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Resources for the tenzo
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Tenzo 典座 literally means “in charge of seating.” We don’t know why, but likely it was originally a job that covered making sure people had seats, robes, food and other basic necessities, that there were flowers and incense for offerings, and that various other supplies and finances were managed. This included included overseeing the kitchen, and it might be why the role eventually focused on food practice.
As tenzos, we can take our leadership attitude from the phrase nichijo sahanji: the everyday affairs of tea and meals. We cook and eat every day and don’t consider it practice. However, in order to live, we have to take in the lives of plants and animals. One of the main points of Dogen’s Tenzo Kyokun is that preparing meals is an activity of the buddha and an important opportunity for developing practice. When it’s our turn to prepare meals for the sangha, we need to not think of it as just a work assignment, or resent the time spent out of the zendo. Cooking and zazen aren’t two separate things; both require paying attention to what we’re doing and its effect on others. Thus Dogen says if we’re going at this without understanding what it means, we’re doing a lot of hard work and wasting the opportunity, which is just as true for all other daily activities. If we’re wholeheartedly preparing meals for people, it doesn’t matter whether the ingredients are fancy or not. We’re transmitting care, hospitality and support for practice, and at the same time, the people who are eating cultivate gratitude for all the interconnectedness that the meal represents. One of the most important aspects of being a tenzo is modeling practice. That means using temple resources wisely, being resourceful, serving others and paying attention to practice in daily life. Even if you're alone in the kitchen without a crew, what you do there and the resulting meal that's carried into the zendo is a clear reflection of the maturity of your practice and the state of your heart and mind. You can be a phenomenal cook and still be an unsuccessful tenzo. Practical areas of tenzo responsibility include planning the menu, getting the ingredients, overseeing the kitchen workers and overseeing serving and cleanup. The information that follows assumes you've familiarized yourself with our page on food according to the dharma of thusness. |
Planning the menu
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In the temple, there are structures for menu planning; it’s not random and not based on your favorite foods. Our meals follow the guidelines of nyoho, which forms a sort of window of alignment with Buddha’s teaching. They're not minimal and tasteless, and also not too rich and complicated. In the Tenzo Kyokun, Dogen says that whether you’re cooking coarse greens or have the resources to make a cream soup, you should maintain the same state of mind. Of course, it’s possible to become just as attached to the coarse greens as to the cream soup. Coarse greens can seem to represent “good” or “diligent” practice, while the cream soup can come to represent dissipation and greed. However, a steady diet of nothing but coarse greens is not nyoho. The mark we’re shooting for is appropriateness, not extremes of richness or poverty.
In addition to the balance of the five flavors and six tastes of the meal we have to consider serving and eating. Can this dish be easily served into an oryoki bowl and eaten with spoon and ohashi? Imagine servers and eaters struggling with stringy cheese, long spaghetti, huge leaves of lettuce, things with wrappers or seeds, or stiff and heavy cereal. Make sure foods are in small enough units so that they fit into the appropriate bowls without dripping over the edges and can be cut if necessary without a knife. |
Nyoho menu planning worksheet
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Getting the ingredients
Getting the ingredients
Food expenses for sesshin can be significant depending on the number of days and participants it includes, so it's important to have an established purchasing process. Maybe someone in the sangha with purchasing authority has to be the one to do the shopping. Maybe a staff member or volunteer is willing to buy the food and accept reimbursement, but groceries can cost hundreds of dollars and that shopper will have to have the resources to cover the purchase. The dharma center may be able to set up an online account with the grocery store that allows you to order and pay online and then simply arrive to pick up your food. (This can be a timesaver as well as a means of making the purchase.)
If you have the human power in your sangha, you might create or rent garden space and grow some of your own food. It's a project that takes careful planning and a dedicated team, but it gives you some control over what you're cooking and is a valuable opportunity for work practice and sangha building.
There may be practitioners who are willing to donate produce from their own gardens or to pre-make dishes at home to bring to the temple. This sort of thing relieves the workload of kitchen leaders as well as demand on the budget. It can be helpful to provide home cooks with a handout outlining your food practice, what items you are and are not looking for, and how they should be presented for serving.
Food expenses for sesshin can be significant depending on the number of days and participants it includes, so it's important to have an established purchasing process. Maybe someone in the sangha with purchasing authority has to be the one to do the shopping. Maybe a staff member or volunteer is willing to buy the food and accept reimbursement, but groceries can cost hundreds of dollars and that shopper will have to have the resources to cover the purchase. The dharma center may be able to set up an online account with the grocery store that allows you to order and pay online and then simply arrive to pick up your food. (This can be a timesaver as well as a means of making the purchase.)
If you have the human power in your sangha, you might create or rent garden space and grow some of your own food. It's a project that takes careful planning and a dedicated team, but it gives you some control over what you're cooking and is a valuable opportunity for work practice and sangha building.
There may be practitioners who are willing to donate produce from their own gardens or to pre-make dishes at home to bring to the temple. This sort of thing relieves the workload of kitchen leaders as well as demand on the budget. It can be helpful to provide home cooks with a handout outlining your food practice, what items you are and are not looking for, and how they should be presented for serving.
Overseeing kitchen workers
Overseeing kitchen workers
In a larger temple, the tenzo manages a kitchen crew of people chopping, prepping, cooking, getting ready for serve-up, and helping with clean-up. That means assigning work, teaching skills, explaining the plan and overseeing the end products. In North America, these folks are not monks and may be beginners. You can’t just add cooking to the general work rotation, abandoning them in the kitchen. It's not just that they can’t find the peeler and the corn starch, but that they're not yet immersed in all the context the tenzo has about meals as practice. Part of the tenzo's job is to model and explain that context. Newer practitioners don’t know what they don’t know. They may think that food practice is just grunt work and resent the disturbance to their zendo time.
The challenge is that during sesshin, and in circumstances where the kitchen may not be soundproof, you can’t be talking and lecturing the entire time. Nonetheless, all work practice is an exercise in investigating interconnectedness, and the tenzo must convey that what they do affects others and show how they are to enable serving and eating.
In a larger temple, the tenzo manages a kitchen crew of people chopping, prepping, cooking, getting ready for serve-up, and helping with clean-up. That means assigning work, teaching skills, explaining the plan and overseeing the end products. In North America, these folks are not monks and may be beginners. You can’t just add cooking to the general work rotation, abandoning them in the kitchen. It's not just that they can’t find the peeler and the corn starch, but that they're not yet immersed in all the context the tenzo has about meals as practice. Part of the tenzo's job is to model and explain that context. Newer practitioners don’t know what they don’t know. They may think that food practice is just grunt work and resent the disturbance to their zendo time.
The challenge is that during sesshin, and in circumstances where the kitchen may not be soundproof, you can’t be talking and lecturing the entire time. Nonetheless, all work practice is an exercise in investigating interconnectedness, and the tenzo must convey that what they do affects others and show how they are to enable serving and eating.
Overseeing serving and cleanup
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Finally,
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Sanshin's tenzo checklist
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Kitchen liturgy
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In addition to the meal preparation, the tenzo may lead kitchen liturgy if the sesshin is not silent. (Because there is absolutely no talking during sesshin at Sanshin, we do not do kitchen liturgy.) There are three services related to kitchen and meals.
Idaten fugin (韋駄天諷経） Idaten (韋駄天 or 違駄天) is the god of the kitchen and protector of monastaries and monks. Idaten was originally Skanda (not the same as skandha) in Hinduism, the son of Shiva and a general of his army. When incorporated into Buddhism, he became a protector of the dharma. He often looks like a military leader, with a sword across his arms and his hands in gassho. Particularly in Zen, he’s a protector of the monastery and the monks and is enshrined in the living quarters and kitchen or dining area. As the kitchen god, he looks after the provisions. He’s a great runner and instantly shows up when there’s trouble. There’s a story that thieves or demons tried to seal the Buddha’s ashes and he ran after them and caught them. In a residential practice situation, there are two short services for Idaten every day, which are not led by tenzo Directly after morning service, whoever is available in the temple engages in standing bows and sutra chanting for Idaten (Idaten fugin) at the kitchen altar, led by the doan. Following the usual pattern of liturgy, participants chant the Heart Sutra or Hannya shingyō, followed by the Disaster-Preventing Dharani or Shōsai shu 3 times. Eko: Having chanted the Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra and Marvelously Beneficial Disaster-Preventing Dharani, we offer the merit generated thereby to the dharma- protecting Venerable Deva Idaten, the envoy who oversees meals in the kitchen, the god in charge of hot water and fire. May there be tranquility within the temple, safety inside and out, the prevention of fire and theft, and the support of donors and practitioners. |
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Sōkō fugin (竈公諷経)
When lunch preparation gets underway (around 10 AM), the tenzo has an assistant chant the Great Compassion Dharani (Daihishin Darani) at the kitchen altar and dedicate the merit. This sutra chanting could also happen immediately after the Idaten fugin.
Eko: Having chanted the Great Compassionate Mind Dharani, we transfer the merit to the kitchen god of this temple, that he may guard the dharma and protect the people.
When lunch preparation gets underway (around 10 AM), the tenzo has an assistant chant the Great Compassion Dharani (Daihishin Darani) at the kitchen altar and dedicate the merit. This sutra chanting could also happen immediately after the Idaten fugin.
Eko: Having chanted the Great Compassionate Mind Dharani, we transfer the merit to the kitchen god of this temple, that he may guard the dharma and protect the people.
Food sending ceremony
Before breakfast and lunch, the tenzo leads a ceremony for sending the food from the kitchen to the zendo. Assistants set up a table, put the pots of food on it, and set up a bowing mat and incense burner. All of these face the zendo. As soon as morning or noon service is over, an assistant strikes the umpan slowly 36 times. Servers and kitchen assistants form a ryoban and the tenzo, wearing an okesa, offers incense, puts down a zagu and makes nine prostrations toward the zendo, coinciding with the last strikes of the umpan. When this is completed, the servers carry the food to the zendo staging area. The ceremony must be done before any of the food is sent. The tenzo enters the zendo and eats there with the rest of the sangha.
Before breakfast and lunch, the tenzo leads a ceremony for sending the food from the kitchen to the zendo. Assistants set up a table, put the pots of food on it, and set up a bowing mat and incense burner. All of these face the zendo. As soon as morning or noon service is over, an assistant strikes the umpan slowly 36 times. Servers and kitchen assistants form a ryoban and the tenzo, wearing an okesa, offers incense, puts down a zagu and makes nine prostrations toward the zendo, coinciding with the last strikes of the umpan. When this is completed, the servers carry the food to the zendo staging area. The ceremony must be done before any of the food is sent. The tenzo enters the zendo and eats there with the rest of the sangha.