This podcast is offered by San Francisco's Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Thank you for coming out here in the middle of March on a blustery day. Welcome to all of you online. Good to have you with us. And there's always folks that are here for the first time. I'm curious if You are one of them. Is there anyone here? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Please keep coming back here and joining us. This is a community temple, and you don't have to necessarily identify as a Buddhist to be here. And we really want you to come and just be with us as part of the community. And as we say, study this one mystery, this one life that I have. And right now we're in the midst of and kind of winding down a series that we've been doing about the kitchen and kitchen practice.

[01:11]

There's a document called the Tenzo Kiyokun, and it is about how you practice in the kitchen. But as one senior monk teacher told me one time, we are always cooking. What is it that we are always cooking? This document was written in the 13th century by the founder of the school of Zen named A.H. Dogen. And it is something that is very applicable. So if you come here today and you're curious about hearing a talk about Zen and Zen principles and you are not into cooking, that is just fine. because Dogen wrote this as something that was applicable to life, applicable to a job, applicable to any sort of work, applicable to any sort of relationship.

[02:13]

And the document, the Tenzo Kyokun, is what we're going to talk a little bit about today. And I'm going to share some of my stories and things that I've learned from other cooks. I had the good fortune to be the head cook at Tassajara for two years and was able to work studying this one mystery in that context with several different teachers. And I want to start with one of the examples, and that is the example of a person named Shone. There was a very, very busy day in the kitchen where I had two monks who suddenly had to leave the previous week because of family matters, so they were gone. And even though I was the head of the kitchen, I needed to make breakfast and fill in for them. And I was there making breakfast. And in Tassajara, when you're making breakfast, and in this kitchen too, you're making an offering to the entire sangha.

[03:17]

And In doing this offering, someone comes along and is kind of waking up the monastery with a wake-up bell. And Shon loved to run the wake-up bell. And so Shon was also one of my cooks and was a person that was incredibly adaptable. He was a very joyful person. And I was there making some sort of breakfast, and I know it involved basil. because we had these jars, these mason jars, that had all the different herbs in them. And I took the basil off of the rack, and I went to undo it, but it hadn't been undone in a while, and it was stuck, and it was an old jar, and I really twisted it hard, and the whole thing cracked all the way around the middle of the jar, and it came off in my hands into two broken pieces, just these shards just hanging out there. And feel free to come on in.

[04:18]

Yeah, just grab a seat anywhere. And so it was there, just all broken, two halves and basil all over my forearms. And then I heard the wake-up bell coming. And when the wake-up bell comes, you're supposed to stand at the altar and bow. And I didn't have time to put this down because they were coming in the door. And Shon was coming in the door. And so I stood there with Shon... at the altar in the kitchen, as Shon did the wake-up bell in front of the altar, me bowing with two halves of a broken jar in my hands. And then Shon left the kitchen, and I put it down. And he went out, and he ran up the steps to the Zendo, and he died. And it was this sudden thing. It was symbolic. And here was this joyful person, in his mid-40s, on the top steps of the Zendo, doing what he loved, what he was really into.

[05:24]

You could sign up to do the wake-up bell. Anyone could put their name on the list, and like half the time, Shon's name was on the wake-up bell. That's how he liked it. He liked to go and wake up the community. And he died doing what he loved. And I'll never forget the symbolism of standing there with his last altar. with two halves of a broken jar in my hand. And I want to talk today about the lessons that I learned in the kitchen and from the people that were there, and what unfolded, not just for kitchen practice, but things that you can use anywhere, whether you're riding on a bus, or you're working at a meeting, or you're having a relationship at home. The Tenzo Kiyokun are instructions to the cook, and is one former abbot of a Hege wrote, there are instructions to the cook for instructions for life. Now, one of the reasons why the kitchen practice is so incredibly powerful in the monastery is that we always talk about this thing about the way, and we talk about the things that we need to do, the means to an end, the production,

[06:41]

Everyone had a plan to come here today that showed up, at least I hope. Maybe you showed up here on accident, but most of you intended to be here. And so you thought you were going to be here, so the end result was to be here. And then all of the time since you left home was the way. You getting here. How you were in traffic, how it was when you left your house, whether or not you forgot your keys, how you were in your head whenever you first kind of got here, were looking for parking. You know, that's the way. But you had this idea in mind, the results. You had a result in mind. And so in the monastery, we practice this all the time. We talk about the way. How do you actually do things where you're not holding your breath? I mean, I've spent many years of my life holding my breath, if you will. You might identify with that as well. Like, one day I will live my life. One day I will be doing what is my life. Right now this clearly isn't my life, but I will get to that one day. I'm going to get through college. I'm going to get my first job.

[07:43]

I'm going to eventually find someone to be my partner. I'm going to maybe save some money. I'm going to get a 401k. I'm going to try to buy a house, try to get promoted. Eventually, one day, I'll be living my life. It's not quite my life just yet. And this continues all the way until you die. There's no end to this mind. And so in the monastery, we try to find a way to be here now, but we also need to get things done. And in the kitchen, it's incredible because it's the perfect place to practice this, because you have to get things done at least three times a day, or monks get very unhappy. And you want to get it done not just done, but you want to get it done in a way that people kind of like it. It's got to be hygienic, hopefully somewhat cost-effective, maybe even appetizing. You have goals. And you're in the kitchen with all these other Buddhist practitioners. And you assume that we're all just trying to get this offering out to the Sangha.

[08:47]

And yet, you can get really hurried in the kitchen. Someone burned something. Someone forgot to chop something on the prep sheet. Someone didn't tell somebody something else. You know, all sorts of things. And you end up being in a rush. And so in the kitchen, you have this intersection of the way and results that are constantly being played out over and over and over again. The way and results. The way and results. How can I actually be here? How can I be, as that teacher said, cooked right now? while I'm actually trying to get somewhere, some idea of a meal that I'm trying to actually produce. You know, so much of the Western thought is still guided by two fairly influential philosophers from the 17th century, the first half of the 17th century, René Descartes and Blaise Pascal. And a lot of people go back and look at them as the intersection of, say, reason and revelation.

[09:55]

How things unfold and the teaching that's beyond current wisdom and the methodical scientific method and how to actually unpack things and know how things are. The intersection of the way which lets things unfold, but then also needing to have... some sort of sanity about what it is that we're doing. You want people to be healthy. And so these are things you can use when you are working in a tech job, working in a kitchen job, working with a relationship, talking to that person in the restaurant, driving a bus, whatever it is you're doing. And the very end of the Tenzo Kyukun comes up with three kind of synopsis of what we just told you kind of things. You know, like you have a speech, and at the end it's like, by the way, this is what we just told you.

[10:59]

And they didn't tell you at the beginning this is what they were going to tell you. They kind of do in a general way. But there's three different minds. Three different minds. And these minds actually guide the way that you can be doing anything, whether it's driving an ambulance, Or it is, you know, just doing something a little bit more focused. And I hope wherever that ambulance is that, you know, that person is doing okay. And that that ambulance driver is grounded. And with those three minds, the joyful mind, the parental caring mind, and the big magnanimous mind, are all throughout this document in regard to how it is interwoven with the different stories that are quoted from previous texts in China and from different lessons that are here today. And these three minds, and they're not, of course, three different minds, but they're three different mental, I guess you would say, capacities and states that have been cultivated over a period of time.

[12:10]

And the first one is the one that I was talking about was shown, the joyful mind. The mind that is not just fleetingly happy about things that happen externally, but something deep in the bones that I can take anywhere, that I can have a little bit of a storm today on the surface of the ocean, but I've still got kind of that anchor in my bones deep down somewhere, that I'm not being pulled around just anywhere. There was a really interesting, I thought, insightful statement from the writer in the New York Times, longtime writer David Brooks. You might have read him before. But he wrote an article on joy. And this statement I really love. It kind of sums it up. It says, happiness usually involves a victory for self. Joy tends to involve the transcendence of self. Happiness comes from accomplishments. Joy comes when your heart is in another.

[13:18]

Joy comes after years of changing diapers, driving to practice, worrying at night, dancing in the kitchen, playing in the yard, and just sitting quietly together watching TV. Joy is the present that life gives you as you give away your gifts. As you give away your gifts, Joy is something that is built through being connected to what's around you on a heart level. Have you ever gotten into a job that you're doing and forgot why you were doing that job and you really didn't love it anymore? And you know at some point in the past you kind of loved doing this, but the joy is gone. And you're just kind of showing up because you need to. That can happen in relationships. That can happen with processes in your life. That can happen with any job that you undertake. But joy is something that is really the attitude.

[14:20]

And at the end of the Tenzo Kyo-kun, it talks about being, this is the attitude. This is kind of the spirit with which we go about these things. The very beginning of the Tenzo Kyokun, it says, this work has always been carried out by teachers in the way and by others who have grounded the Bodhisattva spirit within themselves. And what is the Bodhisattva spirit? It's the spirit of, I'm not making my primary reason for practice seeking my enlightenment, but I'm going to actually practice enough so that then I can help others. in their path toward realization and ending their suffering and enlightenment. It is something that is a way that is grounded in being connected to others and to other people's life and other people's struggle and other people's suffering. It's being grounded in that. That is what actually brings joy, is that connectedness, like what David Brooks was talking about.

[15:23]

It is the present that life gives you as you give away your gifts. It's the present that life gives you as you give away your gifts. Being connected. How can I be connected to the work that I am doing? Have you ever thought about the people that you work with and who you might appreciate or notice the least? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about how it would be if you really tried to work on that relationship or pay attention to their experience or just reflect here and there that ever since they've been born, they are the center of the world. Everything has revolved around them. And I hardly notice them or think about them that often. And I don't really, on a heart level, really connect.

[16:25]

What is it about the way that I go about working? Now, joy is the overarching attitude. And Shon was a person that had this somehow or another. He just loved to connect to people. He loved to talk to people. And we had this thing at the back door, as we call it, at Tazahara, where the monks can come and get, like, leftovers. And people in the past had gone there and had, you know, put out the leftovers. And I had been there for many years, and I had seen many people put out the leftovers in the back door. You know, so after breakfast, you know, anyone who's still hungry or wanted to see what the really maybe cool thing is, we'll come and check. Are there biscuits back there? Are there cookies back there? What's back there? You know, and Sean did this thing I've never seen before, but he prepared it like it was. you know, a lunch spread. I mean, he like, you know, he would even come in early and like scout like all the leftovers and the dishes he was going to put them in and how he was going to present them.

[17:30]

At one point I was like, please don't garnish the leftovers. Because he would go out and find edible flowers, you know, and put them on there. He loved the happiness that he would see when people would come to the back door because he was at that time the Fukuten, the person who managed the floor, and then he later on became a cook for the dining room. But he loved to see the people come back there and to just be happy, almost like a parent that loves to sit there and just watch their children eat. And the joy that came from that. And I have so many Schoen stories. His name is spelled S-O-I-E-N. He made it up when he was 10. He was raised by hippies in Oregon who refused to name him, and they said, you can call yourself whatever you want. And on the way to school one day, he was looking out the bus window, and the sun shone in the window in a way that filled his heart with just all sorts of warmth.

[18:33]

And he said, I'm going to be called Schoen. And that is why—and then he came up with his own spelling, you know. How can I bring this spirit to the people I work with, to the people that are in my life? When you're working in that way, things are just easier. Now, this is very much tied to the second mind that Dogen mentions at the end of the Tenzo Kyokun, which is parental mind or caring mind. This is how. This is how we actually handle the objects. So the spirit is the joy, how we handle the objects. It says to, you know, treat the vegetables. The very beginning is talking about the head cook, the Tenzo, and they're preparing for the day. And so after, you know, says that there's this person that has, that lives kind of like by the Bodhisattva spirit, which is joyful. and cultivating joy, but the bodhisattva spirit connected to others.

[19:38]

And then the next paragraph, it goes into functioning. And as soon as it goes into functioning, it starts talking about how they will collect all the vegetables and they will handle them as though they are their own eyes. As though they are their own eyes. Now, if I'm handling something as though it's my own eyes, I am pretty tuned and pretty careful. And this is the parental mind of the caring mind, because, you know, a parent holding a tiny baby, you know, you're just like, you know, I wouldn't, I'm holding this thing like four feet above the ground, like, you know, and I cannot drop it, you know. You ever want to read something really hilarious, you can read David Sedaris talking about holding a baby. And, you know, it's just like, all he can do is think about dropping the baby. Because it's just the thing that you just absolutely would not want to do. It's just like, I cannot help but think about dropping this baby. Because it's the thing that we're so careful with.

[20:39]

It's just like it's, yeah. If I am that way with objects, that's veneration. That is putting myself into something, the way people put themselves into, you know, an old craft that someone's doing. You ever see someone who does, you know, sewing, or somebody who really gets into gardening, and it's kind of like this craft. You ever see flower arranging in Japan? They have like this 20, or this, I think it's a 45-minute ceremony for flower arranging, you know. And usually at the end, you'll have a vase that has like three things in it. but it's just like this appreciation. It's that specific vase, it's that specific shape, it's that specific color, it's this time of year, it's this audience, it's this branch turned this way from that type of tree that had grown just that much, that was cut just so in the middle of the ceremony, with this flower, that was picked from this place, that's this color, that only grows this time of year, all of this thought, there's multitudes of narratives in that one vase with that twig and that flower and that piece of foliage.

[21:51]

Veneration, bringing the mind into something. If we don't venerate anything in our lives and we have these amazing tools where, you know, you could have ruled the world 30 years ago with an iPhone 16, you know? Just throw it on our bed and shove it in our back pocket. What would it be to spend a year trying to find something that you take for granted and to venerate it? Something at work. You get to work and there's this routine where you get there. What if you took 30 seconds to really ground yourself and appreciate and to get ergonomic and to come up with your own ritual for the thing that you're with? And what is it that brings you back to the love of your work and brings you back to your body while you're doing it, as though it was your own eyes? If there's nothing that you venerate in your life, nothing that you esteem intentionally, it's hard to be connected. And it's something that we cultivate. People forget.

[22:54]

I forget. You forget. We forget. Things are awesome, like, and I'm just like, oh, wow, that thing's awesome. It always makes me feel good, and I haven't done it in three years, you know. Way before there was the Buddha or Buddhism... In fact, it wasn't even called Buddhism until the British came over and started, like, labeling stuff. But, you know, before there was the Buddha in the Indo-Gangetic Plain 2,500 years ago, people were actually getting together as communities in that area and reciting their intentions together because people forget. getting together just the ritual. And so they get together in these little clusters of villages, and on the full moon, they would recite their intentions, like how I want to be better next month, or the vows I've taken, or how I have promised to be showing up for my family, or my work, or other people, or what have you.

[23:55]

And this was a ritual that was in place when the Buddha was born that had been there for hundreds of years. And so it was integrated into Buddhism as the full moon ceremony where you get together and you recite your vows once a month because we forget. And to venerate this practice and to remember to bring something back. If there's nothing that is bringing me back at work to remember why I'm there and why I'm doing it, over time it will become kind of rote and my heart will become detached from it. And what is it that keeps my heart, what ritual, what way of being allows me to actually be with the thing that's going on? Parental mind. The caring mind that works with things as though they are my own eyes. Being right there with the carrots and the bowl that I'm putting them in. as though it's the most important thing on the planet.

[24:59]

Because that's what I'm doing. I'm not doing anything else. And if you do something as though it's the most important thing on the planet, then you can't get too tight around it, or else you won't do it right. You actually have to do it in flow. You have to do it in a way that's skillful. You want to show up and be there for the thing. Dogen says, do not be absent-minded in your activities. Okay, that's good not to be scattered. And then he says, nor so absorbed in one aspect of a matter that you fail to see its other aspects. Okay, that's what I think we're usually trying to do. I want to focus, but I don't want to focus so much that I forget the other things that are going on around me that I need to be with. Through the process of being in an environment where people are heart-connected to the reason that they are there and they are handling things as though they are their own eyes, there is a certain flow that starts to happen.

[26:15]

Because if you think about it, you can't cut celery and think about everything that's going on. You do need to be focused. But if you're thinking about the board or your hand or the knife or the celery... independently, you're going to make a mistake. You actually have to learn to be in the middle of it. The way a juggler is in the middle of things. You know, if you think about one ball, it falls. You have to be in the flow of what's happening. And being able to cultivate this parental mind over time leads us to a place where things start to expand. And that brings us to the last mind. It's the result of actually having a joyful attitude, functioning with a mind that is careful and caring and parental, and that's big mind, magnanimous mind, impartial mind, appropriate mind, able to see what's appropriate for the moment and able to respond.

[27:26]

When we were working in the kitchen, we did this thing that I called adopt something. Adopt something is when, just like I was talking before about maybe a co-worker that you don't notice so much. You can also do that on a platform and waiting for a train. You're like, who here would I not have noticed? There's always things that we are focusing on and things we're kind of ignoring. So in the kitchen, I invited people to adopt something. And the adopting was to find something that is really mundane and to make it your baby. You know, to pay attention to that thing and spend three or four minutes a day taking care of it. One of the times in one of these exercises, I adopted one of our sinks, a very innocuous back sink that, you know... And I got to know all the little tiny gaskets, and I even brought like a toothbrush and I hid it, and sometimes I would clean around the edges of it.

[28:41]

And, you know, it kind of, you notice that a period of time, like the way you install a sink, it's all shiny, you know, but then it kind of just, the water that dries on it, it gets kind of opaque, and making that really shiny. And noticing where it's kind of leaking and the screw isn't really tightened on that handle, and just like, I adopted this sink. I got really knowledgeable about how it was put together. you notice like there's a little chip here, there's a little line there, you know. What is it to be cared for in that way? People love to be cared for in that way. People love to have people notice them. Everyone wants in some way to be noticed in a way that says, I care. But it's hard to show up for people and for Sangha mates like that if you aren't caring for anything in your life and cultivating that parental mind. Find something to adopt at work. Find something that is not currently being paid attention to by others.

[29:43]

Or maybe it is and you just don't know it. But find something mundane that is purely about the attitude and the way, because you're going to have enough things in life where you have to have results. So find something that can really be about the way. There were new instructions for caring for the sink. So I could start caring for the sink and just stop at any time because I was out of time and I could come back and care for the sink some other time. It was boundless. It was timeless. It was just about the care. Cultivating that mind. This is the cooking, if you will, that I was talking about how we are always cooking. We are always cultivating something. Why not bring our mind and our presence to what it is that we are doing? There is a certain intimacy that evolves when we are connected to what it is that we are doing.

[30:50]

When I say intimacy, there is like a relational thing inside that has a bit of just inherent care. And learning to find ways that we can actually take this to other people, like the sink. You ever rush through customer service? You're trying to return something, and that person's probably had 30 people get mad at him today. That must be the most thankless job, is the person that works the returns phone line for some product, you know. And usually you can hear that stress, but I'm usually in a rush when I'm talking to customer service. And so what is it to find the people that we don't notice, the moments that we rush through, to bring our heart to that moment like it's that small dog we love or like it's that person that we adore?

[31:57]

What is it to actually cultivate things in that way? So this magnanimous mind is the stable mind. It's the impartial mind. Because we want to be able to receive people as they are, as the gifts that they're giving us, and not how we want them to show up. But as they are showing up, as their capacities are, to be able to express acceptance on a moment-to-moment basis to the people around us. That doesn't mean approval of their behavior, but acceptance. Magnanimous mind, they say, a monk's mouth in the kitchen should be like an oven. That doesn't mean monks are always hungry, which is true. But what happens with an oven? You open it, and whatever you put in it, the oven receives. And it cooks it. The oven is not going, no, I want this.

[32:59]

I don't want that. Yeah, I like this. Whatever you give the oven, it has a stable, magnanimous mind. This is what's going on right now. People want to put casseroles in me. I'm taking casseroles. Okay, now they want to put this in. Okay, I'm taking that. A monk's mouth is like an oven. We learn to actually go through life developing... a joyful attitude, developing a care for the people around us and for our roles that we are engaging in, so that the end result, what we inherit from that building over time, is a magnanimous mind, is a mind that is accepting, is a mind that they say is stable, like a mountain. I studied with a monk at Tassajara who was the Tenzo there for a few years, named Mary Stairs, and she always... seemed to emulate that quality to me just being impartial she was able to say the thing that needed to be said very objectively and then we would just move to the next thing she did not seem to be terribly flustered or terribly excited we were just working through what needed to be worked through working with the kitchen

[34:16]

And I have to say right now in our kitchen at City Center, I'm really happy with the way things are working there. We've got a wonderful head cook in Marie. And it is a place that people seem to really like to work and like to be. And this is what we're trying to cultivate around us. Because the measure of a person when they die is not what was on their resume. or the great things they accomplished, but it was the effect on the people around them while they were doing those things. What is the effect I have on the people around me? I'm a pebble, you drop me in a pond, there's a ripple. What's that ripple? What's the effect on other people? Are they more empowered? Are they more discouraged? I like to sometimes say that, you know, any spiritual path is really about one thing, and that's learning to suffer less and thrive more and helping other people to suffer less and thrive more.

[35:22]

And how does that actually happen? Well, through these processes that we cultivate, through these processes that we learn to bring and share with others. It's about how we hold what we have, not what we want. And in the kitchen, the way and the results are constantly meeting each other. And this world will, in most cases, want us to constantly produce, produce, produce, and not really care how we got there. But your life is how you got there. I can remember working years ago in the financial field, and we had these goals. And I can remember having this monthly party where we would like celebrate people who hit these big goals. And there was this person there who hit a goal that I know she was working on for years, and she hit that goal. We had the party, but in the middle of the party in the restaurant, I mean, I didn't see her get off of her phone maybe for five minutes.

[36:27]

And she looked really wound, like she was working on something. And there was like this, you know, there is no end. I do that all the time on accident if I'm not paying attention, where it's just about the result. And then when I get the result, I really can't fully connect to it because I haven't really been fully connected to anything all along. I can tell other people stuff, like I did this thing, and then maybe I can feel like other people can give me some validation, like, oh, that's great, you accomplished that thing. But inside, in my bones, I'm not alive. I'm holding my breath. I'm not at work. I'm actually waiting for one day when I can exhale. And that's what the Tenzo Kyokun is teaching us is how to be able to be alive and connected to the people and the objects and the processes that are going on around me so that when I put the meal out there and give it to the Sangha as an offering that's just the next thing. And then I wash the dishes with a joyful mind.

[37:30]

And I take my apron off, and I hang it up. And I walk out of the kitchen, and I'm thankful that I learned the lessons, and they're in my bones, and I have Mary Stares in there, and I have Shon Rue in there, and I have Dale Kent in there, and I have Juliet Wagner in there, and different people that have taught me amazing things about how to care for things, about how to be joyful, and about how to have big mind and to just do the appropriate thing as it's happening next. And this can be used anywhere. And that's why Dogen was so passionate about the Tenzo Hyokun, and he quoted it many times. And it was the only real work practice document that he wrote. And in this monastery, this is a great place to practice. It's where the way and the results meet. And so you just hang up your apron and you walk out of the kitchen. and you do the next thing.

[38:37]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:02]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_95.19