Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Question (Ed Brown): I don’t understand what I have done.

Suzuki Roshi: Why is it necessary to understand what you are doing? Buddha knows. At least I know, and people know. When you bow to zendo, when everything is ready, everyone knows. So find out what you are doing moment after moment, for instance, when you bow to me, when you bow to zendo, when you hear the bubbling sound of the rice. There you will find out yourself.’ (from the Suzuki Roshi Archive)

Ed was famously the first tenzo at Tassajara. This answer alludes to some of the forms that Dogen sets out in the Tenzo Kyokun; I wonder how many of those instructions were being tried out during this first practice period.

A reminder that you can hear Ed reminiscing about those days, almost sixty years ago, with David Chadwick at an online event this evening.