When this mountain monk[I, Dôgen] was at Tiantong Monastery, the position [of cook] was held by cookYong, of the same province [as the monastery]. Once, after the midday meal Iwas passing through the east corridor on my way to the Chaoran room [where myteacher Myôzen was being nursed] when I saw the cook in front of the buddhahall airing mushrooms. He carried a bamboo staff in his hand, but had no hat onhis head. The sun was hot, the ground tiles were hot, and sweat streamed overhim as he worked diligently to dry the mushrooms. He was suffering a bit. Withhis backbone bent like a bow and his shaggy eyebrows, he resembled a crane.

I approached and askedthe cook his dharma age. He said, "Sixty-eight years." I said,"Why do you not employ postulants or laborers?" He said, "Theyare not me." I said, "Venerable sir, your attitude is indeed proper,but the sun is so hot; why are you doing this [now]?" The cook said,"What time should I wait for?" I took my leave, but as I walked alongthe corridor, I began to realize how important an opportunity this positionaffords.

Again, in the fifthmonth of the sixteenth year of the Jiading era [1223], I was on the ship atQingyuan. While I was talking with the Japanese captain, there was an old monkwho arrived. He was about sixty years old. He came directly onto the ship andinquired of the Japanese passengers if he could buy Japanese mushrooms. Iinvited him to drink tea and asked where he was from. He was the cook of themonastery on Mount Ayuwang. He said, "Icome from Sichuan,but I left my home village forty years ago. This year I am sixty-one years old.In the past I have trained in quite a few different monasteries. In recentyears, I stayed for a while with Guyun. I was able to register at Yuwang[monastery], but for some time I felt out of place. At the end of the summerretreat last year, however, I was appointed cook of that monastery. Tomorrow isthe fifth day [feast], but the entire menu does not yet include a singledelicacy. I need to cook noodle soup, but still have no mushrooms, and thushave made a special trip here to try to buy mushrooms to offer to the monks ofthe ten directions.

I asked him, "Whattime did you leave there?" The cook replied, "After the middaymeal (i.e., the last meal of the day)." I inquired, "How long is the road from Yuwang to here?"He said, "Thirty-four or thirty-five li." I asked, "When willyou return to the monastery?" He said, "If I can buy the mushroomsnow, I will set off right after that." I said, "Today I did notexpect to meet you and have a conversation on this ship. It is most fortunate,is it not, to form this karmic bond? Dôgen [I] will treat the cook Zen master[you] to a meal." The cook said, "It is impossible. If I do notoversee the preparations for tomorrow's meal offering, it will not turn outwell." I said, "Are there not co-workers in the monastery whounderstand the meals? What will be deficient if only one officer, the cook, isnot present?" The cook said, "I took up this position in my lateryears; it is this old man's pursuit of the way. How could I hand it over toothers? Besides, when I came I did not ask to stay away overnight."

I again asked the cook:"You are venerable in years; why don't you sit in meditation to pursue theway or contemplate the words of the ancients? It is troublesome being cook; allyou do is labor. What good is that?" The cook laughed and said, "Mygood man from a foreign country, you do not yet understand pursuit of the wayand do not yet know about written words." When I heard him speak in thismanner, I suddenly felt ashamed and taken aback. I asked him, "What arewritten words? What is the practice of the way?" The cook said, "Ifyou do not slip up and pass by the place you ask about, how could you not be aman?" At the time, I did not understand. The cook said, "If you stilldon't understand, come to Yuwang Mountain at some othertime, in the future. On that occasion we can discuss the principle of writtenwords." Having spoken thus, the cook got up and said, "It is late inthe day and I am in a hurry, so I am going back now."

From: Tenzo Kyokun - Instructions for the Cook by Eihei Dogen - Translated by Griffith Foulk