In this next section of the Timber Kirkland building Genji, mostly is about sincerity and mostly about some sort of practicality. means. Kind of what it means is to enjoy working with almost nothing.

[01:01]

What usual people call poverty, and things that you should think of as great advantage. the challenge of working with almost nothing and using the almost nothing to believe it. And finding the general in their health. So Bogdan says, Regarding the office of Tenzo, stories, such as those I mentioned previously about Kureishan and Dengshan, have been passed down through the ages. In addition to the monks from Mount Tiankong and Mount Aiyuan, who's referring to the P. Tenzo Eastern Museum, I met and talked to the monks who served as Tenzo's mother-in-law stories that have been a lot of talking to Tenzo.

[02:14]

not just those two that really make people into this matter. If we look closely into some of these stories, we will realize the meaning of characters and the nature of practice we talked about in this book. Actually, just working as Tenzo is the incomparable practice of the Buddhist. Even one who exceeds to the head of the community, should have the same attitudes, as well as one who doesn't think about it. In the Chang-Wang-Thingry, that is the regulations for Zen monasteries, we find many quotes, prepare each meal with meticulous care, making sure that there is enough. Do not be remiss in the four options of food, clothing, bedding, and medicine. The text here is referring to how you take care of people.

[03:36]

You don't refuse these things to people when you make sure that they're ugly. Shakyamuni was to have lived to 100 years of age, but died in 80, leaving 20 years for his disciples in December. We today are living in the favor of his merit. If we were to receive even one ray of light emitted from the... Byaku Koro, between his eyebrows, we would be unable to exhaust his merit. Byaku Koro is... You know, sometimes you see statues of this Buddha that came in this Kureli, which, when he taught gay lectures, there were very despite the fragments that came together.

[04:40]

The text goes on to say, You should think only about how to best serve the community, having no fear of poverty. As long as your mind is not limited, you will naturally receive unlimited fortune. The head of the community should generate this attitude towards serving the residents. I think this is a good point. The text says, you should think only about how to best serve the community, having no fear of poverty. If the community lives in harmony and functioning according to its intention, the community itself will survive, in a sense they can't trust in the practice, without worrying about where things are coming from, without making too many claims, or

[05:43]

setting yourself up for too much security to actually practice according to your intention, something will always appear. Something will be provided. pretty necessary in this kind of community. You're not worrying too much about where things are coming from. How often you're getting something. As you know, traditionally monks have always been, you know, so that the monk doesn't even think about the future so much, but the monk concentrates on the practice. In the Mio-Chen,

[06:45]

We say, may our virtue in practice, does our virtue in practice, do we, for our virtue in practice, deserve this food? I don't know what you think about that part of the passage, but that refers to monks. His work is their practice, virtuous practice. Virtue means transport, or embedded in the unknown. And the reason they're supported is because of their practice, the virtue, virtuous practice. If they don't have virtuous practice, Maybe they won't be supported. This is the hope through our virtuous practice.

[07:51]

Does our virtuous practice deserve this meal? We should question it. One is questioning. That's what the meal chant was doing. It's questioning whether or not we actually deserve this meal through our virtuous practice. So that's what we rely on. We rely on our effort. to do that, rather than trying to create some financial security. Although, when we have a big organization that you'd like to do that, so when you have buildings to maintain, zendos to build, and you've got buildings that are wrong in the weather, then you'd have to go to the abandoned boy. Actually, that's what we do. And the begging bill is sometimes in the form of a letter that we make some requests to people.

[09:00]

And then we should reflect, and no virtue of not just deserves it, whether it's been a correct action. So whether or not we get what we ask for, we should still practice. It's hard to say, because I did this, I received this. There's really no connection. If you practice in order to be fed, there's really no connection. But if you just practice, to ask for something, then there's usually something to come. The amount that practice, virtuous practice, is not directly proportionally to remember what you receive.

[10:17]

You should not think about it that way. We just practice and work for it in a piece of work. So the text says, you should think only about how to best serve the community, having no fear of it. As long as your mind is not limited, you will naturally receive unlimited fortune. So whether or not we receive something, is not dependent on whether or not we should practice, continue to practice. Maybe the practice is better to do anything. That may be actually a good way of practice. Now, practice has always been tested. Every moment of practice is being tested. So when we come up against something that we consider unfavorable, this is a test of our practice, sincerely.

[11:19]

If you get turned away, turned out, because things are not going so well for you, this is the kind of test for your determination. And it's a theory. When things don't go so well, that means that we have a good problem. have to work a little harder. So sometimes, at first circumstances, they're actually very good for us. Because it stimulates. If we really have a practice, it stimulates our practice. Just like the pain in your legs stimulates your practice. Even though it's very difficult, you know, on one hand, it makes it easier to go into the middle. It says, as long as your mind is not limited, you will naturally receive unlimited attention.

[12:40]

The head of the community should generate this attitude toward serving residents. That's true. The head of the community should support everyone. This is our good example. It means that each one of us should in turn support everyone. If you're always just trying to gain advantage to somebody, this is not an attraction supporting the community. So our ego, we come into practice with our ego and we don't always see so much what's around us because we're very concerned about ourself. But at some point, hopefully, we can stop being so concerned about ourself. about our own advantage. And we can look around us and start supporting everyone around us.

[13:42]

And then we feel pretty happy. But it's hard to feel happy in practice unless we know how to do that. And it's hard to do that when we're thinking about our own advantage. I didn't always tell a mature student, no matter how long they'd be practicing. When the person was not trying to gain some advantage, they was always putting it in. And when you're thinking about it, I mean, can't you look down and just see a very limited portion of something.

[14:55]

It's like walking down the street, thinking about yourself when you don't see much. How often do you actually see the horizon or the bay when you're walking down the street? If you walk down the street, for the day. We don't have any time to put our biggest thing above and so you know it. But if at some point you start thinking and just look around and allow your vision to take in everything around you and bring your whole life up and stuff. The man stuck here and worrying about himself. you know, observation is that people who don't have so much responsibility usually don't see so much and are very worried about themselves.

[16:01]

And people who have the most responsibility seem to be able to do more and take care of them more and more because they're not so worried about themselves. When we stop worrying about ourselves, we begin to open up and begin to take more responsibility and relate in a bigger way of what's around us. And that's a sum of maturity. And I worry about that. Well, let's see. How will Zen Center continue?

[17:03]

Who's going to continue Zen Center in the future? Everyone will just be concerned about themselves and their own problems. Just focused on that. How will Zen Center survive? Zen Center will only survive when people stop worrying about themselves. We start taking care of each other and start to mature. Otherwise, it would just be people arguing with me and myself and being a little kid and everything will disappear. But that's the same thing that I don't know, I don't know when you think about it, about how you expect being self-centered.

[18:35]

From that case, worrying about yourself. When you stop worrying about yourself, you can get connected to what's an engine. You can learn, you can get a thought, you can satisfy. But as long as you're stuck in yourself, I hope you can get a moment. So you can get a thought. Each one of us is in a certain place, and we can't rush us. We can't rush to maturity, but we can all work toward it. We should all be working toward this kind of maturity in the world, whether or not we're doing that. So then Zeldon says, in preparing food for the community,

[19:38]

it is crucial not to grumble about the quality of the ingredients, but rather to cultivate a temper which sees and respects them fully for every order. Look at the story of the old woman who gained great merit in future lives by offering the shakimuni the water she had just used to wash the rice. Or reflect on the final deed of King Ashokal who on his deathbed gladly offered half a date to a temple from off his table. From this, it was foretold that the king had reached nirvana in his next life. The true bond established between ourselves and Buddha is born of the smallest offering made with sincerity rather than some grandiose donation made without it. This is our practice as human beings. To make a small offering of sincerity, he says it's much greater than to make some huge, growing the earth's working around it.

[20:51]

Maybe he gives some examples. A small offering. Sometimes a child will make a small offering. For them, it's quite a big object. Maybe they'll move your head. A little picture. Or a stone. Or something that seems insignificant. But it's quite significant. Because that significant is not the object. But the spirit, the attitude. What we look for is sincerity and non-objection. He says, a dish is not necessarily superior because you have configured the choice of ingredients.

[21:58]

In other words, a soup inferior because you have made it with ordinary greens. When handling and selecting ingredients, do so wholeheartedly with a pure mind and without trying to evaluate their quality. In the same way in which you would prepare a splendid feast. So, don't discriminate when you're making a simple meal. It should be made with the same spirit of which you make a meal. This is what we're talking about. We shouldn't discriminate all These are plain rice, plain vegetables. These are, and these over here are wonderful special things. These are special things, and these are from, from your book. It's all the same. Sometimes, you know, the Buddhist world is made out of rice.

[23:05]

old rags collected from dead people or from garbacheen. And sometimes they made out of old fine silk. And then there's the question, should a monk wear robes made out of old rags from garbacheen or should a monk wear robes made out of silk? But if you see some distinction between silk and old rags, then you shouldn't wear silk. If it's all the same, if old rags are the equivalent of silk, the final silk, it doesn't matter what you wear. If you think I should live in poverty, a monk should live in poverty and not have anything, no money.

[24:10]

And not have any possessions, then it's because we think there's something wrong with possessions. But if it's all the same for the monk, whether the monk has possessions or has nothing, if it's equal, then it doesn't matter. As long as you can use it without a word but man. So things come and things go. The main thing is the action. He says, the many rivers which flow into the ocean become the one taste of the ocean.

[25:31]

When we flow into the pure ocean of the Dharma, there are no such distinctions as delicacies upon food. There is just one taste, and it is the Buddha Dharma, the world itself as it is. Suzuki actually used to talk about eating. He would say, We make the food, prepare the food, and we have rice, pickles, and vegetables, and each one is prepared separately on the dish, and then we eat. And as we eat, everything starts to come apart, and it goes down into our family, and it overcomes. It loses its individuality. It loses its distinctiveness.

[26:36]

This is why all the rivers come into the ocean, they lose their distinctiveness. They just become nodded. So we do make something to taste good. You should make something that tastes good. Pieces are this in there. We create something that looks good and tastes good and feels satisfied. And then, in a few moments, it all leaves its distinctiveness. It's something that's pretty good in our planet. So even though things have individual character, which we should recognize, that character is just a moment.

[27:56]

If you have rice, well. If you have mushrooms, well. Rice is not better than mushrooms, and mushrooms are not better than rice. It's just like a stupid part. I mean, So it makes it be tasty and satisfying. That's good. We shouldn't be too attached to it. cultivating the germ of aspiration to live out the road.

[29:09]

As well as, in fact, as in the Dharma, delicious and ordinary tastes are the same in that too. There's an old saying, the mouth of a monk is like a never-remembered as well. There's an old story of a king who invited a famous monk to lunch. An aristocracy. And he served some very special dishes. And then he also served some very ordinary dishes. And he noticed that the monk would eat the special dishes, and then he would eat the ordinary dishes. And he didn't seem to make any distinction between the ordinary dishes and the special dishes. He just ate everything the same and enjoyed it all. I noticed that we don't make any distinction between these wonderful special dishes and these ordinary dishes.

[30:13]

And the monk said, well, you know, the mouth of a monk is like an oven. When you're going in the oven, you bring very fragrant wood, and you also bring dung to make your fire. Whatever you use, it's all the same. He says, likewise, understand that a simple greeting has the power to become the practice of a greeting. Quite adequately nourish nurturing the desire to live out the way. Never feel aversion toward clarity and guidance. As a teacher of people and of heavenly beings, make the best use of whatever means you have. So we talk about, in America, we talk about standard of living. And we're always trying to raise the standard of living.

[31:15]

And the standard of living keeps going up. And I think what we mean by the standard of living goes up and up is that we have more and more material things to worry about or to use. to get involved with more and more things to help us, which actually is questionable whether we help them. But as we became more materially immersed, and we keep raising our standard of living, our life becomes more worse. and the quality of life goes down. So I wonder if that, when really you're talking about, when you talk about higher standard of living, more money, more material things is really higher standard of living or actually a lower standard of living.

[32:29]

But since our gauge seems to be accumulation, not necessarily a higher standard of living than you're going to be, but a lower standard of living for you. It doesn't make sense. It seems like a high standard of living means to live a life of quality. A life of quality would be to have very little and make it work. And to use that that little we have been completed, which keeps us alive and better. The more we have to deal with, the more, the more superficial, more than actually what we're dealing with. Whereas the less we have to work with, the more we actually work with them.

[33:36]

One of the best working usually is the instrument tools. In Oakland, there's a very good woodwind repairman who plays musical instruments for many, many years. And all the best foodists and wind players came to me and they came to town to have their instruments repaired. And I used to say, my main tool is this hammer. My hammer at least fixes most performance. He has a hammer and a screwdriver. And those are the tools. When we don't, then we're not so good at something we need or when we think.

[34:46]

But if we know how to align very literally, and we need to make an effort to relate to what we actually can, then we can refine our life. And none of you, this is how we refine our life. with very little, to work with very little in a very concentrated way. And this is like, this is Zaza. To get the most out of the least. It's pretty hard, because in this society, if we want to be part of society, then we have to connect.

[35:51]

We're just making the connections. As a society who has more complex, it means that we have to have more and more in order to make the connections, like automobiles, and meetings, and tickets, and UCIs, and radios, and all the stuff that connects us to the matter. But when the network works down, they'll help. And living a very simple, integral life is not encouraged. So it's playing against the brain, against the mainstream to do that. This is the way we have to practice. It's not whether you have a lot or don't have a lot.

[36:53]

So not be careless. And to see how we can do with less. The great challenge is always to see how we can do what we need to do It seems like a much more interesting way to live than to always keep accumulating something to help us or to make that easier for us. Mr. Dogen says, similarly, do not judge, now he's starting to talk about judgment, he says, do not judge monks as deserving of his spell or as being worthless. Do not pay attention to whether a person has been practicing for only a short time or for many years.

[38:00]

Without knowing where to find your own stability, how are we to know where someone else has been unstable? If the standard with which we evaluate others is incorrect, we're likely to see their good points as bad and vice versa. What a mistake. Somebody's saying, when you see somebody and you think it's good or bad, they'd be willing to suspend judgment and don't think in terms so much of good or bad. Everyone is where they're at. as one person is a monk. He's saying, they're in a process, they're in a practice. And we can't say exactly where they are. There may very well be differences between those who have been practicing over many years and those who have just begun, or between those gifted with great intelligence and those not so gifted.

[39:02]

Even so, all are the treasures of the Sangha. While someone may have been mistaken in the past, that person may very well be correct in the context of things now. Who is to say whether someone is a fool or a sage? But Chan Long Fung Gui says, Whether a person be stupid or wise, to the extent that that person is a monk, that person is a treasure to all people under all the various worlds. Even if there may be rather one, do not think about judgment. The aspiration to follow this attitude is itself a very functioning of the way that actualizes incomparable wisdom. Despite the fact that one has had the good fortune to encounter Buddha-tornment, to follow a false step concerning this point will result in a completely missing way. The marrow of the great practitioners of former time lay in their putting the spirit into all their activities. Brothers and sisters in future generations who serve as Tenzo their touch on the essence of his Buddhist teaching

[40:04]

Only when a practice of humanity consisted of his attitude. The world relations of a great teacher, Baizong Kuihau, are not something to be taken out of as a part of this. But you shouldn't judge people whether they're good or bad. He says months, but we can take that to mean arguments. We tend to easily categorize people. Someone does something, and they say, ah, he's no good. She's no good. Or this person's great. And we tend to put them into a kind of pigeonhole. And then when people talk about each other, and when you hear something, it reinforces your opinion. And then we can put that person into a certain slot.

[41:06]

And then we think about a person as a, and pretty soon that's who that person is. So be very careful about that. Also, someone we thought, we had some opinion about it ten years ago, is the same person today. We have to be able to meet someone just as they are right now. When we come to someone with an attitude of how we think they are, then that person will respond to that attitude and then verify on the gift. So it's hard to always be open. to someone, you know, and people help them. And we're right, we're looking for a moment.

[42:08]

So we want just about this, categorizing people as to getting back and responding to them in a way. Because it's really easy to reinforce an idea about someone. And then that person will start believing in about himself. And then things become obviously a part of the change. Well, proof is one of the most difficult areas. Well, it's similar and special over in the position of some authority to be very careful judging people.

[43:09]

And we all fall into it very easy. We want to rest our mind. I think it's really good to know something about somebody and see into someone's background and character before judge. And it's always very helpful because when you see how someone is thrown and can relate to them in a way that's not just about personality. For a person who is in a position of authority, you need to have really great patience, patience with open the world to work with somebody. Even though you may have to send somebody away, but I don't know how long.

[44:19]

You're still in that way in that person. That's just one moment in time. You keep willing and ready and open to working with that person. You know, you keep doing it like you. Yes, sir.

[45:25]

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