October 5th-6th, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI!

**Jundo** · 10-05-2018, 02:40 AM

Today's Talk will reflect on portions of the 'Tenzo Kyokun' (典座教訓) or "Instructions for the Cook," Master Dogen's celebration of work (作務) and all our responsibilities in life, as we continue our Jukai and Ango Season for this year.

(I will be using primarily the translations by Anzan Hoshin Roshi and Yasuda Joshu Dainen Roshi

Tenzo kyokun: Instructions for the Tenzo | White Wind Zen Community

https://wwzc.org/dharma-text/tenzo-kyokun-instructions-tenzo

or Prof. Griffith Foulk
https://terebess.hu/zen/dogen/Tenzo1.html)

---

Since ancient times this office has been held by realized monks who have the mind of the Way or by senior disciples who have roused the Way-seeking mind. This work requires exerting the Way. Those entrusted with this work but who lack the Way-seeking mind will only cause and endure hardship despite all their efforts. The Zen Monastic Standards states, "Putting the mind of the Way to work, serve carefully varied meals appropriate to each occasion and thus allow everyone to practice without hindrance."

...

The cycle of one day and night begins following the noon meal. At this time the tenzo should go to the administrator and assistant administrator and procure the rice, vegetables, and other ingredients for the next day's morning and noon meals. Having received these things, you must care for them as you would the pupils of your own eyes. Thus Zen Master Baoning Renyong said, "Care for the monastery's materials as if they were your eyes." The tenzo handles all food with respect, as if it were for the emperor; both cooked and uncooked food should be cared for in this way.

...

Do not just leave washing the rice or preparing the vegetables to others but use your own hands, your own eyes, your own sincerity. Do not fragment your attention but see what each moment calls for; if you take care of just one thing then you will be careless of the other. Do not miss the opportunity of offering even a single drop into the ocean of merit or a grain atop the mountain of the roots of beneficial activity.

...

Be careful of sand when you wash the rice, be careful of the rice when you throw out the sand. ...

Xuefeng once practiced as tenzo under Zen Master Dongshan [in the 9th Century]. Once when he was washing rice, Dongshan said, "Do you wash the sand away from the rice, or the rice away from the sand?"

Xuefeng said, "I wash them both away together."

Dongshan said, "Then what will the community eat?"

Xuefeng overturned the washing bowl.

Dongshan said, "You should go and study with someone else. Soon."

...

Keep the white water with which you have washed the rice; do not wastefully discard it. In ancient times they used a cloth bag to strain the white water and used it to boil the rice when making gruel.
...

After cooking the vegetables for the morning meal and before preparing rice and soup for the noon meal bring together the rice pots and other utensils and make sure that everything is well-ordered and clean. Put whatever goes to a high place in a high place and whatever goes to a low place in a low place so that, high and low, everything settles in the place appropriate for it. Chopsticks for vegetables, ladles, and all other tools should be chosen with great care, cleaned thoroughly, and placed well.

...

When preparing the vegetables or ingredients for the soup which have been received from the [wares] office do not disparage the quantity or quality but instead handle everything with great care. Do not despair or complain about the quantity of the materials. Throughout the day and night, practice the coming and going of things as arising in the mind, the mind turning and displaying itself as things.

...

The tenzo should always be present at the sink when the rice is being soaked and the water measured. Watching with clear eyes, ensure that not a single grain is wasted. Washing it well, place it in the pots, make a fire, and boil it. An old teacher said, "Regard the cooking pot as your own head, the water your own life-blood."

...

In preparing food never view it from the perspective of usual mind or on the basis of feeling-tones. Taking up a blade of grass erect magnificent monasteries, turn the Wheel of Reality within a grain of dust. If you only have wild grasses with which to make a broth, do not disdain them. If you have ingredients for a creamy soup do not be delighted. Where there is no attachment, there can be no aversion. Do not be careless with poor ingredients and do not depend on fine ingredients to do your work for you but work with everything with the same sincerity. If you do not do so then it is like changing your behaviour according to the status of the person you meet; this is not how a student of the Way is.

...

That you still do not grasp the certainty of this principle is because your thinking scatters, like wild horses, and your emotions run wild, like monkeys in a forest. If you can make those monkeys and horses, just once, take the backward step that turns the light and shines it inward, then naturally you will be completely integrated. This is the means by which we, who are [ordinarily] set into motion by things, become able to set things into motion.

Harmonizing and purifying yourself in this manner, do not lose either the one eye [of transcendent wisdom] or the two eyes [of discriminating consciousness]. Lifting a single piece of vegetable, make [yourself into] a six-foot body [i.e. a buddha] and ask that six-foot body to prepare a single piece of vegetable.

...

When I was staying at Tiantong-jingde-si [temple], a monk named Lu from Qingyuan fu held the post of tenzo. Once, following the noon meal I was walking along the eastern covered walkway ... when I came upon him in front of the Buddha Hall drying mushrooms in the sun. He had a bamboo stick in his hand and no hat covering his head. The heat of the sun was blazing on the paving stones. It looked very painful; his back was bent like a bow and his eyebrows were as white as the feathers of a crane. I went up to the tenzo and asked, "How long have you been a monk?"

"Sixty-eight years," he said.

"Why don't you have an assistant do this for you?"

"Other people are not me."

"Venerable sir, I can see how you follow the Way through your work. But still, why do this now when the sun is so hot?"

"If not now, when?"

There was nothing else to say

...

(to be continued)

Mp · 10-05-2018, 02:58 AM

Thank you Jundo, I will be there live two way with instruments ready. =)

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

**Seishin** · 10-05-2018, 06:32 AM

On Demand as usual but we have friends over from England for a long weekend, arriving tomorrow, so unlikely to sit until later next week.

**Kyoshin** · 10-05-2018, 07:55 AM

I'll be bending space-time to join on Monday.
Gassho
Nick
Satlah

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

**Shinzan** · 10-05-2018, 04:33 PM

I'll be there, not one way, not two way.
Shinzan
stlah

**Onkai** · 10-05-2018, 05:17 PM

Thank you, Jundo and Shingen and everyone. I plan to join, tech allowing.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat

**Ryokudo** · 10-05-2018, 07:50 PM

Will try to join tonight, but may have to cut off midway through as it will be 2 here.

Hopefully not though.

Gassho

Neilio

Sat Today/ LAH

**Kyonin** · 10-05-2018, 08:50 PM

Hi Jundo,

I'll be there live

Gassho,

Kyonin

Mp · 10-05-2018, 10:47 PM

Hey folks,

Here is the event link for today's monthly zazenkai: https://hangouts.google.com/hangouts...hl=en_GB&pli=1

Gassho
Shingen

Sat/LAH

**Jakuden** · 10-05-2018, 11:52 PM

Joining late one-way. [emoji120]
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Doshin** · 10-06-2018, 01:37 AM

l

Enjoyed talk. Things seem to move around my kitchen (and house) too. I think I am getting better at going with the flow.

Doshin
stlah

**Jakuden** · 10-06-2018, 01:43 AM

Thank you everyone, yes wonderful talk! We all tend to rush through our lives and past the things we share our space with every day, including our food. Thankful for it all.
Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Shinzan** · 10-06-2018, 03:01 AM

Thanks, everyone. Alas, mr. video camera had only one grain of bandwidth this time. May he be at ease in all his ills.
Have a restful weekend.

Shinzan
_/\_

**Onkai** · 10-06-2018, 03:02 AM

Thank you, everyone. A wonderful talk, lesson on high things in high places and low things on low places. Have a great weekend!

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat/LAH

October 5th-6th, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI!

October 5th-6th, 2018 - OUR MONTHLY 4-hour Treeleaf ZAZENKAI!

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment