The Emptiness of the Three Wheels: Oryoki

I love serving oryoki.

For those that don't know what oryoki is, it's a formal meal eaten while sitting in the zendo. I've been told that oryoki means "just enough," and refers to taking and eating just enough food. Oryoki is eaten sitting on your cushion. Normally we face the wall when sitting zazen, however for oryoki, we face out with the meal board in front of us. We lay out our bowls on the meal board and use the meal board as a table. Hence its name. This is also why we don't want to put our feet on or stand on the meal board when getting in and out of the seat for zazen. It's like standing and walking on the dining room table with your dirty bare feet and then sitting down to eat a meal there. Not to worry if you do accidentally step on the meal board, part of the order to the oryoki meal is wiping down the meal boards.

Also for oryoki meals, you need a set of bowls. Lay practitioners at SFZC use sets of three bowls. Priests have formal oryoki sets that have seven bowls and some extra additional items. Your bowls are all bundled up in a cloth, so you can keep your bowls at your seat and they are ready for each meal in the zendo. During the intensive we ate breakfast and lunch as formal oryoki meals in the zendo, and then during the last five days of sesshin, we had breakfast, lunch, tea, and supper as formal oryoki meal service.

The order to oryoki meal and service is this. The practice period leader sits at their seat. In this case, it was Tenshin Roshi. Everyone should be inside the zendo and settled before the leader sits. Then oryoki service starts, and service in this case is the people who are servers begin their duties. There is chanting during the oryoki form, but I don't refer to this as a service. The first thing that happens is servers come in and wipe down the meal boards. At SFZC, we serve gomasio (sesame salt) as a condiment, and it is the next thing that the servers distribute to the people in the zendo. Then the Soku, or the person in charge of the oryoki service in its entirety, offers the Buddha Tray meal to Manjusri on the altar. After the offering, everyone in the zendo opens their oryoki bowls and places them out. This takes some time, so the servers and the Soku are still during this time.

When opening your bowls, the first thing is pulling open the tie at the top and folding that wrapping cloth into a rectangular placemat on the meal board. On top of the bowls are a wiping cloth, utensil case, and napkin. For now, the wiping cloth and utensil case get tucked under your robes in front of you. The napkin opens right up and spreads out directly on your lap. Then use both hands to move the big Buddha bowl over to the left of your placemat. Use your thumbs to hook the inside of the smallest bowl, lift, and place to the far right. Use thumbs again in the same method for the middle bowl and place it in the middle. The utensils go down next. The setsu (cleaning stick) is on top and can be pulled out and placed between the second and third bowls, tip toward you and handle hanging out a little. From inside the case, chopsticks are placed at the bottom of the placemat, point to the right, and then spoon under chopsticks, face up, bowl to the right. Utensil case goes back underneath robes. And you're set up.

Once everyone is mostly set up, the Kokyo (chant leader) will lead a chant during which the oryoki servers begin entering the zendo to serve the food. There are three pots, one item per bowl. The first pot is usually a grain, for breakfast a hot cereal like oatmeal and for lunch something like rice. The second bowl is usually a hot liquid that can be ladled, like stewed fruit for breakfast and soup for lunch. The third bowl is usually a spatula or tong dish, like yogurt or nuts for breakfast and green salad for lunch. This is my favorite part of serving oryoki. As a server, you want to move through the zendo swiftly and quietly. This is a challenge because the pots are heavy and hot, and if it's full of liquid, it can slosh easily. But this is a meal, so you don't want the energy to put people to sleep. I also don't like the feeling of being rushed as someone eating and being served in the zendo, so I don't want to move in the zendo like I'm worried about running out of time. Just calm and swift. There is a lizard that can run on the surface of water. The lizard is running, but its body is present and calm and upright as it runs. I have the image of this lizard running on water in my head as I'm moving through the zendo for oryoki service. However, with all the swiftness of moving through the zendo, once you are in front of the two people you will be serving, then the time is all about them. I stop, side step in front of the pair, take a breath and bow deeply. Place the pot down on the meal board, kneel down, and use both hands to serve the food. There are hand gestures for a little bit more, a ceremonial amount, and enough. As a server, I try to pay attention to the hand gestures, pay attention to my serving, try not to spill any food on the bowl or meal board or person, and try not to make a lot of noise with the pot and serving utensil. Some food is easy and neat and clean to serve. Some food is really drippy and messy and takes longer for me to serve. Some of the people receiving are nervous and don't know what to do and might not hold their bowl close enough or might pull their bowl away quickly. Some of the people receiving might make me nervous, like serving Tenshin Roshi or the abbess, and my hands might be shaking. You never know what it's going to feel like with each person you serve and each time you're serving, so you just have to do your best by meeting the moment as is. This is what I love about serving oryoki.

The other being in the equation is the food itself. Before servers take their pot into the zendo, we take a moment to stir the pot a bit. This is a practical action that mixes any settling and breaks up any clumping for easier service. It can also redistribute the heat and can allow the utensil(s) to settle in the food and the pot. For me, this action allows me to connect with the food. I get a little stir at the same time. Now, when I carry the pot into the zendo, it's not just a pot of food, it's nourishment for the people sitting in the zendo and needs care not to be spilled or wasted. The entire act of serving the people sitting with cared for food is an endless wheel of giver, receiver, and gift, no one more important than the other and all three relying on the other two to exist and be of service.

When the last pot is served and the servers leave the zendo, the receivers chant the meal chant:

We reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it comes to us.
We reflect on our virtue and practice and whether we are worthy of this offering.
We regard it as essential to keep the mind free from excesses such as greed.
We regard this food as good medicine to sustain our life.
For the sake of enlightenment we now receive this food.
First this is for the three treasures.
Next for the four benefactors.
Finally for the beings in the six realms.
May all be equally nourished.
The first portion is to end all evil.
The second is to cultivate all good.
The third is to free all beings.
May we all realize the Buddha way.

It is a mindful meal and a mindful way to eat. As oryoki means just enough, in case you finish all your food and are still hungry in the few minutes allotted, seconds are served. You need to have finished everything in your bowl before asking for seconds, and you shouldn't eat your seconds until all three bowls have been offered and all the servers have left the zendo. Once the third bowl seconds servers have left, you can eat your seconds and if you've finished your food, you can start cleaning your bowls with your setsu. The setsu is used to scrape up every bit of food. This is another chance to taste and appreciate the meal. Then the servers come back to collect the gomasio. After allowing time to scrape clean the bowls, the servers return with hot water. This water will clean all of your bowls and your utensils. The server will pour water in your Buddha bowl until you motion enough. I don't like to use a lot of water, but I also need enough to clean the sides of my bowls because I usually fill my second bowl to the top, so for me it's a delicate balance of when to motion the server enough. I've had careless servers pour very quickly, which is dangerous because this is tea-steeping hot water. I try to pour at a medium, steady pace and I try to pour onto the bowl surface to keep from making much splashing noise. Once you get water, start washing your bowls, beginning with the Buddha bowl and using the setsu to wash the spots not submerged by water. From the Buddha bowl, the water is poured into the second bowl, using the wiping cloth to dry off the Buddha bowl. Wash spoon and chopsticks in the second bowl, dry off on the wiping cloth and put back into the utensil holder. Wash the second bowl using the setsu, then pour the water in the third bowl and dry off the second bowl and place it in the Buddha bowl. If you have too much water, drink the extra from the second bowl. Clean the third bowl with the setsu, leave the water, and dry off the setsu and put the setsu on the utensil holder. The servers come in with one final service, buckets to discard your cleaning water, however, "This water we use to wash our bowls tastes like ambrosia. We offer it to the many spirits to satisfy them...". So it's not discarding but offering and it's polite to pour off all but a last sip so that you get a final taste of the entire meal offering. Once this bowl is empty, it can be dried off and nested in the second bowl and then the oryoki bowl set can be wrapped back up, folding the placemat cloth over the bowls, folding and replacing the lap napkin, replacing the utensils, stretching out and laying out the wiping cloth, and then tying the whole bundle up. Servers come in to wipe down the meal boards one more time, some final words from the Kokyo, and it's the end of meal service.

Although the meal is over for the receivers, the servers have yet to eat. We clean up all the gomasio and kettles and water buckets, as well as gather pots for the servers' meal. When we can sit down to our meal, it is also a formal event and we serve each other in a wrote way. All the same etiquette is observed as happens in the zendo. The entire crew needs to support each other throughout the entire serving action. It is a bonding experience all done in silence. This servers' meal becomes a deeper connection to each other, to our work, to the food. Beautiful things happen of the moment as a serving crew bonds. Intimacy is a better description of this bonding. When a crew is intimately connected, we move as one body, we fill in the holes intuitively. One of these beautiful moments was during sesshin. It was tea service on our second day of serving, so we were so familiar with each other and how we move and work. We were serving seconds on the tea, and with seconds one server starts at one end of the zendo while the second server starts at the other end and they walk along the people serving only those who have their hands in gassho, indicating the request for seconds, until the servers meet and then can walk quickly to the door to either exit or wait until all servers are at the door and bow together to exit. So as I came to meet my seconds serving partner, two people sitting right next to each other put their hands in gassho. Normally one server would serve the two, but because we arrived together we both bowed simultaneously, one in front of each of the receivers. These receivers were sitting on the floor, so both of us servers kneeled down in seiza, knees angled toward the altar, and poured the tea until the enough gesture, and stood back up to bow deeply to our individual receivers, and we did all of this completely in sync with each other, moving, breathing, pacing in time with each other. The woman I served smiled and bowed so deeply, my story is that she saw the same beauty in the moment that I did.

"May we with all beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels; giver, receiver, and gift."