I finally had the chance to take a nap during the day and read for a little while. By the time dinner came around, I was busy for the rest of the night. I sifted some of the genmai (brown rice) to remove the stones and husks. After that, I learned how to do oryoki (which I will explain later), and had to set up the equipment for that.
During samu (work) for the past two days, I was with Max again doing more construction type work, and I was also assistant to the tenzo (I'll talk about that in my next blog post). We cut, sanded, insect-proofed, water-proofed, and painted wooden covers for the ofuro (hot tub). It is a rule that the ofuro be set up on every second work day night. We also replaced a few more pieces of wall. This time we actually used wood, instead of just bamboo and cement.
Today was Oo-Soji (big temple cleaning), which happens once a month at the end of the month, before sesshin. Oo-Soji was actually planned to happen tomorrow, but it happened to rain today, so Docho-san decided it would be good to get it done today, since it is all done inside. Although it is the temple cleaning, I was with the only group (of 3 people) who were not doing any cleaning. I was still with Max and we were doing more construction work.
So, now I will attempt to describe our morning schedule, up until samu starts...
At 3:45 the jikido runs up and down the hall ringing a bell very loudly. I go downstairs, wash my face, rinse my mouth with some water, put on a pair of pants (no shorts in the Hondo), and precede to walk into the Hondo. At 4 am, the jikido rings a very large bell, and we sit zazen until 5 am. From 5:00 to 5:15, we do kinhin (walking meditation). The tatami mats in the Hondo are very sticky, and you have to be SUPER careful with your feet to not make any noise on the mat. From 5:15 to 6:00 we sit zazen again.
At 6:00 am, the jikido strikes the large bell again, and the monks do the robe chant: 'DAI SAI GE DAP-PUKU / MU SO FUKU DEN E / HI BU NYO RAI KYO / KO DO SHO SHU JO'
This takes about 5 minutes, because each syllable is held out for about 5 seconds. After the chant is over, the tenzo (cook) hits the kaishaku (clappers) and we quickly walk straight from the Hondo to the dining/tea-meeting room. Everyone says 'ohayoo gozaimasu' (good morning, or literally - it's early), does a gassho, and sits down into seiza (on your knees) position in front of the table.
In front of you on the table are your oryoki bowls. There are three black bowls, with a setsu (scraper - piece of wood with cloth sewed at the bottom), heishin?(chop-sticks), a wiping cloth - all of this is wrapped up neatly in a big cloth. To the right of your oryoki set are two small plates filled with whatever are the sides for the day. You first unwrap your oryoki bowls, put the big cloth under the table, then set up the two larger bowls side by side, next to the lower small plate, and the smallest oryoki bowl above the second, next to the upper small plate. You put your setsu in between the oryoki bowls and the plates, and rest the chop-sticks (tip-first) on the setsu above its piece of cloth. After you have done this set up, a chant* is performed.
After the chant, everyone does gassho, then gets up to fill their oryoki bowls. The biggest oryoki bowl to the left is used for rice, the medium bowl in the middle is used for miso soup. You take either your rice bowl or miso bowl, and the person across the table from you takes the other bowl of yours (you do the same for him). You walk over and kneel in seiza behind the people near the rice or miso bowls. You sit in seiza with hands in gassho - if you have one bowl in hand, one hand is in gassho, the other holds the bowl. You indicate when to stop filling the bowl by raising your hand in front of them. After served, you walk back and sit in seiza by your seat, and put your chopsticks diagonally on your miso bowl. Another gassho is done, and another chant** starts.
This is a really long chant. At the beginning of the chant, everyone takes a little bit of their rice and puts it on the far tip of their setsu. At the end of the chant, a little plate is passed around, and you put this rice onto the plate (it is an offering to the 'hungry ghosts' - one of the 6 realms of sentient existence in Buddhist cosmology, usually just interpeted as a state of mind during human or animal existence, and not a literal realm). After the chant is done, everyone does a gassho, and beings eating. You put your chopsticks down on the table, closer to you than the oryoki bowls, facing to the right. You eat in whatever order you like.
Once the abbot is finished eating for the first round (which takes about 6 minutes!!!), he puts his chop-sticks back on his miso bowl, and everyone must stop at this time. You then get up and go for seconds (same protocol as before with kneeling and gasshos). You go back to your seat, do a gassho, and eat your seconds (again, you only have a few minutes and have to eat as fast as possible). After you are finished, you put your chopsticks down on the table, closer to you than the oryoki bowls, facing to the left.
After you've completey finished your food, you begin cleaning the plates with your setsu. This means that you scrape everything out and eat it all - no crumbs or drops of anything left behind. After everyone has done this, we gassho, then run and put the plates in the sink. We come back and begin to clean our oryoki bowls. To do this, we have kettles of hot water that were sitting under the table (one kettle for 4 people). One person picks up the kettle, bows to the person across him who does a complementary gassho, and fills up the other guy's rice bowl with water. You gesture holding your setsu when to stop filling the rice bowl. Then they both do another gassho, and the guy with the kettle fills up his own bowl. Then all 4 people do a gassho, and the kettle is passed to the next two people to use.
Once you have water in your rice bowl, you clean the bowl with the water and your setsu. When you have cleaned this bowl, you quitely dump the water into the miso bowl, dry the rice bowl, and do the same cleaning to the miso bowl. After cleaning the miso bowl, you then clean your chopsticks in the miso bowl. You do this by holding them, points down, in the miso bowl, and you rub water up and down them using the setsu - you twirl the chopsticks so that you wash all sides. After you have washed the chopsticks, you dry them off with your cloth and place them to the right of your oryoki set, with the points hanging off the table. Now you clean the setsu - you do this by dipping it into the miso bowl (which still has water in it), and squeezing out the water with your hands. You do this a few times, dry it off, and put it next to the chopsticks - with the cloth part hanging off of the table.
Now, you dump the water from the miso bowl (which has crumbs in it) into the small third bowl to its right. There may be some water left over, since the third bowl is much smaller than the miso bowl - you have to drink this. You then dry the miso bowl, and dump the water from your third bowl into a green bucket that has been on the table since we finished eating breakfast. You don't dump all of it out, you leave a little bit and drink that. I believe this signifies the fact that we waste nothing - we don't even waste the very last crumbs and dishwater used to clean our bowls. After drinking the water, you dry off your third bowl and stack it inside of the miso and rice bowls.
Now that the bowls are stacked, you take the big cloth from under the table, set it down with the points facing forward/backward/left/right, and put the oryoki bowls on top of them. You fold the point facing you over top of the bowl, then the point facing away from you over top of the bowl. After doing this, you put your setsu and chopsticks on top of the folded cloth. Then you take your wiping cloth, fold it in half facing away from you, and put it on the upper half of your oryoki set. You then pull the other half down so that it completely covers the setsu and chopsticks. Now, you do a gassho, place your left hand palm-up on top of the wiping cloth. Then you take the left corner of the big cloth, tuck it in between your pinky and ring finger. Take the right corner of the big cloth and tuck it in between your index and middle finger. Hold onto the point to the left, and pull the point to the right underneath your hand. Then you twist the two points around and fold them to the left. Now the oryoki set is completely wrapped up and in the same state as it was when it was sitting on the table when we approached to eat breakfast.
After your set is all wrapped up, you wipe your portion of the table with a wet rag that has been sitting out on the table since breakfast was finished. Each rag is for four people, and when you finish wiping, you flip the rag over, dirty side up. If one side was already dirty when you got it, you open the rag and fold it the other way, so that there are two new clean sides for the other two people. Now, a final chant is performed***.
You quickly stand up, holding your oryoki bowl, and do a gassho to the person across the table from you. If you are closer to the kitchen, you hold out your left hand, and your partner will hand you their oryoki set with chopsticks facing you (they must turn the set around). You then put the set up on the rack on the wall and now it's time for Soji!
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The following are the breakfast chants. These are really the only long chanting done here. The text in brackets is performed by the chief tenzo. The chants are actually not quite Japanese. It is Chinese texts transliterated into Japanese. So, it is Chinese pronounced in a Japanese way. Essentially, it is not understandable by either Chinese or Japanese...
* Opening breakfast chant
Bussho Kabira Jodo Makada
Seppo Harana Nyumetsu Kuchira
Nyorai oryoki Ga Kon toku futen
Gan gu issai shu To sanrin Kujaku
[Nyan ni sanpo, Ansu inshi, Nyan pin son shu nyan]
Shin jin pa shin Birusha no fu
Enmon hoshin Rusha no fu
Sen pa I kashin Shukyamuni fu
Torai a san Miruson bu
Jiho san shi ishi shi fu
Dai jin Myoha ringakin
Dai shin Bunjusuri busa
Dai jin Fuen busa
Dai hi kanshiin busa
Shin son busa mokosa
Moko hoja horomi
[Sante rumi, Shi fu gi sun
Hokai yujin, fu zun kyunnyo.]
** Long chant
Hitotsu ni wa ko no tasho o hakari
Ka no raisho o hakaru.
Futatsu ni wa onorega toku gyo no
Zen ketto hakatte kuni o zu.
Mitsu ni wa shin o fusegi toga o hana ru ru ko to wa
Tonto o shu to su.
Yotsu ni wa masa ni ryoyaku o koto to suru wa
Gyoko o ryo zen ga temenari.
Itotsu ni wa jodo no tame no yue ni
Ima kono jiki o uku.
(rice for hugry ghosts while chanting)
Jiten ki jin shu, Go kin suji kyu
Jobon sanbo, Chubun shi on
Gekyu roku do, Kai do kuyo
Ikku I dan issai a ku
Niku I shu issai zen
San ku I do sho shu jo
Kai gu jo butsu do,
Ga shi sen passui, Nyo ten kanro mi
Se yo kiijin shu, Shitsuryo toku bo man
O makurasai so wa ka
[Shi shi kai jiki kun, Jiren ka fu ja shi Shin shin jin cho I hi, Ki shu rin bu jo son]
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