Meal Line

At the beginning of meals the food is laid out and we chant and file past the food in two lines to serve ourselves. The teacher always goes first. When there are renunciates at the meal, we serve them individually before the meal chant. This morning I was the one to serve the one current renunciate in the community — Renshin — and I happened to be the second person in line for the main meal line, which meant I was immediately behind Forall and I could observe him.

The meal line was moving slowly and he went over to observe. He stood near the end of the table where the food items are laid out to observe, I believe, what was happening. At the end of the chant, several people were still mid way down the meal line and had to scurry back to their seats in order to be there on time (on time means the end of the chant). One person didn’t make an offering as is our custom. I wondered how he would respond.

After the meal chant was complete, before we sat down to eat together, Forall said: “I would suggest that we move down the meal line faster. One person didn’t finish serving themselves and didn’t make an offering.” He said this plainly and helpfully. He said that we might use the following heuristic: that if the person behind us on the meal line was waiting, then we simply move on to the next dish, skipping dishes if necessary. He said “there is plenty of time to take seconds and thirds”.

Later, during the meal, I got up when Renshin got up in order to serve her food (as is our custom for renunciates). Renshin and I were on opposite sides of the table where the food was laid out, waiting for some others to finish serving themselves seconds. Forall said to me: “Koshin, make them move away, they should move away for Ren, they should be aware of others”. I said to the ones who were serving themselves food: “move away!” and they did.