Dogen’s “Instructions to the Zen Cook” (“Tenzokyokun”) is a chapter in his manual for monastic practice, Pure Standards for the Zen Community (Eihei Shingi). In it, Dogen extends the essence of zazen into the activity of kitchen practice.
Of old it was said, “When steaming rice, treat the pot as one’s own head; when rinsing the rice, know that the water is one’s own lifeblood.”
A delightful and insightful translation and commentary on this text is How to Cook Your Life: From the Zen Kitchen to Enlightenment. The commentary is by renown 20th-century Japanese Zen priest Kosho Uchiyama, translated by one of his American students, Daitsu Thomas Wright.
Translations
Foulk, Griffith (Editors: Warner, J., Okumura, S., McRae, J., and T. Leighton): Nothing is Hidden, Essays on Zen Master Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook, Weatherhill, New York (2001), p. 21-40
Leighton, Taigen Daniel and Shohaku Okumura: Dogen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community, A translation of Eihei Shingi, SUNY (1996), Albany, NY, p. 33-57
“The Dharma for Taking Food” pdf for class study. This text is another chapter in Dogen’s Pure Standards for the Zen Community. It presents the attitude and particular forms for meals taken in the meditation hall during sesshin, a practice intensive.
Tanahashi, Kazuaki: Moon in a Dewdrop, Writings of Zen Master Dogen, North Point Press – Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York (1995), p. 53-66. Instructions for the Tenzo translated with Arnold Kotler
Yasuda, Joshu Dainen and Anzan Hoshin: Cooking Zen, Great Matter Publications (1996); online at: http://www.wwzc.org/translations/tenzokyokun.htm
Commentaries
Hoshi, Anzan: Sleeves Tied Back – Commentaries on Dogen Zenji’s Tenzo kyokan, online at: https://wwzc.org/dharma-text/tenzo-kyokun-class-1-sleeves-tied-back
Kim, Hee-jin: Dogen Kigen—Mystical Realist, U. of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, (1975) p. 239-245. Reprinted @ 1980: p. 25-26, p. 177-181.Reprinted as: Eihei Dogen Mystical Realist, Wisdom Publications, Boston, (2004), p. 186-191
Warner, J., Okumura, S., McRae, J., and T. Leighton: Nothing is Hidden, Essays on Zen Master Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook, Weatherhill, New York (2001)
Wright, Thomas (Authors are Eihei Dogen and Kosho Uchiyama): How to Cook Your Life, Weatherhill, New York (2005)