Serving at a Retreat

This past February, I served at a retreat at our Buddhist center. It's the second time this I've done this. I purchase and prepare the food, cook, serve and wash up as much as possible. We are a small group, and about a dozen retreatants attended. The main practice is Nyung Ne, which involves chanting prayers and mantras and lots of prostrations. Prostrations are very good physical exercise and involve all of the muscles of the body. It's important not to overdo it at a retreat.

Since we take one day vows, 24hr precepts, we don't eat food with meat, eggs, onion or garlic and we abstain from eating after the midday meal. It is an extremely beneficial practice I try to do at home from time to time, and so have a little experience with the food preparation. I'm still working out the kinks of my standby retreat menu. I try to serve dishes that can be prepared ahead so that I can participate as much as possible in the retreat myself. My teacher told us that the food shouldn't be too fancy, it's supposed to be something of a hardship. Still, retreat can be difficult and doesn't need to be made more so. I try to cater to diverse tastes. Some people like Asian-style food and others just aren't accustomed to it. This is Indiana, after all.

My job is to try to help the retreatants (spellcheck is telling me that this is not a word) focus on practice by taking care of meals. It can be exhausting just sitting! This is one thing Buddhism has taught me. I try to put love and good energy into the foods and take care of as much as I can so that the attendees can put all of their energy into practice. It is a great honor to do this and a practice in itself.