Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘So it means those who cannot appreciate the– the food that is given to you cannot appreciate our teaching in its true sense. When you listen to the teaching– our teaching, we should accept it, but if you have some prejudice, you cannot accept the teaching. So do not have prejudice — prejudice in its true sense, means we should not have any discrimination with our food. This is good test for ourselves. The food you have now will not be complete for you. Some things will be quite strange or unfamiliar to find. We should appreciate the food you have on each meal.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi archive)

The next Dogen class I proposed for Zen Center was to study his writings for his monks, which in some ways is quite distinct from the main thrust of the Shobogenzo. I was showing my Monday group some of the pictures from the original reels in the Suzuki Roshi archive – if you look at the pictures at the link above, you will see the kinds of things written on them, especially those that were recorded during sesshin. This short admonition comes from one such sesshin, and reminds me of Dogen’s fascicle on the dharma of taking food, which I appear to have only quoted once, so far at least.