( Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook – IX )
Today’s passage makes reference to a famous Koan and story …
When the World-honored One [The Buddha] waswalking with the assembly of his followers, he pointed to the ground with hishand and said, “This place is suitable to build a shrine.” The devaIndra then took a single blade of grass, stuck it in the ground, and said, “Ihave built the shrine.” The World-honored One smiled (Case 4 in the Book of Serenity)
The tathâgatas of the tendirections, embracing the spirit of this dharani, turn the great wheel of thedharma in lands innumerable as motes of dust. (fascicle 7 of theShurangama-samâdhi-sûtra)
Each brings to mind the poem by William Blake, Auguries of Innocense …
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
The cook keeps carefulwatch over the area where the rice and soup are prepared, giving commands tothe postulants, the servants, and the fire stokers, and instructing them in thehandling of the various utensils. Nowadays, large monasteries have rice cooksand soup cooks, but those are nevertheless under the command of the cook. Inthe past there were no such rice or soup cooks, only the single officer, thecook himself.
When ordinarilypreparing ingredients, do not regard them with ordinary [deluded] eyes, orthink of them with ordinary emotions. "Lifting a single blade of grassbuilds a shrine; entering a single mote of dust turns the great wheel of thedharma." Even when, for example, one makes a soup of the crudest greens,one should not give rise to a mind that loathes it or takes its lightly; andeven when one makes a soup of the finest cream, one should not give rise to amind that feels glad and rejoices in it. If one is at the outset free frompreferences, how could one have any aversions? Even when confronted with pooringredients, there is no negligence whatsoever; even when faced with scantyingredients, one exerts oneself. Do not change your mind in accordance withthings. Whoever changes his mind in accordance with things, or revises his wordsto suit the person [he is speaking to], is not a man of the way.
From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk
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