This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. So nice to see many of you, familiar faces. Welcome to Green Gulch. For how many of you is this your first time at Green Gulch? Welcome. Thank you all for coming. Please come back. I just wanted to mention at the beginning how blessed the rain felt this week in North Bay and Bay Area that helped to calm and contain and supported the quieting of these raging fires that we've been experiencing the last couple weeks.

[01:15]

And just to say how saddened our hearts are for the loss of lives, the loss of neighborhoods, the loss of livelihoods, animals, places that we love. And I'm sure everyone here has been touched in some way, some very personally and others just by reading about it. And I trust that we're helping it as best we can. So at Green Gulch Farm, Green Dragon Temple, we started the fall practice period this week. All of Gringot really is in a time of practice period where we're focusing on our more formal practice, more periods of meditation, zazen, lectures, classes,

[02:25]

half-day sittings, teas, and a number of people are committed to a schedule together. And the rest of Green Gulch is also committed to practicing during practice period with their particular schedule that is their practice period. It's not just that they're supporting those who are in practice period. Their schedule is a practice period schedule as well. The theme for the practice period is Zen and Everyday Life, and then colon, instructions for the head cook. And there's a piece of body of writing, actually, that talks about all the different work areas and how one practices in a monastery

[03:28]

in different work situations. And one of these pieces of writings is called Instructions for the Head Cook. Tenzo, that means head cook. Tenzo Kyokun, Instructions for the Head Cook. And we'll be taking a look at this. It's a rather beloved text, I think. And it shows through the practices of kitchen, work and cooking and handling not only the ingredients for cooking but the utensils the kitchen itself these all combine to make a wonderful practice place and by extension any place can be a practice place any place is a practice place it's not relegated to a zendo or a formal place where we sit, tzauzen, but every aspect of our life can be a place of practice.

[04:36]

And I think these instructions for the head cook really express and model that, show us how, help us to see how. we can make every part of our life a practice place, a practice, a Zen-do, actually. In one of Suzuki Roshi's earliest transcribed lectures, Suzuki Roshi was the founder of Zen Center, Zen master from Japan, and One of the earliest transcribed lectures was from December 1961. And in this talk he says, just to sit on a cushion is not Zen. The Zen master's everyday life, character, spirit is Zen.

[05:42]

So we may have some confusion about What is Zen? It's sitting cross-legged on a cushion. Not only, it's really our, who we are as human beings, our character, our actions, the spirit with which we are in the world is Zen. Not just some particular practice. So bringing this, how do we develop our character? How do we enliven our spirit? And it's connected with our sitting practice and flows from our sitting practice. And yet we can't just call our sitting practice Zen. It's much wider than that.

[06:44]

In fact, it's so wide. that it's inconceivable. Every moment, really. So this week, with a group in the practice period that's committed to a particular schedule, many of whom are new, they had orientation, and we went over the guidelines for practice at Green Dragon Temple. And these guidelines are, they're like, they've grown over the years, over the many years that we've lived together in community. These guidelines have come forth from a response to what's necessary for human beings to live together in harmony, helping one another and developing their character and their spirit.

[07:45]

in all aspects of their life. So they didn't come fully formed. We didn't arrive here with a booklet that says this is how we live together. They emerged out of situations, things that have come up, things that seem very clear is a good way to do things. And it's the same with Shakyamuni Buddha's Sangha, his order of monks and nuns. They also, he wasn't, Shakyamuni Buddha didn't practice Buddhism. He just lived an awakened life and practiced with each person and each circumstance. And when things came up that did not seem beneficial, then he would say, this is not a good, let's not do this. And this body of rules or regulations or guidelines, standards of deportment, grew out of circumstances.

[08:54]

He didn't kind of from a lofty position say, everybody has to do this. It was more people coming to him to say, there was some hard feelings here or these people we visited were not happy that we jumped on their bed or whatever. There are some very interesting rules from the Buddhist time that you might find. And you know that that rule came out of the fact that someone actually, that's what happened. So in the same way, we have these kinds of guidelines at Green Gulch and City Center, Tassajara, all three residential communities. And the basic underlying glue, you might say, of these rules or guidelines is how do we live together harmoniously in peace and helping one another? However, if you're handed a booklet of guidelines, one might have some

[10:06]

response to that, maybe a little resistance to that, like, well, I don't want to. I don't want to do this. And then we remind people that they signed up to do this, you know. They applied and were accepted. Oh, yeah, that's right. I read these before and I said I want to do this. But sometimes we need reminding. We forget and that we kind of struggle and resist. the schedule, Zazen itself, the administration of Green Gulch, and then, oh yeah, this is what I wanted to do, and this is not so easy. So this kind of struggle or resistance is not unusual, and it's really part of finding our way. Suzuki Roshi, in this same lecture, says, we struggle, we have resistance, and we struggle. But you're here because you want to struggle in that way.

[11:11]

And it's not really about the schedule or zazen. If you were to go somewhere else, then you'd struggle and resist over there. So part of understanding what the struggle is about, I think, is important. And so we come up against ways of doing things, forms, and we find out for ourself what it's all about. One other point that I feel is important, not just for starting practice period, but for everyone's life is that there isn't a life sort of out there that we're supposed to match up to. Nor is there a practice period that's kind of sitting out there ready. The practice period itself is who you are and what you make of it.

[12:15]

Your own actions, your own attitude, your relationship to all the parts of the day and the weeks. That's what the practice period is. So if we are I like to say wishy-washy, if we're kind of not so serious about following through, that will be the quality of the practice period, or that will be the quality of our life. And if we wholeheartedly jump in, the practice period or our life meets us right there with that wholehearted expression, we will be met. And if we're not so wholehearted, or not so sincere, or not so cut corners, find a way out, or getting by, that's what the quality of our life, or whatever the endeavor is, will be like that.

[13:26]

So it's not a fully formed thing out there. we create it with our own actions and attitude and heart, really. And the same with the teachings. So there's all these teachings, but they won't be meaningful to us or satisfy us unless we're trying to enact them, practice with the teachings. So in some way it's The practice comes first, and through the practice we understand what the teachings are. We can hear the teachings, but it won't go deep enough unless we take them up. And we take them up at whatever place we are in our practice. We can't leap to some finished end that we have in mind. We just start where we are, and everything's there for us.

[14:31]

And then the teachings will be alive. Because why? Because we're living them. That's why they're alive. So Suzuki Roshi says, practice must be quite serious. If we're not serious enough, the practice will not work. And the teachings will not satisfy you. Now, this word serious is, I found that an interesting word, and we might have a little resistance to it, like it's too serious, pious, and kind of, what do we think when someone's too serious, or serious, they're kind of grave and solemn and maybe a little rigid, and they don't laugh very much, and they're serious. But in looking at the definition of serious, it's...

[15:34]

demanding careful consideration or application with more thought, acting or speaking sincerely and in earnest rather than in a joking or half-hearted manner. This is all part of the word serious. Etymologically, it comes from the Latin, which means earnest. And earnest, even saying the word, it's like I almost feel like my heart kind of opens a little bit to be earnest. So sincere, earnest, wholehearted, genuine, deeply interested, a serious musician, devoted to the music or to your art or to your life really is, I think, what... Suzuki Roshi's bringing up to, we have to be serious about this.

[16:38]

But not too serious, you know? I think serious, devoted, earnest, wholehearted includes rollicking laughter when it's time for rollicking laughter or dancing or whatever it is. It doesn't kind of contain us in some box of grave, rigid, unhappiness, you know, something like that. So we have to be careful, I think, that serious doesn't fall into holding on to grave gravity in our actions and manner. It's ready for whatever, but wholehearted, devoted. So being serious. And with that, the kind of attitude, the teaching comes alive and the practice deepens, really. And if we're half-hearted, the practice will feel that way, too.

[17:42]

So to me, this is a real key, actually, not just to practice spirit, but our relationships, our work, our life, the world. So the Tenzo Kyokun, the instructions for the head cook, is a piece of writing from this Zen master, Dogen, Japanese Zen master from 1200s. And he wrote about ten different small essays that were devoted to the practice of work. the administration and those who carry responsibility in the monastery. And there's, you know, traditional six staff members, senior staff members, to help take care of the monastery, including the head cook, the treasurer, the director, head of the meditation hall, the work leader, and the guest manager.

[18:59]

And there's more, there's more, depending on how big a monastery you have. There were monasteries with a thousand monks practicing together, and you needed maybe more. Head of the fields, which we have as well, head of the gardens. So people taking responsibility. And he wrote essays about the kind of heart-mind of these administrators. And the head cook is a highly valued position in the monastery. Those smaller essays were gathered together, not in Dogen's time, but later in the 17th century, into one booklet, you might say, one book called The pure standards for Zen monasteries, or in the word for that, pure standards, is shingi.

[20:02]

Shin means pure, and gi is standards or guidelines or rules, regulations. And the reason they're called pure is because they're about how to live together in harmony. And the Buddha and Dogen and Suzuki Roshi used this image of students should be like milk and water. That's how they blend. That's how we blend, to live that way, not just in a community, residential community, but to live in the world like milk and water. What would that be like for each of us? So this image of milk and water. So the shingi are for these beings who are practicing together. And the name of those beings are the kind of title for the sangha, is shu-jo, dai-kai, shu.

[21:06]

And what that translates as is pure, great ocean assembly, or pure, great ocean practitioners. Great ocean. And this image of a great ocean is that All the streams and all the myriad, 10,000, countless rivers all flow into oceans. And the ocean accepts everything. It accepts whatever flows into it. And all those things become ocean. So this was the idea for the sangha or the community of practitioners. Anybody can come and flow into this great ocean together. And this is, it's called pure. Purity means not dualistic or not defiled by discriminatory mind, but anyone can come and flow into this great ocean.

[22:12]

And so these shingi are pure standards for these beings who are all come together. I wanted to just mention that in Dogen's time, in comparison to the Buddha's time, in the Buddha's time, whatever your social position or caste or kind of attributes that you had, privileges that you had, when you flowed into this great ocean of the sangha, those all melted away. So the sangha was a circle, and the only kind of thing that was worked with was seniority, who got their first certain Chances to do certain things came by virtue of seniority, but not by virtue of your birth or family you were born into, aristocratic or different caste system.

[23:21]

That all melted away. And in Dogen's time, and this is one of the reasons Dogen went searching for the true... He wasn't satisfied with the teaching. In Japan at the time, he went to China to find a truer practice. And one thing that had happened in Japan was that it wasn't this great ocean that was undifferentiated. If you arrived in the monastery from an aristocratic family, you got the things that came with that privilege, housing and jobs. various things. So this was, he wanted to get back to the earlier way, the way the Sangha had been developed from the beginning. And he went to China to find this, and what he found in these monasteries, many of them, some I think disappointed him as well, but were these pure standards that took care of the practitioners in this

[24:31]

more even way. And one of the characteristics of Zen, different from other — Buddhism is very, very diverse, but different than other schools — is the importance of work. Sammu, or fushin in Japanese. And sammu comes from the characters that mean to deliberately do something. That's this work mind. And Fu Xin is everybody's invited, universal invitation. Everybody in the monastery works, from the abbot or abbess to the student who walks in the door. Everybody helps with work. And this was not something that he, Dogen, when he went to China, that he had experienced in his home monastery. where he had been trained. And he didn't see this, and he wanted to establish this.

[25:34]

So the importance of work, not in order to support the practice, like work so that others can do the real practice of sitting and studying and discussing with the teacher, but work itself is practice. It's not to support others to practice, but work itself is practice. And this was a kind of, this was like novel, I think, that he brought this back and made it such an important part of monastic life. This is what he saw in China. So everybody working as practice, as a foundational bedrock part of Zen. And the instructions to the head cook take this up in a way that's amazing, actually, how the tenzo or the head cook, when they step into their kitchen, everything they see, everything they touch, everything they handle or plan for, it describes

[26:56]

in this, these instructions, the day, kind of day in the life of the head cook and at what time they begin, you know, to see what raw ingredients they have, plan the menus, check with the other administrators about the food stores and what they're going to serve, you know, attend, just making these fires, this is wood burning stoves, not even wood-burning stoves that we're used to, but other kinds of stoves. It was very hard work, actually, cooking for hundreds of people, rice and soup and vegetables, side dishes, and taking that up not as drudgery, you know, Cinderella kind of work, but completely expressing living out the Buddhist way and our practice. So right at the beginning of the Tenzo Kyokun, the first paragraph, which I brought to read to you, mentions something which is also a key, I think, another key to how it is that the head cook doesn't fall into, oh, this is just drudgery, you know, scullery made, and everybody else is practicing, and I'm stuck here in the kitchen.

[28:27]

How do you... What kind of mind do you need to understand this work and practice our non-dual? So in the first paragraph it says, from the beginning in Buddha's family there have been six temple administrators, which I just mentioned to you, these six main administrators, They are all Buddha's children, and together they carry out Buddha's work. This is when Dogen was establishing a new monastery because he wasn't satisfied with the way things were going when he returned from China, and so he left Kyoto, started his own place. And so this work of the administrators, And I think people have trouble with this.

[29:29]

Oh, administration work, I don't like to be, I don't like administrative work. It's not real practice or something. So right from the beginning, these administrators are Buddha's children, and this is Buddha's work. Among them, the Tenzo chief cook has the job of taking care of the preparation of food for the community. And then he quotes, another set of these rules from an earlier teacher. For serving the community, there is the tenzo. And this serving, serving is, it has a much stronger maybe feeling than in English, serving, serving the community and serve up. But serving is like making an offering of your life, of yourself. seriously devoted, wholehearted to the Sangha, to the community. That's this character for serving.

[30:30]

For serving the community, there's the Tenzo. Since ancient times, masters with way-seeking mind, lofty people who had awakened their hearts were appointed to this job. After all, Isn't this the single color of diligently engaging in the way? If you do not have the mind of the way, then all of this hard work is meaningless and not beneficial. So since ancient times, and I think he's talking about Zen in China and in the Tang Dynasty in the 900s, 100s, masters or teachers who've awakened way-seeking mind and awakened their hearts. I wanted to say something about what way-seeking mind and awakening your heart is referring to.

[31:35]

Those were the ones that were appointed to be head cook or appointed to these jobs. So way-seeking mind is a translation of a term in Sanskrit which is Bodhicitta. Bodhi is the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree. Bodhi means awakening. And our seat is sometimes called a Bodhi mandala, a seat of awakening. The Buddha, bud means to awaken. Buddha was the awakened one. So awakening to our true life, to our interconnected life. That's this bodhi. And sattva is being. So bodhisattva awakens the bodhi mind, or awakening. Citta means mind. And bodhi mind, or bodhicitta, and this, there's another word, which is the word ho-shin.

[32:50]

and it translates as beginner's mind. But this ho-shin is the same as bodhi mind. It's different translations in Chinese of dou-shin or dao-shin, wei-mind, wei-seeking mind, ho-shin, beginner's mind. Our temple in San Francisco is beginner's mind, temple ho-shin-ji. So... Beginner's is more than just, well, I'm just starting out. Beginner's mind is this mind that's awakened in a particular way. What have we awakened to? What does bodhicitta refer to? So Dogen has two or three aspects to bodhicitta or bodhishin. bodhaisin, bodhicitta, bodhimind, awakening mind.

[33:55]

And the first aspect of having this mind of awakening is to see impermanence, to actually see clearly the non-abiding quality of each moment. Nothing lasts. There's nothing to grasp. Our life goes swiftly. And seeing this impermanence, which is one of the core teachings of the Buddha, we also see there's nothing to gain or grab after. And also we see that self-centeredness doesn't make sense in a world and a life that's impermanent. And seeing this clearly, we awaken.

[34:59]

We awaken. Bodhicitta arises. We arouse this bodhicitta. And it doesn't happen just once. I think this can happen over and over. So impermanence, you know, swift, our lives are swiftly, fleeting. And this is the great matter, you know, this is what our Han, what that calls us to the Zendo, what's written on it is, great is the matter of birth and death. No forever, gone, gone. You know, each moment. No forever, gone. Go on. Awake, awake each one. Don't waste your life. That's what it says on the Han, this percussion instrument that we hit to call people to the zendo. So seeing this impermanence, what comes with that is no time to lose.

[36:04]

Don't waste your life. And this awakening mind to, I want to practice. not just for myself alone, but for everybody, for all beings, for my community, my family, the world, the plants and animals, the earth. So seeing impermanence, and then out of seeing impermanence comes this vow, actually, to live for the benefit of others, to live for the benefit of the world, because it matters to us. We care about beings, and we also see this changing, ever-changing, so wanting to devote our life in that way, which makes a life that might have felt meaningless or confused or lost,

[37:10]

it transforms that into a life that has meaning, that has purpose. And everything can flow into that, all our practices. So bodhicitta also means taking a vow that we will wake up for the sake of all beings. And also, not only that, but everybody, and this is a particularity of this bodhicitta, we want everybody to be awakened first, and then after everybody else, it's our turn. That's part of this vow, this altruistic vow. And it's not like, oh, I'll sit over here in the dark, you go first. It's... For the sake of everyone, I will practice hard as I can.

[38:11]

And that, of course, develops ourself and our own character and is devoted to others all in one, all rolled up in one. And the third part of bodhicitta, according to Dogen, is this life is just our everyday life. And to not, he says, sell it cheaply. To not use it like, oh, aren't I doing such a great thing? Or advertise it in some way. And this kind of flies in the face of our website and all sorts of notices about, which I'm sometimes embarrassed about. It's like, isn't this wonderful? It's like wanting people to find out for themselves to not sell it. in order to catch people and, at the same time, wanting people to know what's being offered.

[39:12]

So it's a balance there. So our practice, it's our ordinary, everyday life. Nothing special, really. Really. You can find it for yourself. It's nothing special. And it's without It's measureless. It's beyond value or evaluation or measurement. So those two things, how do they work together? So not having any designs upon the practice, using it for one's own self-aggrandizement, or aren't I special, or aren't we special? And at the same time, please come. Find out for yourself. I have full confidence completely in the practice.

[40:20]

Come on. Those two together, how do they work together? So the mind of the Tenso They have to, you know, it says they have to have awakened way-seeking mind and this awakened heart. It all kind of means the same thing, that without that, without that infused with that, then the work could be drudgery or, you know, I'm being taken advantage of or, I don't know, some distortion of the practice, the work practice. So this bodhicitta and living for the benefit of others, including ourself, living for the benefit of all beings, self and others, is Zen.

[41:33]

You know, one might think, oh, Zen is this, it looks very austere, it's a lot of, a whole bunch of sitting that I don't know if I can do, and rules and regulations and so forth. But the actuality is, what it's all about is compassion and being there for others in a thorough, complete way. with ourselves included, not at our expense. That gets very tricky. We are benefited as well. So we know the phrase Zen mind, beginner's mind, but also the beginner's mind is a compassionate mind and a boundless mind, Suzuki Roshi says. right there, this beginner's mind, this way-seeking mind, is boundless and compassionate.

[42:41]

And that's the heart. The wisdom and compassion together. And this can take very, very simple form, you know. I heard this, or I read this story of Suzuki Roshi's life, which I had never heard before, and I wanted to end with that story of his compassionate way, really, how he taught. He was saying about bringing your practice into your everyday life, not just the talk he gave was at Tassajara, the monastery in the mountains, but he was saying when you go off into the city, You should greet people as if you were chanting a sutra, which I found really kind of wonderful. Greet them as if you're chanting a sutra to them. And greet them as Buddhas. And I think this is a practice.

[43:46]

Meet everything as if it's the Buddha or an awakened one or an awakened life. Because, you know why? Because it is. You can verify that yet or not. We practice that way. So greet everybody as if you're reciting a sutra, a careful feeling of respect, thinking, these are Buddhists. This is from Suzuki Roshi. And then he says, even if people don't understand, if you have the right spirit wherever you go, people will need you. People need you. Need that kind of the quality that you're bringing, whether they know it or not. And then he said their life doesn't make sense without somebody like that in their life. Caring for them, treating them like that with respect and devotion. Whoever it is, strangers.

[44:49]

And then this image, feel as if you're carrying an umbrella. for people, to protect them from heat and rain. It was just such a wonderful kind of Mary Poppins, you know, carrying an umbrella around. She could fly with hers, couldn't she? I think she could, yeah. So imagine walking around with that image of carrying an umbrella for the benefit of people, to shade them. And then, in this same lecture, he told the story when he was ordained when he was quite young. And during the war, the Second World War in Japan, he would practice begging, which is a traditional practice, going around in a traditional kind of outfit, robes, and receiving donations and offerings.

[45:58]

And during the war, he said he was practicing takohatsu, and he would come upon people doing things, and he would just help them. He said, I'm not very strong. Suzuki Roshi said, I wasn't very strong, but they would be digging trenches for bomb shelters, and he would just help. And I was picturing him in his robes, which is a traveling outfit when you do begging. just shoveling and helping people. And then he said, there was all this wonderful earth that they had dug up from deep down all around the trench. And then he would help plant cucumbers and a vegetable garden all around this bomb sheltered trench. Very simple. You know, someone needs help digging a ditch, planting their garden, whatever it is. wherever you go with this mind of bodhicitta and this mind of devotion to make your offering.

[47:17]

And there's no need to teach somebody or give a lecture to somebody or anything. You just join in whatever they're doing. whatever they might need. So this is the spirit of the Tenzo. This is the spirit of all the work practice. And for all of us, whether you're retired from a job or working, everyone has daily activities of work, cleaning, cooking, grooming, walking the dog. How can we, not even infuse, transform that into our awakened practice life. Which it is, if we make it so. Thank you all very much.

[48:23]

Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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