Tenzo Kyokun: The Importance of Hunger

Seido comments on the theme of hunger coming up as the sangha anticipates Sejiki and studies Dogen’s the instructions to the cook. During the “Festival of the Hungry Ghosts,” participants feed the insatiable unsettled energy embodied in the “gaki” – mythical beings who cannot take in nourishment even as they hunger for it. Seido calls attention to the way “hungry ghost” energy shows up in our culture as well as our personal lives, and how we can meet that energy without suppressing it, but instead investigating its source and enfolding it wisely into the dharma.