2016 is Treeleaf’s 10th Anniversary! Let’s start celebrating with favorite teachings.

[Graceleejenkins]

2016 is Treeleaf’s 10th Anniversary!

Each month, to celebrate, we are hoping to re-post a favorite online teaching from the past. Everyone is invited to post their thoughts about the teaching as well as their requests for future months’ postings. Perhaps, Jundo will add additional memories, background, or thoughts on the teaching.

Our January posting is from September 8, 2009, and is a teaching regarding “Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook” by Eihei Dogen.

“Instructions for the Cook” is one of Jundo’s favorite Buddhist writings, and he chose it “as perfect for the 100-day Ango” that was just beginning back in 2009, so it might also be perfect for the beginning of our anniversary celebration!

Watch the video at the link below!

http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with-jundo-and-taigu/archives/2009/09/the-zen-way-of-cooking.html

Gassho, Grace

Sat today plus 10 minutes more in honor of Treeleaf's 10th Anniversary

[Jundo]

Thank you Grace.

I am glad that some folks might get some value from these. The Instructions for the Cook is one of the central texts pointing to our way of Zazen on and off the cushion (and the commentary by Uchiyama Roshi changed my life when I read it).

Thank you for helping us celebrate the 10th Anniversary through the coming year. We are all together.

Gassho, Jundo

SatToday

[Kyonin]

Thank you for this, Grace!

NOTE FOR EVERYONE: The link for Griffith Foulk's translation of Tenzo Kyokun has changed. This is the new URL:

https://web.stanford.edu/group/scbs/sztp3/translations/eihei_shingi/translations/tenzo_kyokun/translation.html

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Kyonin]

Hi all,

For me Tenzo Kyokun is a very special teaching because since I was a kid, cooking has been a huge part of my life. In my first 30+ years in this planet, cooking was all about edification of my ego. I cooked whatever the hell I wanted as long as it was tasty. I learned a lot of recipes, practiced everyday and cooked a lot of wonderful and tasty food.

The problem was that all of the food was poor in nutrition and I pretty much hurt myself by cooking non healthy meals. You know, lots of pasta, cookies, cakes... I gained a reputation of being a good cook and I really enjoyed it.

Of course I was fat and sick and pretty close to diabetes.

Then came along my Buddhist practice. Thanks to Treeleaf I discovered Tenzo Kyokun and discovered a whole new meaning to cooking. We not only cook meals. We cook our lives! When we cook a meal, we are writing a love letter to ourselves, giving us what we need to keep on going. We pay attention to every detail, to every ingredient. By being mindful of what we do, we are careful not tu burn the rice or overcook veggies. We sit zazen by dancing in the kitchen, constructing a meal that will nourish our practice.

Now a days I am the official cook here at home. I healed myself by paying attention to what I eat but most importantly, I am in charge of providing the special food my girlfriend needs because she has celiac desease. Super special care has to be put into every meal or she could pretty much get sick and end up in the hospital.

Every time we cook, work or sit zazen, we are living Tenzo Kyokun and Dogen lives through us.

Gassho,

Kyonin

[Gukan]

Thank you Grace (and Jundo for giving the teaching in the first place!), I look forward to giving this a proper look once the kids are back at school next week. I've got a really antagonistic relationship with cooking, especially the daily feeding of kids, but I do sense there's a whole different attitude in there just aching to get out , and I think this would be a particularly meaningful place for me to express zazen off the zafu. So your experience is encouraging, Kyonin.

And what a nice idea to review a teaching a month during the 10th anniversary year! Congratulations, Treeleaf!

Gassho,
Libby

sat today

[Mp]

Thank you Grace,

You have chosen a wonderful teaching for Treeleaf's 10th Anniversary and the beginning of a new year ... a true classic! =)

Gassho
Shingen

#sattoday

[Graceleejenkins]

Hi all,

For me Tenzo Kyokun is a very special teaching because since I was a kid, cooking has been a huge part of my life. In my first 30+ years in this planet, cooking was all about edification of my ego. I cooked whatever the hell I wanted as long as it was tasty. I learned a lot of recipes, practiced everyday and cooked a lot of wonderful and tasty food.

The problem was that all of the food was poor in nutrition and I pretty much hurt myself by cooking non healthy meals. You know, lots of pasta, cookies, cakes... I gained a reputation of being a good cook and I really enjoyed it.

Of course I was fat and sick and pretty close to diabetes.

Then came along my Buddhist practice. Thanks to Treeleaf I discovered Tenzo Kyokun and discovered a whole new meaning to cooking. We not only cook meals. We cook our lives! When we cook a meal, we are writing a love letter to ourselves, giving us what we need to keep on going. We pay attention to every detail, to every ingredient. By being mindful of what we do, we are careful not tu burn the rice or overcook veggies. We sit zazen by dancing in the kitchen, constructing a meal that will nourish our practice.

Now a days I am the official cook here at home. I healed myself by paying attention to what I eat but most importantly, I am in charge of providing the special food my girlfriend needs because she has celiac desease. Super special care has to be put into every meal or she could pretty much get sick and end up in the hospital.

Every time we cook, work or sit zazen, we are living Tenzo Kyokun and Dogen lives through us.

Gassho,

Kyonin

Thanks for sharing this wonderful story! And also for fixing the links! I am awful at this! : ) Gassho, Grace.


Sat today plus 10 in honor of Treeleaf's 10th!