Escape Journey Through

 

A monk asked Joshu in all earnestness, “I have just entered this monastery. I beg you, Master, teach me.” 

Joshu asked, “Have you finished your rice?” The monk answered, “Yes, I have.”

Joshu said, “Then wash your bowl.” At that moment, the monk was enlightened.

Part of being an urban monk is not needing a dishwasher. I don't generate a lot of dirty dishes on a daily basis. Breakfast is an English muffin (no dishes, just a knife). Lunch is a bowl of berries over yogurt (one bowl). Dinner is either a salad (one bowl) or brown rice and lentils (two bowls - one for preparation and one for eating). After each meal, I wash the bowl (or bowls). I make the dishwashing part of the eating ritual.

Most of my beverages come in plastic bottles, and I drink water by refilling the empties. But occasionally I have to hand wash a tumbler.

I use the same coffee mug every morning. I suppose I probably should wash it more often than I do, but I like to believe that the residue gives the coffee some added flavor.

I suppose I can load each bowl into the dishwasher and take a new one from the cupboard the next day, and then let the machine wash them all when I'm finally out of fresh dishes, but I fail to see the advantage of that. I also believe it would use up more water and power (especially considering the drying cycle).

It was probably about 10 years ago that my dishwasher stopped working. Maybe more (time flies). I had an electrician confirm that the washer was still getting power, and he said it was, but beyond that I'd be best served just getting a new dishwasher. I didn't - I just became the dishwasher and don't regret my decision for a minute.

They have a style of eating in some Zen monasteries called oryoki. It's a very elegant solution for managing the dishes of large numbers of monks. Each monk takes a serving of food in their bowl, and then eats it clean. Tea is poured into the same bowl, and the monk washes the residue with the tea and then drinks that down. A cloth napkin is used to wipe the bowl dry, and then the bowl is wrapped in the cloth napkin for storage until the next meal. No bowls to wash and no dishwasher duty, except for pots in the kitchen.   

I don't eat oryoki style and I have no intention to start. I'm a Contemplative Stoic urban monk, not a Zen monastic. But my simple, then-wash-your-bowl approach to dishware management is not without its Zen precendent.