In Master Dogen's teaching, there are two aspects, as most of you know. There's the literary aspect, which he calls Shobogenzo, 100 or so, 7,500 vesicles of deep thought. And the other side is the Shingi. The Shingi is the practical aspect, how we actually apply Genjoko-on to our lives, how we actually apply Jiju-yu, Zamae, to our lives, and how we apply Shikantaza to our lives, how we bring the real true meaning of these I don't want to call them ideas, but ideas.

[01:04]

I call them to fruition in our activity. a collection of these practical teachings of Dogen that are called the Shingon of Ehe who was Dogen. How do we understand the meaning of Zazen? the practice of our everyday life, basically. So, the most popular, I'll use that term, fascicle of the Eishinji is called the Tenzo Kyoku.

[02:23]

the teaching of how to be tenzo, which means how to run a kitchen. And of course, how to run a kitchen means how to behave yourself. How do we run ourself? How do we keep ourself from running amok and make our activity beneficial? types of meaning in our life, basically. How to harmonize our life with our surroundings and with the Sangha in order to make our life meaningful. Zazen, of course, is the most practical way to realize the meaning of our life. which can't exactly be explained.

[03:26]

But it can be practiced and we can understand it through our activity. Sometimes Tenzo Kyokun is called, How to Cook Our Life. I remember Suzuki Roshi, during Zazen, sometimes would say, you are all like loaves of bread baking in the oven and soon you will be finished. Stuff like that. Hopefully you will get done. So that's the difference between Shobo Genzo and Ehe Shingi. So people, you know, who are not necessarily Soto Zen Buddhists, get much from the Shobo Kenzo because it's a great literary work.

[04:36]

But for practical purposes, for our practice, shingyi is actually the most important. because shinghi is called practice. What you do, not just what you think. So, Dogen starts out in Tenzo Kyokun. He says, from ancient times, in communities practicing the Buddha way, there have been six offices community. The monks or students upholding each office are all disciples of the Buddha, and all carry out the activities of a Buddha through their respective offices.

[05:39]

Among these officers is the Tenzo, who carries the responsibility of preparing the community's meals. So he uses the Tenzo as the example in this each one of the officers, but those are different fascicles. What each one actually does and what the attitude of each officer should, people don't like that word, should be. So when I started the Zendo, Suzuki Goshi didn't tell me what to do. He just said, do something. And so I just based it on our monastic practice, which was just beginning at that time.

[06:42]

And as time progressed, and 1970 was the first time that was when Tatsugami Roshi came to Tassahara. He was invited. He was the Ino at Eheichi for 10 years or something, and wonderful chanting voice. And he taught us how to do a monastic practice. Suzuki Roshi didn't really do that, but Tatsugami did. And he taught us how to organize And I use that as a kind of quasi-model for our practice here. So the way our practice works is that we have these various positions, and the positions rotate. And each position is a position from which we view and harmonize with the community.

[07:52]

So that's why rotation is important, because we get to see the community or harmonize with the community from a different point of view, a different place of practice. So it makes it a little complex, but complexity is okay, as long as it's simple. We used to call this the roku kiji. Roku, it means six. Six positions of the officers who have the basic positions. And the basic positions, we have those, actually. And we used the Japanese terms in those days. The tsus, the kans, the fus, the ino, the tenzo, and the shisui, and the shika. That's seven, actually. So that Zeus is the director.

[08:57]

I decided I wouldn't call it director. I would call it coordinator, because director has the feeling of ordering people around. I didn't like that. The coordinator is the person that harmonizes the community. So rather than ordering people around, I had the idea that creating harmony is what that person does. That's their position, is to make sure that all the positions are working together, everybody's working together to create harmony. That's the position of the so-called director or co-ordinator. And then we don't have the Kansu anymore. The Kansu in Dogen's time was the person who actually managed the affairs of the community in various ways and had a big position.

[10:01]

But I remember at Tassaja we did have a Kansu who was the assistant director. And one time the assistant director just wasn't showing up. And then there was something kind of held back or lazy or uncommunicative or something. And the monastery was working pretty well anyway. So one day I looked at his eyes. And he would come, you know, kind of late. And I asked him, have you been smoking pot? He said, yes. And we decided to eliminate the position.

[11:03]

It was meaningless. He wasn't really doing anything. Although people can, you know. I once knew a lady who sipped Sherry all day long, but she could still work, you know, and it didn't really affect her. It probably did affect her. But she was quite confident, you know. But nevertheless, I don't want to make an argument about any of that. Everybody has their own idea. Not in the Buddhist context, not in the monastic context, where everybody else is sober, and you're not. So, then there's the fusu, who is the treasurer.

[12:05]

Treasurer is a big position. The ino, who takes care of the zendo. The tenzo, who takes care of the koki. So, when you have a monastic community, it's a little city, it's a little town, all by itself, and needs all of the direction of a larger town, a big city, on a really smaller scale, in order to make everything work. Because usually the monastic community is isolated and needs to relate to the outside world. So these are the officers whose positions rotate, and we get to experience how things work from that position.

[13:11]

And this is called our education. This is how we train. This is called training. So whether we happen to be priests or lay people, in our practice it's not that relevant. meaning for a priest, because it's a priest's education, but it's also everybody's education. So Dogen says, it is written in the Chanyuan Qingwei that the function of the Tenzo is to manage meals for the community. The Chan-Nyuan Ching-Wei was a text written by Cho-Ro Sae-Ryo Dao-Cho. Remember his name? Cho-Ro Sae-Ryo Dao-Cho.

[14:15]

In the 12th century in China. took all the accumulated knowledge of Zen monasteries and put them all into a text which Dogen always refers to. The first one was by Shakyajiva, back in the Tang Dynasty. He created the And then I think Choro Serio later, but that was lost, and Choro Serio later put something together from various understanding of that kind of community. So he says, the work has always been carried out by teachers settled in the lay, and by others who have aroused the bodhisattva spirit within themselves.

[15:19]

your energies. If a person entrusted with his work lacks such a spirit, they will only endure unnecessary hardships and suffering that will have no value in pursuit of the Way." So, this is interesting, important. At the head monasteries in Japan, like Meheji, The Tenso is always an experienced practitioner, usually a Roshi, who has the position of Tenso, because the position of working in the kitchen is not just to get the meals out. It's the most important training place for Zen students. That's why the person in charge and should have experience and some modicum of realization so that through their own activity they create harmony in the kitchen which creates

[16:47]

meals, wonderful food, which is then offered to the students. without realizing necessarily that that's what it is. So he says, such a practice requires exhausting all your energies. I don't know if exhausting is the right word, but we don't want to be exhausted. Sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. But it means being fully present. resistance.

[17:55]

No resistance. Just plunging in and using all of your energy. That's what exhausting means. It means using yourself up completely. When you use yourself up completely, it generates energy. When you use yourself up half completely, then you feel tired. When you're totally, fully present, engaging without any resistance you create energy because energy is induced through vigorous activity. So when you use up, are completely engaged, you may get tired, but it's a good tiredness. It's not like, I have used up all my energy. There's no such thing. The only way you use yourself up, and I feel like you have no more, is if you're only using half your energy.

[19:02]

If you're using all your energy, then it's like an open hall, and energy just keeps rushing through. And then, yes, I'm tired at the end, but it's a good time, and you go to sleep, and that renews your energy. That's how you get strong. You get strong by using yourself up. So such a practice requires exhausting all your energies. And if a person entrusted with this work lacks such a spirit, then he will only endure unnecessary hardships. That's right. Because you feel like That's just hardship.

[20:04]

But if it's in the spirit of practice, it's joy. So one of the main indicators of whether or not it's practice is whether or not it's joy. If it's not joy, then it's not practice. By giving yourself in this way, induce joy. Joyful practice, no matter how it's going. Maybe difficult or whatever, but it's joyful. And then joy is one of the main factors. Dogen talks about the three minds of the Tenzo. One is big mind. You should practice with big mind, which means letting go of our petty, small mind, and simply letting big mind rule the kingdom.

[21:06]

And joyful mind, which when we do that, when there is no sense of ego domination, then joy naturally rises. And parental mind. Parental mind means taking care of everyone as a parent. Of course, there are different kinds of parents. But it means with benevolence or magnanimous mind. So then he says, he refers to the Chan Yuan Ching Gui again. It also says, put your awakened mind to work, making a constant effort to serve meals to the need and the occasion. And that will enable everyone to practice with their bodies and minds with the least hindrance.

[22:10]

So let's put your awakened mind to work. Awakened mind means the mind that's big-minded, basically. Put your big mind to work, not your petty mind. And make a constant effort to serve meals full of variety. He said we should not get too wound up in choosing the very best or some special kinds of food. It's a problem sometimes when people are cooks. When we're a cook, we want to do the best we can for the saga, but we get into wanting to serve our most fancy, wonderful meal to please everybody, which is a great intention, but sometimes it's misguided because it takes too long to cook, and then everybody's rushing around trying, and it kind of excites our

[23:29]

greed for something wonderful. One good way of thinking about serving food to the community, especially in this situation, is to have a number of menus that really work. Satisfy everybody, and it's not boring. Too boring. And it's not too exciting. and you can be served over and over again, and it's satisfying. So finding those particular... it doesn't mean you can't introduce something, you know, because the Tenzo must introduce something special. There are the six tastes. The six tastes. Bitter, sour, sweet, salty, mild, and hot. So, I think what often happens in present-day cooking fad is that we want to cover the taste of something with something else.

[24:43]

If something is sweet, you want to make it bitter or sour. So, that's just an example. The point is to see each dish for what it really is. And to bring up the quality of that ingredient rather than covering it up with something else. Sometimes a little bit of adding a bit of another strong taste or something will enhance that. But if it gets too overpowering, you can't tell, well, is it this taste or is it that taste? And it's a kind of ambiguity. I think some people like ambiguity. My taste actually is like a little kid. I just like the plain thing. You know how kids are? They don't like food that's mixed. They only like plain food.

[25:47]

I'm kind of like that. But I would go for mixed food as long as it's well balanced. So the trick is, how do you balance these tastes and flavors so that you're not covering one flavor with another? Sometimes a mixture like that will make a third flavor, but it has to be pretty good to make that happen. Anyway, this is my understanding. The main thing is to bring out the quality of the dish, of each ingredient, so that it's not covered by something else. Because then it feels like, why are you covering me? Don't I taste good? Boy, it's coming out of your dish. How come you're covering me up? Is he better than me? Down through the ages, many great teachers and ancestors, such as Guishan Linyu, who in Japanese is Isan, Dongshan Xuqiu, which is not Dongshan Liaojie, who we know so well, but a different

[27:00]

sometimes, have served as tenzo. Yes, Isan and Dongshen, and Sepo. Sepo used to go from one monastery to another with his big serving spoon. They would stir the rice. You know, if you go to a Chinese Chinese monastery, they have this huge cauldron, which is the rice cauldron. That's the main dish, the rice cauldron. So a good cook knows how to make rice, just like a good baker in the West knows how to make bread. A good cook is varieties of rice that one on top of another is mind-boggling to know that people think that much about rice.

[28:15]

And one thing about our orioke bowls, we have three orioke bowls. The priest's orioke has five. And those are for, the other, the two little ones are for condiments. We still put them in a bowl to make the bowl complete. But we use three bowls, right? The first bowl is for the rice, because that's the main dish. And the others are complementary to the rice, or whatever grain it is. That's the grain bowl. That's called Buddha's head. The big bowl is called Buddha's head. That's the oreo cake. And the other bowls are for condiments like soup or salad in our case, usually, or vegetables of one kind or another. So, because the main dish is the rice, you have just a little of the others.

[29:24]

So you take some rice and eat it. I know one Zen abbot, who I like very much, he eats all of one bowl, then he eats all of the second bowl, then he eats all of the third bowl. That's okay. But how do you know when to serve seconds? So, he eats some of this bowl, and you eat some of that, and then you go back, and then you eat the third bowl, and when you do that twice, it's time to serve seconds. That's how you know. Sometimes the person, the kokyo who's taking charge of them, when that happens, eats their food real fast.

[30:29]

And then they ask the server to come, according to their speed. And everybody's scrambling in, finished. Well, it's very simple. When the head server comes and whispers to the Kokyo, and says, there's just a little bit of this and that, and then goes back, that doesn't mean it is time for seconds. That's just information. But sometimes the Kokyo thinks, well, now it's time for seconds, because that it's time for seconds.

[31:32]

Anyway, it's very satisfying to eat that way. I highly recommend trying that. So then he says, when I was in China, so Dogen went to China. This is where he learned about this, actually. He talks about it later on. And he learned from a couple of Tenzos, actually, what practice is. And he talks about that, as most of you know. He says, when I was in China, I talked in my spare time with many older monks who had years of experience working in the various offices. They taught me a little of what they had learned in their work. What they had to say must surely be the marrow of what has been handed down through the ages by previous Buddhas and ancestors settled in the way.

[32:46]

Uchiyama talks about this in his commentary that to live out your life in the most settled way is called practice. To be settled. Suzuki Roshi used to talk about being settled in practice. Kali Giri used to say, settle yourself on the self. Settling in the practice is important. There's always something that wants us to keep moving. So, settling in practice doesn't mean that there's no movement, but to harmonize our movement with the Dharma. There's a practice called the practice of recollection, which means keep coming back to settle in the practice.

[33:53]

I'm thinking the word remembering, because remembering Our body is composed of members, and so to remember is to bring back all the members and harmonize, harmonizing all the members. And the same goes for working in the kitchen. The members can easily get distracted, then you bring all the members back to working together and harmonizing. So bringing all the members means remembering. we have to remember, bring it all back into harmony. And when we don't bring our body back into harmony, then we have problems with it. So we should thoroughly study the Chan, Yuan, and Qin way concerning the overall work of Tenzo. And moreover, listen closely to what those who have done this work have to tell us regarding their details.

[35:01]

So when Dungan talks about, he's going to talk about, he begins with the noon meal. Because in traditional Buddhism, for monks, monks only ate one meal a day, the noon meal. So they would go out in the morning. And when you read the sutras, Buddha went out in the morning, and the monk went out in the morning to beg for their food. It was lunch. They're supposed to eat, depending on the year, they're supposed to eat before noon, 1130. If a monk comes here and gives a talk, we have to feed him before noon. I shall now take up the work of the Tenzo, covering a period of one complete day."

[36:07]

And he starts with a noon meal. After the noon meal, the Tenzo should go to the tsusu and the kansu to get the rice, the vegetables, and the other ingredients for the following morning and noon meals. Once you have these, handle them as carefully as if they were your own eyes. Renyong and Baonong said, use the property and possessions of the community as carefully as if they were your own eyes. The Tenzo should handle all food received with respect, as if it were to be used in a meal with the emperor. Cooked and uncooked food must be handled in the same manner. So yes, we should Dougan used an honorific, as you probably know, he used the honorific O in front of most everything in order to, as a gesture of respect.

[37:17]

So every day, a few officers would meet with the tenzo to decide what the food is going to be and how to cook it. And there's always, the kitchen is not just off by itself. I'm always in touch with the kitchen. Sometimes they don't like it, but I'm sorry. There has to be that communication, and I do that here with Kunta. When deciding on the amount of food and number of side dishes for the morning and noonday meals, the Tenzo should consult with the other officers.

[38:53]

They are the Tsus, the Kans, the Fus, the Ino, and the Shatoshisui, as I mentioned before. When they have chosen the meals, the menus should be posted on the notice book You must not leave the washing of rice or preparation of vegetables to others. No, I'm going to... I think that it's not exactly clear how many meals Dogen's community ate, but I think it wasn't just one. I think they also ate breakfast. That's the morning meal. I think so. And then there's the medicine meal at night called the medicine bowl. which is not a real meal, it's just a little something. We now serve two bowls instead of three at night. That's the medicine bowl.

[39:55]

So when this has been done, preparations for the next morning's meal may begin. You must not leave the washing of rice or preparation of vegetables to others. but must carry out this work with your own hands. Put your whole attention into the work, seeing just what the situation calls for. Do not be absent-minded in your activities, or so absorbed in one aspect of a matter that you fail to see its other aspects." So this also means without partiality or prejudice. intensive does cooking and oversees how everything is done, but doesn't necessarily wash the rice. We don't have to wash the rice anymore because it's already been taken care of when we buy it. But in those days, you had to pick out the bugs and the stones.

[41:02]

We still do that with beans. We pick out the beans, and also we wash the beans, and be careful not to let any of them go down the drain. So we should have that kind of attention, attentiveness, and also not get so concentrated on one thing that we on in the kitchen. So everybody, people carrying knives and tools and hot stuff and moving around in a very close space. So harmony is the uppermost thing that should be.

[42:08]

And in order to create harmony, we have to have awareness. Not just awareness of what I'm doing, but awareness of what everybody else is doing. And awareness of the time. and how long it takes to do something. This is the joy, actually, of working in the kitchen, is to create that harmony. When we're creating harmony, joy rises. And then the small mind disappears and the big mind takes over. So, do not be absent-minded in your activities, not so absorbed in one aspect of the matter that you fail to see as other aspects. Do not overlook one drop in the ocean of virtue by entrusting the work to others. Cultivate a spirit which strives to increase the source of goodness upon the mountain of goodness.

[43:09]

I think Dogen puts this in because when he was in China, he talks about a cook in a monastery. He was just laying around, you know, reading sutras or something or hanging out and letting other people just do all the work. And he wasn't really particularly involved. And he thought this was the worst possible thing for somebody in that position. So I think that's why he's don't entrust the work to others doesn't mean that you can't entrust the work to others. It means don't stand by and watch everybody work with your thumb in your mouth. So again, in the Chan Yuan Ching we find, if the tenso offers a meal without a harmony of the six flavors and the three qualities,

[44:14]

The three qualities are light and flexible, clean and neat, conscientious and thorough. So light and flexible. How to balance a meal. If you have something fairly heavy or solid in the first bowl and something chewy really chewy in the second bowl, you don't want to put something like that in the middle bowl. That's why we usually have soup or juice in the middle bowl, because he can't get up and get a drink. If you want chewy, [...] you need something wet. they're too light. So thinking about how you balance those qualities is really important.

[45:28]

And I'm always talking to cooks about that. The cooks come, how was the meal? Well, I thought it would have been nice to have something wet because that of food. Your personality goes into the food and is transferred. So actually what we're eating is spirit, basically, and it's conveyed through something called the food. So when washing the rice, remove any sand that When you look at the sand, see also the rice, and examine both carefully, then a meal containing the six flavors and three qualities will come together naturally."

[46:39]

This is not about rice and sand, actually. It's about going beyond preference. And here's the example. Shui Feng Yuen was once the Tenzo under Dongshan Liangjie. One day while Shui Feng was washing the rice, Dongshan happened to pass by and he asked, do you wash the sand and pick out the rice? Or wash the rice and pick out the sand? So this is like, he's not talking about rice and sand. Talking about your attitude and your mind. I watched them throw away both the bread and the rice together," Shui Feng replied. Pretty good answer. Shui Feng replied, then, I'm sorry, Shui Feng replied, then, what on earth do the residents here eat?

[47:47]

master, which he did. He didn't say that he turned over the rice bucket with rice in it. Maybe. But the point is not making distinctions, not creating preferences. In the same way, the great teachers from earliest times who were settled in the way and 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. First of all, thank you so much.

[49:04]

I really like this talk. It just covered a bunch of things, and I'm getting ready to train next weekend to be a tenzo, but not a tenzo, a cook. And the two things that I think about, one is that I'm a little concerned about my ego, because I've been thinking for years about, ooh, if I was a cook, I'd cook this and that, So I'm a little concerned about that. I'm assuming that the tensor will sort of keep me in check. And the other thing is I notice that most of the time the cooks, they're like at the stove cooking the main thing. And I like chopping. I like the prep work a lot. It's just fun. And there's that that I'm thinking, I don't really want to stop that. So I would say. The stereotype of when you enter a monastery, you have an interview with the teacher and you say, I'm here to study with you in the monastery, please teach me.

[50:25]

If you have that attitude, It doesn't matter what I like to do or what I want to do. It's like, what would you like me to do and how would you like me to do it? That's what everybody that enters the kitchen should do. What do you want me to do? Would you like me to do it now? Not just, you know, the Tenzo should be able to say, I want you to cut the carrots this way, not that way. You do it this way. That way you let go of your preferences and you just do it the way you're asked to do it. That's how you let go of your ego. Just, how do you want me to do it? You're submitting yourself. When you say, what would you like me to do?

[51:25]

Submitting yourself. And how would you like me to do it is letting go of yourself. And then, OK. So that's how you harmonize. And the problem of ego is taken care of. So just keep that attitude, and there will be things that you won't like that are happening. Oh, that's just my conditioned response. Just don't pay attention to that. Let go of your conditioned responses. And just let your unconditioned mind take over. So what if I want to be the one to cut the carrots? That's your conditioned mind. That's your ego.

[52:30]

Got it. I am just doing what you want me to do. That's all. It's not what I want to do. I want to do what you want me to do. That's harmony. And then you're doing what you want to do. You're doing exactly what you want to do because what you want to do is what you're asked to do. When those two come together, that's practice. You have to worry. The problem is that, you know, So practice may let go of your conditioning. That's easily said, but it's a lifetime's work. Another question about the koan you just talked about. Yes. The way it sounds to me is like the teacher is trying to engage the student's sort of thinking mind, his rational mind, saying things like,

[53:36]

Well, if you throw it all away, what are we going to have to eat? And then the student turns the bucket over. He's not willing to engage that. He's not willing to be caught. He's doing something non-dual or something instead of doing something, instead of a rational response, getting into the argument and thinking of a reply. He's just not playing. No, I'm not playing. I'm not playing around. Well, yeah, he's not being caught by the teacher trying to catch him, make him think. And he's not thinking. So if that's true, why did the teacher then say, someday you'll practice somewhere else? Are they just starting to joke and kid and play? Or is something else going on? Why didn't he appreciate that answer of not being caught? Well, it's an overly dramatic, the consensual thinking is that it's an overdramatic response. He didn't need to do that.

[54:37]

To turn the bucket over? Yeah. He could have done it some other way. But it was subtle. So the teacher did not like that? No. It was too dramatic to fit the situation. All right. Yeah. Thank you. I think that was Cui Feng who flipped the bucket. I see that as, and he became a great teacher in his own right. It's kind of like a style thing. So the student and the teacher, they were like different styles, so he was encouraging him or just imagining him. At some point, that kind of behavior is probably not going to work in my temple, but some other temple, some other teacher can work with that kind of feisty energy or however. Well, that's also valid, yeah.

[55:29]

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