One day a new monk came to Zen master Joshu and said “I am a new trainee in the temple, can you give me some teaching?” Master Joshu said, “Have you eaten?” and the monk said “yes”, Joshu replied “then wash your bowl”. In this talk, Daizan Roshi explains some of the ways that this famous but very simple little interchange can be looked at, in terms of digesting and cleaning the ’stuff’ accumulated in our life, and how it can nourish us. He goes on to discuss some of these views in relation to the life story of his Zen teacher in Japan, Shinzan Roshi.