Cook one meal with the three minds of Tenzo Kyōkun
Prepare one meal with Joyful Mind, Nurturing Mind and Magnanimous Mind, the three qualities Dōgen names for the Zen cook.
Why it works
Tenzo Kyōkun gives the cook concrete instructions, such as checking rice for sand and not leaving the sink while it soaks, and asks that the work be done with the three minds. Rev. Tatsuzen Sato, summarising the text for the Sōtōshū, reads the instructions as building gratitude for the lives of the ingredients and empathy for the people who will eat. The care is physical and specific, so attention has a task to hold. The link to mood or wellbeing is not studied.
How to do it
- Before you start, recall the three minds in one phrase each: rejoicing at the task, caring as a parent does, and embracing everything equally.
- Wash and check each ingredient slowly, looking for what should not be there before you use it.
- While the rice soaks, stay near the sink rather than leaving the work, as the Sato summary of Dōgen describes.
- At the table, notice which of the three minds was present, and which slipped.
Evidence
The instructions and the three minds are from Tenzo Kyōkun as the Sōtōshū’s summary presents them. The practice applies them to a home meal. Food-preparation attention has not been tested as a Zen practice. (anecdotal)
Tenzo Kyōkun was written for a monastery kitchen. Applying its instructions to a home kitchen is an adaptation. This practice is drawn from one source, the Sōtōshū’s page summarising Sato’s reading of the text.
Sources
Common mistake
Turning the cooking into a performance of mindfulness, with rushed rituals and no attention to the food. Dōgen’s instructions are plain and practical; they are about care, not form.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Shushō Ittō: Dōgen on Practice and Realization as One
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Notice when you sit, study or work in order to arrive somewhere, and let the activity itself be the practice you are doing now.
- Study the self as it appears during an ordinary task
While doing something routine, notice the image of yourself you are trying to keep up, and let it loosen rather than defend it.
- Let an ordinary thing verify you
Rest attention on one everyday object until it, rather than you, seems to be doing the noticing for a few breaths.
- Hold one present moment as the whole of time
Take a single activity and consider that it is not a stop on the way to the next thing but the time, for now, in which you are.
- Read one line of Genjōkōan and stay with it
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Related concepts
- Shikantaza: Just Sitting
Dogen’s objectless meditation — how to sit, what to expect, and honest evidence
- Zen Buddhism: Its History, the Rinzai and Sōtō Schools, and How to Begin
The branch as a whole: where Zen came from, how its schools differ, and the practices of a Zen community
- Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond)
Zazen, shikantaza, koans, and beginner’s mind — mechanisms and honest evidence
- Beginner's Mind (Shoshin), Made Practical
Shoshin — the Zen practice of not-knowing as a daily discipline
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