To Sustain Ourselves

With palms together




Good Morning Everyone,







It is early and the rice is cooking for the day. It is the beginning of the month and we will soon have money to buy food. In the meantime, rice is nice (thank you KoMyo!) and I am reminded of the scene in the film “Zen” where the Tenzo has no rice at all. The monks drank boiled water. To complicate matters the refrigerator here at the Temple is broken and will need to be replaced. A call to the landlord has begun to get things moving in that direction.







There is a line in the meal chant, "to sustain ourselves, we eat this food." Our practice is to sustain ourselves without much ado. So, we wash the rice and cook it, add what is in the pantry (in this case a bit of turmeric with a hint of mint and beans), and enjoy the process of cooking. I will add the beans a bit later with a little fresh onion. Lunch will be early today as I have a 12:15 appointment with my orthopedic doc.







Before all that, 7:00 AM Zazen; 9:00 AM Zen in the Park, 10:30 meeting with Hogaku-roshi, 12:15 Doctor’s appointment, and later today at 4:00 PM our Zen Discussion Group, followed by 7:00 PM Zazen.







May you each be a blessing in the universe.