Tenzo Kyokan has a different audience. I don't read or know how to read or understand old Japanese writing, and I'm certainly not a translator in any sense and could never make out the distinctions between the style of writing, but the scholars say that this is quite a different teaching that Dogen's giving. It's much more practical. instructions to the cook. So as he's beginning to think in terms of establishing his own community, his own community of practitioners, one of the most important functions that needs to be filled is that of the cook, the head cook, the Tenzo. So Tenzo Kyokan. So there's a blurb that I read in Wikipedia, ever-reliable Wikipedia, that quotes the current abbot. of a Heiji temple, his name is Eko Miyazaki, who said that although the title Kenzo Kyokan suggests the scope of this teaching is limited to simple cooking instructions, the work's true importance is as an instruction for life, which I think is true of everything that Dogen writes.

[01:20]

It's really the metaphor of cooking. and of caring for things and so on in a very intimate way and for each other and for the practice of the temple and the practice of the world is always where Dogen's heart is about, what he's after. It's basically the well-being of all, of all that lives. So, although the Tenzo Kyokun has this more concrete and pragmatic style than his earlier essays, this emphasis is still, as we heard over and over again in the Bendo Wa, on wholehearted engagement, wholehearted practice. That itself is awakening. You know, that's the message of the Bendo Wa. Wholeheartedness is itself awakening. It's not getting somewhere wholeheartedly. It's not like accomplishing something wholeheartedly. It's the wholeheartedness that is the awakened mind, the awakened mind of Buddha.

[02:21]

And so that sense of practice permeates this essay as well. Then there's another former abbot of Aheji whose name is Renpo Niwa Roshi. And he writes that this text can be divided fairly easily into five parts, which we're going to look at together, each of these parts. And the first part is a preface I'm going to read in a minute, in which Dogen basically extols the virtues of the position of Tenzo. He says that this position is only suitable for experienced monks with a deep degree of understanding of Zen practice. So this is really interesting. You know, one of the things I found amazing about coming to practice Zen with other people in community is how each position... that you take up in the community has equal value to all the other positions. There's not like, oh yeah, those are the cleaning people, or those are the cooks, you know, those are the workers, and then there's the administrators and the teachers.

[03:25]

It's not like that at all. It's like this incredibly true sense of everyone wholeheartedly practicing together. each one of them in what's called their dharma positions have equal value. So one of the amazing and shocking things that Dogen asserts throughout his teaching, for example, around the kitchen, is that the equivalency between the kitchen and the zendo. So we still say that. You know, when we're doing seshins or practice periods, right now there's a practice period going on at Green Gulch, just started a couple days ago, and apparently, very happily, the zendo is... kind of full again, which is lovely. So there are these new people coming and they're wholeheartedly engaging in the beginnings of their own introduction to Zen practice under the tutelage of these wonderful young new teachers that are beginning to take up the challenge of holding Green Gulch together for the next generation. And

[04:25]

So that idea that the kitchen practice is equivalent to what's happening in the Zendo. You know, at the end of our long sittings, like of Sashin, if you've done Sashins, at the end of Sashin, the kitchen crew comes in to the Zendo in the last day after the noon lunch. And they do what's called a Jundo. They're led by the Tenzo, who comes to the altar, offers incense, and then leads the kitchen crew together. all around the room, and all the monks, as they pass by, do a very deep bow of gratitude to the cooks. And then they line up, and then the abbot and the tonto, the head of the tan, the head of practice, and the eno, and whoever else is in there, the teachers who've been working with the students in the zendo, they come forward and they thank the kitchen crew. And sometimes they're sort of fun things like asking them questions like, so what is the, you know, where is the Buddha mind when you're cooking, you know, tofu stew or something.

[05:28]

You ask them something that might elicit from them both sincere and but also oftentimes humorous responses. So that's a really delightful kind of improvisational relationship that we have. But I've always just been amazed at the respect. That the workers, you know, Green Gulch is a working place. Like the people who are at Green Gulch are hardworking. That's one of the things we say admiringly of new students. But he's a really good worker, you know. And there's something about that. And it doesn't just mean physical strength. It means that you really go, that's this wholeheartedness. That whatever you're doing, you're doing with a lot of, with really showing up and really making a good effort. It doesn't matter if you do it right or do it wrong. That's not the important part. But that you're really there and you're really trying your best. So this is, you know, a lot of this is directly from the influence of Dogen's engine and how he taught his monks and they taught theirs and so on and so on.

[06:29]

So this is like, you know, what, how many hundreds of years ago, 800 years ago? So still, the influence of his teaching has had this tremendous impact on us right to this present day. Well, 600, I guess the math, 1,200 to 2,000. So, in a long time, a long time ago, and still, still we try our best, and we read Dōken, and we do our best to follow his example. So here's this introductory paragraph, and this is a translation by Griffith folk. And I so deeply apologize for having not mastered how to put things into the chat. I tried it again and I failed and I thought, oh God, okay, next time, maybe next week I can learn it. But I wanted to put the Tenzo Kilkan into the chat, but you can easily find it as I did. I looked online and there's a PDF of the Tenzo Kilkan and you can just download it and read it. And, uh, So I suggest you do that.

[07:30]

The one I chose was, again, by Griffith Folk. F-A-U-L-K, Dr. Griffith Folk. So he translates it in this way. Buddhist monasteries have, in principle, six stewards, or six positions. And this is still true. We still have these six positions. All are disciples of Buddha, and all carry out the work of Buddha. Among them is an officer known as the cook. Tenzo, who is in charge of preparing meals for the assembly of monks. The Rules of Purity for Chan Monasteries, the Chengguanjun Gui, which is a very even older text that was written many centuries earlier about how in Chinese monastics, how they organize their monasteries, which of course is where Dogen got his inspiration, his visits to Chan monasteries in China. So in the rules for the purity of Chan monasteries, it says, in order to offer nourishment to the monks of the community, there is a cook.

[08:32]

And from ancient times, the position has been assigned to senior monks who have the way-seeking mind, eminent persons who have aroused the thought of awakening, the bodhicitta, the thought of awakening. In general, the job of cook is an all-consuming pursuit of the way. If one lacks the way-seeking mind, It will be nothing but a vain struggle and a hardship without benefit in the end. The rules of the purity of Chan Monastery says that one should maintain a way-seeking mind, make adjustments in accord with the occasion, and see to it that the great assembly receives what is necessary and is at ease. We often say about the cook that you can taste the attitude of the people working in the kitchen. You know, if there's strife or people are arguing or something's going on there, it shows up in the food, you know. And I can't confirm that that's unscientific, but I do feel like that's certainly something that we often imagine that we can experience.

[09:38]

Like, uh-oh, something's going on in the kitchen, you know. Either they're running out of food or the spicing's too hot or something else is off or not much flavor. kind of see that someone's not home. There's some lack of awareness that has an impact all the way down the line to your own little bowl with your own little portion of food. In the days of your... Monks such as Guishan and Dongshan, Dongshan, the founder of Sotozen, Chinese founder we studied earlier last year, or maybe the year before, performed this job. So Dongshan was a Tenzo. I didn't actually realize that till I was rereading the Tenzo Kyokhan. And various other great ancestral teachers did too at some point in their careers. Thus, it is surely not the same as the work of worldly cooks or imperial cooks and the like. These are not the great chefs. These are the sincere practitioners. In fact, when I was asked to be a guest cook at Tassahara, I said to the folks who were in charge of the monastery, I was fairly new at the time, and I said, I don't know how to tell you this, but I have no idea how to cook.

[10:49]

I have never done any cooking. And it's really something my mother carefully avoided letting me learn because I don't think she wanted me to end up doing that. that for some reason, unfortunately. And they said, well, that's okay. Don't worry. Just read the recipes. So that was my introduction to being the Tenzo was being handed a book of recipes and told to read the recipes and things will be fine, which sometimes they were, you know, sometimes things went really fine, but there was some really... uh, massive errors that I made, which I learned a lot from. I think the errors were actually much more of my education than the things that went more or less well. Um, so it is an amazing thing. I mean, I also remember dreaming about food, you know, like being chased in some way by something, something edible and all kinds of weird dreams that, that I'd never had, of course, before in my life until I was, uh, assigned to full time in the kitchen.

[11:50]

Um, Amazing, amazing experience. And, you know, a few years later, I felt confident. I'd learned how to do all kinds of strange things, like make pancakes for 100 people and so on. So, you know, over time, you know, all of us can basically learn, but there's that learning curve that, you know, has different speed at which we can go about it. So Dogen then says, when this mountain monk, Ai Dogen, was in Song, China, On my days off, I inquired of retired elderly monks who had held minor and important offices, and they shared something of their views with me. Their explanations are the bones and the marrow bequeathed by the Buddhas and ancestors who were possessed of the way in ancient times. As a rule, one should carefully read the rules of purity for Chan monasteries, and after that, one should pay heed to the detailed explanations of those retired senior monks. So this is another very important point that was also something I appreciated on learning when I came to Zen Center, is that based on the Buddha's own example...

[13:01]

In the early sutras, you know, the Buddha asked the monks because at one point, as they were traveling from town to town, they were itinerant. They didn't have this set place, except during the rainy seasons when they would stay in some sheltered area. But mostly they traveled around to different towns and villages on their begging routes, begging for food. They didn't have a kitchen. They didn't have a tenzo and so on. But what they did have... was quite a few rules that evolved over the course of the time that they lived together and practiced together with the Buddha. And one of the rules that came up, which is still again alive at the Zen Center and practiced at the Zen Center, has to do with seniority. So, you know, when the monks were traveling about, as they were heading to another town, the younger monks would run ahead and they would get the best accommodations. So they were young and they were fast. And so they get there and then the Buddha and the elder monks would show up. And the best spaces to stay were already taken.

[14:05]

So the Buddha called his community together and he said, so I want to ask you something. He said, who's deserving of the best accommodations? And the monks, you know, raised their hands. The smartest. He said, no. He said, the fastest. He said, no. And they guessed a few more things. And he said... He said, the eldest, those who came first, those who were ordained first, those who have been practicing longest. deserve to have the best accommodations. And so that's actually another rule that has been in place in my time living at Zen Center, that basically accommodations are given based on seniority. Whoever's been there the longest gets the next choice of if space opens up, then you ask those who've been there the longest, would you like to move to that space? Would you like to have that space? And if they don't, then the next person of the eldest gets to be asked and so on. And eventually, If no one else wants that, if we're all content where we are, then the newer students begin to have an option of moving there.

[15:08]

Same thing with positions. We always check seniority. Make sure rather than just, well, they're really a great cook, so we should make them tenzo. They've only been here for six months or a year. And it's like, nope. That's not going to happen. As nice as that would be to have somebody with a lot of cooking skill taking over the position, the position always goes to someone with seniority and in training. And also the understanding being that becoming the head cook is considered to be the first teaching position at Zen Center. And this is also Dugan's understanding. So when you're given that position, you are given this sense of great responsibility for the care of the practice of many of the newer students. And oftentimes when folks are struggling for various reasons, emotionally struggling or whatever's going on with them, maybe they're having some trouble with showing up on time. having the right outfit or whatever it is, you know, some maturing that we hope to help them to achieve in their time in the community.

[16:17]

You know, oftentimes that responsibility is on the Tenzo to kind of look out for them. and to help in a very kind and sincere and direct way to help give them feedback and help them to grow. That's the whole idea, help them to grow if they can. And one of the things I remember also learning as Tenzo is if you're going to compliment the work of the students, you do that publicly. You do that in front of the rest of the crew. And if you're going to criticize them, then you do that privately. And so that was another really, I felt like, well, that's really good. That seems right. That's what I'd want. That's how I'd like to be treated. So a lot of these things, the reason I'm bringing them up is that a lot of these were installed thousands of years ago of how to care for each other, how to live together, how to be, oops, you know, I know that funny thing happens when I put my hand up, I get my hand, it shows up there on the screen. So...

[17:18]

So this is the Tenzo Kyokan's influence on the monastic practice. And you can find it if you come and volunteer at one of the Zen Center kitchens. You'll see how these practices. And oftentimes, another interesting thing that a lot of times the head cooks do is they will read the Tenzo Kyokan. So maybe they'll read four or five pages in the morning when the students first arrive for their work. for the day they come into the kitchen and we go in and we put on our clean aprons and our headscarves and we gather around the altar in the kitchen there's a kitchen altar and offer incense and then we start reading something and oftentimes it's the Tenzo Kyokun that's read so maybe you read five pages the next day you read another five pages we all take turns reading and little by little you get to hear what you're going to be hearing in looking at this text, and quite a bit of it has had a major impact, certainly on my own ideas of practice. And so I hope that would be so for you as well.

[18:21]

So that's the first section. That's the preface of Dogen's text. And the second section actually describes the work of the Tenzo, his job, as well as the attitude that they bring to the work. and how they view not only the crew, but also the food, the kind of food, the quality of the food, and the quantity. In the third section, there are instructions for serving the meals, as well as accounts of Dogen's very famous encounter with these two old monks who were serving as Tenzo during his visit to China. These meetings, as Dogen says, had a very deep and lasting impression on his understanding of Zen practice. Dogen had been raised in an environment in Japan of a very hierarchical and aristocratic class system. So he was an upper class, trained in Chinese literature when he was very young. I think he was not a legitimate child, but he had some well-placed...

[19:27]

courtiers were his parents, and he had a grandmother who was well-educated. His mother and his grandmother both read classical Chinese and taught him. So his main influence as a boy were these really well-educated women, and he grew up with them and had great respect for them. And throughout his life, he had great respect for women. He taught women and was very caring and respectful of training women. He meets, when he gets to China, he meets these old tenzos who, in his experience, would be high-ranking monks. They would have status in society. And instead, he meets these very hard-working old people who are just out there in the heat of the day, drying mushrooms and traveling many, many miles to get provisions to take back to their temples. And he doesn't understand. Why didn't you have the young monks do that? Or why didn't you have the worker monks do that? And so they laugh at him.

[20:27]

They say, you don't understand. You don't understand practice at all, stranger from Japan. So we'll read those encounters. They were incredibly important to Dogen and to his more egalitarian sense of what Buddhist practice was about and each person of equal value. So then the fourth section, Dogen instructs the Tenzo on how to avoid dualistic discriminations concerning the quality of the available food. There's a really interesting story that I heard when I came to Zen Center from Mrs. Suzuki, who was Suzuki Roshi's widow. I was studying tea ceremony with her, and she said that Suzuki Roshi would always buy the oldest vegetables at the grocery store and bring them home because he was concerned that no one else would cook with them. You know, she was kind of laughing. She said, oh my God, the stuff that he brought home. Anyway, you could feel the heart, the heart of this amazing teacher, you know, bringing home the oldest vegetables.

[21:31]

So in the last section, Dogen further discusses the appropriate attitude for Tenzo in a teaching called The Three Minds, San Shin. Shin is mind or heart mind. San is the word three in Japanese. So there are these three round plaques in each of the kitchens at Zen Center. So Tassahara has these three round plaques, wooden plaques, and Green Gulch does, and City Center does. So if you're ever in one of those kitchens, go and look on the altar, and you'll see these round plaques. And this Sanshin, the three mines from the Tenzo Kyokyon, are what are calligraphed on those plaques. I think they're all in English. I think so. Anyway, what they say are... the three minds. One mind is the joyful mind, the three minds of the cook, or the three minds of the kitchen. A joyful mind, a grandmother's mind, and a great mind. Joyful mind, grandmother's mind, and great mind.

[22:36]

So in the Tenzo Kyokun, Dogen makes mention of other Zen teachings, including several koans. One of them features Dongshan, again, the Chinese founder of Soto Zen, who, as I said, also served as Tenzo in his temple. And Dogen mentions this koan in suggesting that the most basic activities of our day are no different from awakening when approached directly, wholeheartedly, and with a clear mind. So this is probably the most important message that we can receive and understand about Zen practice. It's what you're doing. all the time. It's not, you know, oh yeah, on Saturday I went to Zen Center and I sat Zazen. Or people say to me, I haven't been practicing, I haven't been to the Zendo. And I say, well, that's not practicing. Practicing is what are you doing now? And what did you do this morning? And what are you gonna do later today? And, you know, your whole life, if you understand that way, that your whole life is wholehearted engagement with where you are, how you speak, how you think, you know, there's no time off.

[23:41]

for good or bad behavior. It's just everyday mind is the way. So that's pretty strict. At the same time, we do have choices to make about whether to relax and engage fully and to actually find the joy of Zen practice. or to feel like we're, you know, under the gun somehow or we're being criticized, you know, we'd rather not. Can I get out of here? Can I change my mind about all of this, you know? But in fact, in terms of just basic knowing that your life is complete in each moment and your job is basically to come into that realization. That how each moment is complete, each thing that you touch and see and do is a completion of your role, of your job as an aware and awake living being. To know where you are and what you're doing and to make your best effort. It's kind of simple, but at the same time it's so easy to forget. And we all know that.

[24:42]

Very easy to forget. So our most basic activities of our daily life are no different from awakening when approached directly, wholeheartedly, and with a clear mind. So I'm going to now read a portion of the second section of the Tenzo Kyokun, and then I'm going to open our time for three more of you, if there are three more of you who would like to tell us where you are and what it is that brought you to consider Zen practice, to engage in Zen practice. and to study the Dharma as part of this community, this Sangha, this small Sangha of ours. So it's been wonderful to hear from each of you who've spoken so far. So I don't know who's left or who would like to come forward, but I'm going to offer that in a few minutes after I read this next section here. First of all, following the midday meal... This is talking in the temple.

[25:44]

Go to the offices of the prior and the comptroller. These are two other of the lead officers of the temple. So it's kind of like the director and the treasurer. And get the ingredients for the next day's meals. So rice and vegetables and so on. Having received them, protect and be frugal with them as if they were your own eyes. Chan Master Yong of Baoong Tentu Monastery said, protect and be frugal with monastery property, which is like your own eyes. Respect and value them as if they were ingredients for an imperial repast. These cautions apply to fresh and to cooked things alike. Next, the various stewards consult in the store hall about what seasonings should be used on the following day, what vegetables should be eaten, how the rice gruel should be prepared, and so on. The Rules of Purity of Chan Monastery says, when deciding about ingredients, as well as the flavors and numbers of side dishes for meals, first consult with the stewards in the store offices.

[26:46]

The stewards referred to here are the prior, the comptroller, the assistant comptroller, the rector, the cook, and the labor steward. So these are some of the names of the monastery officers. When the flavors and numbers have been decided, write them on the announcement boards in the abbot's quarters, the common quarters, and elsewhere. And we do this too. So the Tenzo will write out the day's menu the night before and posts it on the bulletin board. So you can go and see what's coming up. There's one in the hall on the way into the Zendo. There's one outside of the dining room. I don't know about the abbot's office. I don't think I ever got one of those when I was in that position, but I know there's one in the kitchen. So you can go and look and see what's being offered for next day's meal. And also in our modern times, we've also begun to add, we have this whole list of... codes for allergens, for the vegans. There's a certain code for the people who are allergic to various things.

[27:52]

So all of those things get named. So whenever there's some question about what the ingredients are, they're all listed there. And then there's the list of the codes so you can find out. Sometimes it's not unusual to have people with pretty serious allergies. So we've become very careful about nuts and peanuts especially. and various other things that could cause great harm to people if they don't know that's there. So that's another commitment. It's part of Tanzel's responsibility to be taking good care of the health of the community. Food really is medicine. You know, we say that when we receive our food. We see this food as good medicine to allow us to practice the way. So it's really viewed not as a cuisine. It's really viewed as medicine, you know. for a healthy body and our ability to take up our practice. So after that, after posting the menus, ready the next morning's rice gruel.

[28:53]

When washing rice, preparing vegetables, and so on, do so with your own hands, with close attention and vigorous exertion and sincere mind. Do not indulge in a single moment of carelessness or laziness. Do not allow attentiveness to one thing result in overlooking another thing. Do not yield a single drop in the ocean of merit. Even a mountain of good karma can be augmented by a single particle of dust. So tiny detail, attention to detail. One of the names of the Soto Zen school, one of the ways that it's described is attention to fine detail. You know, the taking care of little tiny details is really kind of the hallmark of this tradition. You know, whether it's how we're sowing the raksus or how we clean the altars and how we store the grains and how we, you know, write our name or whatever it is, like paying attention to that. You put your shoes, I don't know if you notice that, if you've come to Green Gulch or to any of the city center, city center or Tassajara, you know, in the beginning, the shoes are kind of all over the place.

[29:58]

You know, people just dump off their shoes wherever they're going. So little by little, they begin to hear the instruction, please put your shoes on the shoe racks. And I love, I have some pictures I've taken of the shoes that are all kind of nicely laid out there on the shoe racks on the way into the Zendo. Taking care of little details, you know, makes a huge difference. I think you all know that from your own homes and your own life. You know, what a difference it makes just to kind of line things up, you know. You don't have to, but there's something about that. There's something that having a straight mind has something to do with having things be somewhat straight. that you are in control of or in charge of in some way, responsible for. And then he says, the rules for purity of Chan Monastery says that if the six flavors are not provided, then it cannot be said that the cloak has served the assembly. I'm not sure what those six flavors are, but I think it's sweet, sour, bitter.

[30:59]

Salty. Anyway, there's these six flavors. And if you notice in the way that our meals are laid out, there's usually a salty sesame seed that goes on the rice. There's often a vegetable soup, sometimes with miso, so beans or miso and that sort of thing. So a balanced protein balance. And then a salad or some kind of vegetable salad. And so I would think if you look closely that you would see these six flavors are present most often. in the meals. When examining the rice, first check for sand. When examining the sand, sifting the rice, first check for rice. If you pay careful attention to detail, watching when coming and watching when going, then your mind cannot be scattered. And the food will naturally be replete with the three virtues and endowed with the six flavors. So that's the beginning of the Tenzo Kyokun. And next week, I'm going to be looking at these stories that Dogen tells in some of these sections about, there's one of them in particular about checking the rice for sand.

[32:09]

Are you checking the rice for sand or are you checking the sand for rice? This is a koan exchange between Dongshan and one of his students. It's quite famous and quite meaningful in terms of the response that the monk gives and that Dongshan does not approve of what he says. Anyway, that'll be for next week. So that's the beginning of Tenzo Kyokono. And I would very much like to offer you now an opportunity, those of you who would like to, and you're certainly welcome, to just introduce yourself and tell us where you are and a little bit about what brings you to practice. And if there's some brief history, some of you have been practicing a long time, as we've heard. So that's a very interesting thing for all of us to hear. So if you'd like to share, then please just raise your hand and we will bring you forward onto the screen. See, I think I'm going to, where am I going to go?

[33:14]

I'm going to go to gallery view. I can see everybody. There you are. Welcome. Hello. Hello. Hello. Let's see. Hi, Helene. Hi, Elisa. Okay, Paul and Melissa. Tim. All right. Great. Thank you, Tim. Oh, no. Sorry, Fu. I already went about a month ago. I was just waving to you. Hello. Hello. Maybe you have something different to tell. You know me. I always have something different to tell, but I'll save that for later. Okay. Well, thanks for waving. Good to see you. Great. Oh, great. Hi. Says your name is Kevin. Yes. Hello. Hi. My name's Kevin. I'm actually in the Fresno area here in California. I'm relatively new with Zen practice.

[34:16]

In the past, I've read a few books regarding Dharma. I practice Zen on my own. However, never been part of a Sangha. So looking at different ones that were available to me, there's none local. I saw this online, Zendo, and I thought I'd drop in today. And this is my first time. Well, welcome. Welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. So we've been going for a little while, a couple of years now, and we're just basically talking about different teachings. We've been working on a book called The Transmission of Light. And so now we're on a chapter on Dogen, who's the founder of this particular school. Soto Zen. So he's kind of our main guy, and this particular teaching of his is about cooking, as you heard. So you're very welcome, Kevin, and you're certainly welcome to return if you'd like to. So we meet every Sunday at 5. Okay.

[35:17]

Let's see. All right, Lisa. Great. Thank you. Let's get all the right buttons here. Am I on? You are. Oh, okay. I feel like I've given this talk like three or four times now. Maybe this is the first time I gave this talk. Actually, I'll start this way. My name is Lisa, and I live in Amherst, Massachusetts, which is out in the western side of Massachusetts, a long drive from Boston. And I practice here. I'm able sometimes to go out to Green Gulch. I've been a guest student there and done the intensive there. And I was able to take three months and go to Tassajara last year, which was... Beyond wonderful. And I started out practicing Buddhism a long time ago, in the early 90s, in Cambridge Insight Meditation Center in Massachusetts when I lived in Boston.

[36:43]

And for about 30 years or so, I practiced Theraveden Buddhism, pretty much sometimes sitting with people, sometimes mostly on my own. The story I tell about how I came to Zen was that I have a son who I sent off to a good liberal arts college, and he studied computer science and Buddhism. And he came home once, and being 20, he had a little discussion with his mother about the Arahat versus Bodhisattva ideals. And his logic impressed me, He won the argument. And so I came out to, I was in California. I visited Zen Center, city center. And then pandemic hit. And then I came as a guest student to be in Gulch. Pandemic hit. And all of this opened up online, which has made it vastly easier for some of us who live out in the middle of nowhere to connect with a sangha.

[37:55]

Meanwhile, you might have heard Hakusho moved out near here, to Brattleboro, which is 25 miles north. And now there's a Zen Center, Brattleboro Zen Center, up here to practice with. So I'm able to sit in person sometimes. I'm able to sit online. And I will be coming to Green Gulch, I hope, again. for Jukai in January when I get the word. But I am very happy to have this angle on practice, this supported study, which has given me a lot more depth to practice and understanding. So gratitude to all of you and deep gratitude to Fu. Lisa, I look forward to your return. Lisa was my Anja.

[38:58]

One of the positions in the temple is called Anja, which is a great help to the person leading the practice period. So I invited Lisa to be Anja. So we had the great privilege for me of meeting daily over cups of tea, and she would bring me cups of tea, and then we'd chat away. So it really wasn't part of the job description, but it was part of the delight of having our relationship there for three months together. Millicent. Hi, Millicent. Good to see you. Hi, everybody. Hi, Fu. I feel surprisingly nervous about this, and I must admit I've put up my hands to get it over and done with because I'm enjoying hearing everybody else's story so much that here I am. being part of this little group probably from its beginning through.

[40:01]

I can't remember. Yes, I can remember your talk on the first teacher in the transmission of light. Yeah. The Buddha. I'm terribly sorry. This is... And whenever I'm speaking, she thinks I'm talking to her. So just a moment. I'm going to make her a bit clearer. Sorry about that. As probably most of you know, I live in Australia, a long way away. But I do know that there's some other international members of this little Sunder too, so it's a worldwide spread. I've been practising Zen since probably the late 80s when I probably need to go back a bit further than that because, as you can see, I'm not a young person.

[41:19]

And I think probably from birth I've been interested in the mystery of being alive. So I've been on the hunt for an awful long time, but not anymore. I'm home here in our practice in this way, but I was born into a a very orthodox Roman Catholic family. So I'm used to a life where religion and spirituality permeate the whole of life in those traditional families. It was just life. It was just what life was. It does mean that I grew up in a world of ceremony and I loved the ceremonies.

[42:26]

I tell you, those old-fashioned Catholics, they knew all about ceremony. There was nothing like those processions. They were such fun. But I dealt all of that, I think, probably very appropriately in my late teens, I think. you need to move past your family first indoctrination, and became a kind of radical activist. It was the time of the Vietnam War, and I was attracted to Buddhism. But I felt that it was, you know, especially in the context of that war, it felt wrong for me to, It felt just so that West was simply in the act of appropriating another Asian treasure.

[43:27]

So I decided to explore my birthright tradition in the more contemplative aspect of things. So I did that. probably until the early 2000s where I ended up working as a chaplain in an acute care hospital for many years, always as a lay person. I quickly have to say that. I was attracted then to Zen with this residual yearning towards Buddhism back in the late 80s. when an American teacher came to Australia called Pat Hawke. And Pat was a teacher in the Diamond Sangha tradition. And he also happened to be, it was kind of not uncommon back then, he happened to be a Catholic priest.

[44:41]

So that was my kind of transition into the tradition. Pat... made it absolutely clear that he would never merge the two traditions. It was, in fact, one of the big shocks for me was when on a Saturday night I observed him transmitting the precepts, Jukai ceremony, to people, and then on Sunday morning, because I was resident at his centre, On Sunday morning, he'd baptised the infant of the man he'd given precepts to the night before. Wow, wow. And I was kind of shocked about that because he never merged the two traditions. I studied with Pat coming and going to his centre, which was first of all in... Texas in Amarillo and then he moved to Tucson.

[45:52]

So I had a look at two bits of America and on the way through, I stayed at Zen Center. Just one of those brief people who come and go from Zen Center, but it made a huge impact on me. And, in fact, I stayed three times at Green Gulch Farm for the January intensive. I'd come to a practice period with Pat in September, October, November, December, muck around for a bit and then go to Green Gulch Farm for January. So I know the geography. I know the beach. I've got... I've got a couple of stones from the beach. Oh, wow. Sorry, I'm going on a bit here. Here in Australia, the Zen practice is basically through the Diamond Sangha tradition where I sat for many years where Pat thought was alive.

[47:09]

2012, and then Soto tradition was founded by a Japanese monk called Eka Kuramatsu, who also spent many years in, Sifu knows him. He was a good friend of Zen Center and Mrs. Sosuke, I think. And he came to Australia simply because he married an Australian. and founded a Soto Zen Center here in the big city near me, about an hour and a half away. So I practiced with him for 20 years and received Jukai from him. Very traditional Japanese practice. It drove me nuts. Because I'm not very good at precision.

[48:13]

But I knew actually as soon as I met the tradition through Pat Hawk that I had come home. Around about 2000, I stepped formally away from any kind of Christian practice. So from there I have practised Sauri in this tradition. I practise, like Lisa, I'm liberated by the online offerings because I live in the country and health at a distance and stuff means I can't practise with the Sangha in real life. There isn't one. But I miss things like seshing, and simply sitting with people. Gee, I love this Monday. Sorry, Sunday evening get-together.

[49:15]

I'm sorry, I've talked for too long. Thank you. Hardly. Thank you so much, Millicent. Thank you for that. So nice to meet you in that way. You didn't tell them you're a weaver, and those of you who have been around for a while have seen the amazing weaving she did of the... the tarantula nebulae. Is that right? Did I get that right? Yes, that's right. Now, this is my little screensaver, if you can see it. Can they see it through? Yeah. This little, this is actually, I'm a tapestry weaver, so this is one of my little weavings. Well, it's quite big, really. And it's, for me, it's my life in sin. because it's the temple guardian dog, and he's a little terracotta guardian dog. He sits on my front doorstep and keeps the house safe.

[50:16]

And that little person down there, that's me. That's my relationship with Zen. It keeps me safe and it takes care of me and leads the way. And because I live in Australia, these are Australian vibrant flowers that go with it. Wonderful. Beautiful. That's that little piece, yeah. Well, you sent me the universe. I do. I'm having that mounted on the wall of my new domicile. That would be fun, yes. So... You are not it, it actually is you. She wrote in characters in this incredible nebula. Was it the web or the Hubble? It was the Hubble telescope. And it was while you were teaching us Dong Shan. And if ever you're at city centre, talk to David Zimmerman because he has the companion piece.

[51:25]

I have seen a picture of it, but not the real thing. Share our gifts, wonderful gifts from Australia. Treasures, treasures of our house. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you so much. Wonderful. It's like these little squares are becoming fat with personality and presence. So maybe that unless there's someone else who would like to share this evening. We can look for a hand or a... There may not be too many left at this point, actually, but if you are left and you'd like to... to come on or wait for next week, that would be great. Or maybe we're done. It really is. It's really your call.

[52:28]

So I just want to say good evening to you all and invite you to unmute and say good night if you like, or good morning for some of you. Yang, it's good morning. And Melissa, it's good morning. So. Bye. Good morning. I'll share next week. Okay. All right. Good night. Thank you, everyone. Bye. See you in the morning. Bye, everyone. Bye.

[52:59]

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