Hello Footballers,

It is helpful to keep in mind that this week's talks, 1-16 to 1-20, were directed at monks, not householding folks ... and are something of "football locker room pep talks" to the players.

Dogen could come across, like many Zen coaches in the heat of practice for the big game, like a hard-ass, spurring on his players. I am not sure who a famous "soccer" coach would be (being an ignorant Yank ... I googled "Alex Ferguson" and "Raymond Domenech"), but Dogen could be the Vince Lombardi of American football. Hard as nails and taking no compromise ... except when he wasn't.

I don't think it necessary to take Dogen literally here. Dogen's philosophy that "all our daily deeds are Zazen" can apply quite well to those of us with diapers to change and reports to write for the boss. In fact, Dogen often took that tone more in his writings to his lay followers, many of which we will come across in other sections of Zuimonki. So, no need to take literally his admonitions today ... such as in 1-16 ... that we'd all best get out our begging bowls and "Buddha will provide for us". Working for a living, and a paycheck to feed the family, can be one's "begging bowl" too.

As I often underline, many of these talks were for 13th Century Japanese monks living in a monastery ... thus, monk-ing was their career as much as your career is yours. I am sure your own boss sounds as 'hard-ass' about getting that report done as Dogen sounds to his 'employees' sometimes.

Enjoy! (The readings are a little long in length this week).

Gassho, The Gipper