Now they're pillars. We don't consider them as trees anymore, once they were trees. We think once they were trees, we say once they were trees, but those trees are no longer there. They're not trees, although there is tree-ness in them. We can see the tree-ness in them.

[06:04]

And we come to an appreciation of how as everything in the universe works on everything else in the universe, seemingly changing and transforming how we realize what great effort is involved in bringing the smallest thing to us. And through that process we recognize ourselves as intimately in that process. This is this intimate relationship with things and interaction is what we call our Buddha life. As we help shape and transform things, which in turn shape and transform us,

[07:25]

We realize that everything in the universe is involved in that process and that whole process is what we call ourself. This is myself. This great universal process of transformation and mutual dependency. And when we realize this and consciously take part through that realization, then we can be said to be living a conscious life.

[08:32]

We don't have to, when we say to have a universal mind, we don't have to It doesn't mean that we have to know something about what's going on on the other side of the world, or to reach out into space. But just to be connected with where we are, just to realize the interdependency of our small situation in the world, wherever we are. in our workplace, in the street, in our car, wherever we are, that's where our awareness should be. So that each thing that we come into contact with, we see as

[09:45]

part of our independent being. So how we treat things, how we take care of things, is how we take care of our own self. Suzuki Roshi used to love to hear us sweep, sweeping the sidewalks, sweeping the floor. And he would say, this is cleaning out your mind, sweeping your mind. And he always said, cleaning first and zazen second. Maybe because he was Japanese, I don't know. Japanese people are very clean and very neat, but their cleanliness and neatness comes from their Buddhism, I think.

[10:53]

I think their attitudes over a long period of time have been shaped by Buddhist practice until it's just so much a part of their lives that they really don't know what Buddhism is. in some way. I think in some way people in the West have been shaped by Christianity and Judaism to such an extent that they don't know what Christianity or Judaism really is anymore. It's just part of But that kind of carefulness and identification of ourself with everything definitely comes from Buddhist practice.

[12:12]

I think that people from the West used to, before they understood anything about Buddhism, used to think that the Japanese were nature worshippers because they identified so closely with nature and took care of their surroundings in such a careful way. Worship, of course, means to see worth in its etymological sense. Worship means seeing worth in something. So in that sense, you could call them nature worshipers in that they make every effort to bring out the true value or see the true value in everything.

[13:19]

Not utilitarian value, but the value of a thing for its own sake. Non-profit value. We're always, in this country, in our modern life, we're so obsessed with utilitarian values, profit values, that it makes us difficult to see the true value of things. And we've been brought up to see everything for its profit value. Will it sell? Something like that. What's it worth? We don't know a thing's worth. human beings worth 98 cents. We always used to say a person is worth 98 cents.

[14:23]

That was, of course, in the 40s. I don't know what, maybe they're worth a dollar and a half now, due to inflation. But to see the true value of ourselves, and everything, all phenomena. One of the nice things about our service is that it's completely a non-profit activity that lasts about 25 minutes. There's no value attached to it that you can pick out and put in your pocket.

[15:26]

And Zazen itself is non-profit activity. There's no value that you can isolate and say, I got this. But When we do those activities, these activities, we can really appreciate our life. And we can appreciate our big life. And there's kind of no value that you can put onto it. It's kind of priceless activity. So this first part is concerned, is talking about our interdependency with everything.

[16:35]

Innumerable labors brought us this food. We should know how it comes to us. The second part, receiving this offering, we should consider whether our virtue and practice deserve it. This upsets people sometimes. They read that and they say, well, my virtue, does my eating depend on my virtue and my practice? People get very upset sometimes. Does my, do I deserve to eat even if I'm not virtuous? It's not really such a philosophical question, is that. It's quite simple. Because this chant comes from, is based on a monk's life. And strictly speaking, the history of a monk's practice, of monk's practice in Buddhism, is to beg for their food.

[17:52]

and the way their food comes is through their practice. If a monk has a good practice and goes begging, then that monk will always be fed by people. Because that person's practice is virtuous. And so the only thing that, the only reason that the monk feels he's being fed is through his virtue and practice. So that's his work. The monk's work is to develop his or her character and to practice the way.

[18:58]

And in the old days, say in India, monks were not allowed to have money. They were not allowed to plant plants or dig in the earth or do any kind of commerce. And so they were completely dependent on people's contributions. And Every day they would get up and go into the city. They'd live in the forest. And they'd walk to the city, or to the town, and go from house to house and beg for food. So this kind of statement is based on that kind of understanding. Nowadays, we do a certain amount of work for a certain amount of income.

[20:01]

But it used to be that even though you did some work, you felt somewhat virtuous about your work. In other words, You try to do the best you could for whoever you were working for in order to justify that person's hiring you. And to some extent, that still happens. But in our modern life, it doesn't matter so much anymore. We feel justified. If I work, you should pay me. If I work eight hours a day, I should get eight hours a day paid. And it doesn't matter what I did. I just did the work. It doesn't matter if it was good or bad or if I worked for you or what it was all about. It doesn't matter what it was all about. I did the work and I deserve the pay. That's our modern attitude. And so the quality of work is very shoddy in most cases.

[21:15]

The quality of work is just gone. Because people are just working for pay. They're not... It's not people's fault so much. Not the individual's fault so much. It's our karma. Kind of the way our working life has developed, been developed. Even if we want to do something well, We can't do it. Even though we want to serve somebody, well, it's pretty hard to do it. So we feel that Because we're a human being, because we're alive, we deserve to be supported in some way.

[22:18]

But this kind of attitude is a little different. When you receive this offering, person who is practicing the way always sees something they get as an offering, even if they work for it. Even if you work 40 hours a week, and you go to get your paycheck, you can think of your paycheck as an offering, and your work as something that you've given. You shouldn't think of your paycheck as something that you deserve because you worked. Necessarily, there is that element, but... When you just do the work because you're working for the thing itself,

[23:41]

Then when the paycheck comes, it's a kind of surprise, a wonderful surprise. Oh, and I got paid too. I know that's hard to conceive of always. If you have that kind of attitude, then you can feel that what your daily life is concerned with is practicing the way. That's how we practice the way in our daily life, in the workaday world. So when we have our meal in the zindo, it's always an offering, and so we have a very formal meal. And we express a lot of gratitude As a matter of fact, we express gratitude for every single part of the meal.

[24:47]

Whenever something comes to us, we express gratitude for it. So eating the meal, and receiving the meal, and relating to the people who are giving us the meal, serving us the meal, is all part of one activity. And eating, just actually doing the eating itself is only one part of the meal. It looks like the main event. I guess it is the main event, but all the other events that are all the other parts of the meal which, other than eating it, all become important and have their place.

[25:53]

And this kind of mindfulness of receiving and offering and doing some non-profit act is the basis of our practice. And if we can have that kind of attitude in our practice, we have some basis for our activity. We don't always have to be so formal. We're never as formal outside the zendo as we are inside the zendo. But our attitude should be always correct. to take nothing for granted, and when we receive something, to appreciate it as an offering, because nothing belongs to us. We say, this is mine, that's mine, or we may accumulate a lot of things, but they're not really ours.

[27:05]

And we say, this belongs to me, but it's just a manner of speaking. When we say, this is mine, or this belongs to me, or I deserve it, It's just a manner of speaking. For me, everything I own belongs to you. I remember Suzuki actually talking about his glasses, saying, these glasses don't really belong to me. but you let me wear them. Thank you for letting me wear them." And Eken Roshi said something interesting in one of the Maui newsletters.

[28:09]

He said, this typewriter, nothing Intrinsically, nothing belongs to me. But that doesn't mean I'm going to let you have my tarp writer because I need it for my work. And it would be wrong to just let you carry it off. But in some sense, there are times when we should let somebody just carry something off. And there are times when we should make sure that they don't. I remember at Tassajara, in the summertime, we don't let people sleep on the grounds overnight. And when we do night watch or fire watch in the evening and we go out to the flats where nobody's living, sometimes there are people there and we ask them to leave for the evening

[29:12]

And they want to stay overnight. And a response that you get quite often is, this is God's country. How can you tell me to leave? How can you say that I shouldn't be here? This is God's country. Well, you can't argue with that, of course. It's just that we're the caretakers of God's country. It's not that God ordered us to do something, it's just that we have to take care of the property. People have to understand that you can't just have everything the way you want it, just because it all belongs to us. So the next part is desiring the natural order of mind, we should be free from greed, hate, and delusion.

[30:23]

To be free from greed, hate, and delusion is to have the natural order of mind. What we call the natural order of mind is the mind that's free from greed, hate, and delusion. So, that's why we always talk about buddha nature, our own intrinsic buddha nature. We all are buddha nature. And basically, our nature is the nature of enlightenment. That our true self is enlightenment. And enlightenment is called the natural order of mind. Another way of talking about enlightenment is the natural order of mind, which is not based on greed, hate, and delusion.

[31:27]

And greed, hate, and delusion are like the clouds which cover the sun. The sun is always there, shining indiscriminately on everything. But clouds obscure the sun. And in this case, clouds are greed, hate, and delusion. So if we get rid of greed, hate, and delusion, our enlightened mind, which is always there, naturally shines on everything indiscriminately. So we have a way of working, a way of working not toward getting enlightenment, but by allowing our enlightenment to shine through.

[32:36]

So through practice, we're always working on create hate and delusion, working with those three elements, And so we say when we practice, enlightenment is there. We don't practice to gain enlightenment, but when we practice, enlightenment is there because through practice, greed, hate, and delusion are not leading us not leading us around, practice is leading us. And practice means living by vows rather than living by karma. Karma is our actions which lead to, which are involved in greed, hate, and delusion.

[33:45]

Greed, anger, and delusion. Or ill will and delusion. And when we vow to live in enlightenment, and practice our vow, even though greed, hate and delusion are there, even though karma is, we practice in the realm of karma, and even though our vows, even practicing with our vow is practicing in the realm of karma, the karma is different, and the direction is different. And one moment of practice is one moment of enlightenment. Because one moment of practice is one moment of vow. Otherwise our life is just one moment of karma.

[34:46]

One moment of delusion or Greed is one moment of delusion. So it's pretty hard to get rid of greed, hate and delusion. But before we reach our mind of light, we may feel that it's too difficult. But as soon as we begin to practice, and practice sincerely, our enlightened mind is practicing. As soon as I recognize my greed, when I want too much of something and I realize this is greed, at that moment that enlightened mind is working, shining through.

[36:25]

And when anger comes up, and I realize this is anger coming up, and I wait for a moment before striking out, this is practice based on enlightenment. So our mindfulness, all of our practice is based on mindfulness. Mindfulness is at the bottom. As long as we have mindfulness of what we're doing and notice always when something comes up and make some effort That's our enlightened mind practicing.

[37:37]

But if we say, that's enlightened, it vanishes. So how we work with things, moment after moment, how we work with ourself, moment after moment, If we really are sincere, then we're practicing in the realm of enlightenment. And there's no end to it. And then the last part says, we eat to support life and to practice the way of Buddha. This kind of statement means something like, the reason we eat is in order to practice.

[38:45]

In India, the monks used to only eat one meal a day. And a lot of Buddhists only eat one meal a day. just enough to sustain life in order to practice. But those monks didn't work and lived in hot countries. And it's easier in those kind of places, in a hot country where you don't work, to live on one meal a day. But when Buddhism moved to China, The climate was different and people didn't like to see people begging. And at some point the monks had to till the fields and make their own living.

[39:52]

And then they had to start eating more meals a day, two meals a day. breakfast and lunch. Strictly speaking, the rule for eating in the Vinaya is not after noon, although a lot of the monks in Asia drink juice after noon. They can drink juice if they want, but they don't eat a meal after noon. And in China, of course, they were eating two meals a day, sometimes, depending on what the climate was like in the cold weather and if they were working hard. And the Zen school in China, the Chan school, are the people who developed the working life of monks.

[40:54]

And Hyakujo is famous for his saying, if you don't work for a day, you don't eat for a day. But still, the attitude of eating food for Buddhist monks was that the eating was to sustain life. In Japanese Zen practice, they eat a third meal. We eat a third meal in our practice. But that's called a medicinal meal. It's supposed to be very light. That's why we only eat two bowls at dinner time.

[42:00]

But the way things are done change in practice. You can't practice in China the same way you practiced in India. You can't practice in Japan the same way you practiced in China. You can't practice in America the same way that you practiced in Japan. Different place, different time, different people. We have to always sort out what's possible for us and what works in accordance with what's right. But basically, we eat to support life and in order to practice. That's the reason for eating the meal. Basic reason. The other reason is we like it, you know, we like to eat. It makes us feel comfortable and so forth.

[43:08]

We shouldn't forget those reasons. So when we cook for the Sangha, we should always cook food that's tasty and palatable. But since in the history of monks begging for food, there was a history of not discriminating. You eat what? is given without discriminating. But since we don't have to do that, we can discriminate more. We can choose our food. That's a whole different way of eating from the old Indian way. We go to the store and we pick out this and that to eat. And we get very used to that. But it's good sometimes to just eat what's given. Just eat what is put in front of you.

[44:12]

Just to sustain life without worrying so much about whether you like it or whether it's tasty. I always like to eat tasty food. But since, you know, I've been practicing, I've learned to enjoy the taste of the food itself without a plainness of food, plain food. To eat rice and just enjoy the taste of the rice, brown rice, without putting a lot of stuff on it. I like to eat it with dimasio, too. But I can also enjoy it just as it is, just the rice flavor. or just the vegetable flavor, without trying to make it taste like something else. If you can eat like that, you can just savor the flavor of things.

[45:17]

And you can taste the subtle qualities that most good food has. So even though we like to season our food, it's good sometimes to, for a period of time, to just eat food that's not seasoned. Just eat your rice without, brown rice, white rice, pretty hard, brown rice, without seasoning, and you begin to, the flavor begins to come out as you eat it. you begin to feel closer to the rice. Japanese people always eat white rice, even in monasteries. Some places they eat brown rice, but it's considered very low-class food. But for us beatniks in America, we like brown rice a lot, and we've really learned to like it and to enjoy it.

[46:28]

Suzuki Roshi always ate white rice. But when he came to America and everybody was eating brown rice, all his students were eating brown rice, he ate brown rice too. And he told everybody how wonderful it was. But I think it helped to shorten his life. Because his stomach wasn't used to it. Being an old man. Not too well. I think trying to eat American food shortened his life a lot, but he tried very hard to do it. He didn't want to have something special for himself. So these are the four statements that we make in our meal chant. and you can see how important they are for our practice.

[47:30]

Do you have any questions? You said when you deal with grief, you can see it coming up. Delusion? Harder to see delusion. I didn't say anything about that. Well, when you see yourself doing something for a selfish reason, that's delusion. That's the basis of delusion, is seeing yourself doing something for a selfish reason. Because you're creating belief in a self, which according to Buddhism is the basis of delusion.

[48:45]

When you see yourself doing something that's unconnected or isolated, When you don't see how what you're doing is interconnected with your surroundings, and when you don't see the consequences of what you do, when you don't see what the consequences are going to be from what you do, that's delusion. Thinking that you can do something without realizing the consequences. So, being aware of the consequences, you know. Having a good respect for karma. If, you know, I want to do such and such a thing, but if I do it, this will probably happen and that will happen, so I won't do it, even though I want to do it or it feels good to do it.

[50:02]

That's, you know, coming from your enlightened mind. But if you say, oh, you know, there's that thing and I want to do it and I don't care what happens, or you don't think about it, just do something. Then you reap the consequences of that. And not being able to see that is a kind of delusion. not taking karma into account, not taking the consequences into account. So, you know, this country is building all these bombs and the consequences will be enormous. But because of greed, hate and delusion,

[51:08]

They're being built. Those three reasons. So there'll be a lot of suffering because of the consequences of those actions. These things are numberless.

[51:52]

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