Balwoo means the bowls containing food.
Gongyang means serving food, cloths, and other materials including teachings.
Balwoo dining is an essential part of daily practice for Buddhists. This unique way of dining nourishes our body but also sublimates our soul.
Balwoo(a dining kit) is literally a set of four bowls with a spoon, a pair of chopsticks, a place mat, a dish cloth, and a wrapping cloth.
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Balwoo
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The four bowls of different sizes are a rice bowl, a soup bowl, a side dish bowl, and a water bowl. We can lay one on top of another, and they can be stacked into the largest rice bowl.
A temple offers Balwoo dining three times a day in a large hall. The bell or Moktak (a wooden gong) signals the time of dining. The diners gather in the hall, take their dining kits (Balwoo) from the cupboard and sit on cushions in a row or rows.
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Purpose of Balwoo gongyang
What and how we eat determines the body and mind of a man.
Food nourishes our body, and the way we dine trains ourselves to achieve enlightenment. Thus daily eating is virtually one of the essential practices of Buddhism.
¡Þ The ideal spirit of Balwoo gongyang
We eat together to form community spirit and harmony with others.
We eat the same food equally to share with others.
We eat simple food abstemiously.
We eat economically and ecologically not to waste food and water.
We eat with hearty thanks to universe that offers us the food.
We eat in silence with a peaceful mind.
¡Þ How to do Balwoo dining
At the sound of three clacks of a Jookbee the diners do a half bow (to put their hands together in front of chest and bow from your waist while sitting). The diners open the dining kit. They untie their wrapping cloth and take out their bowls.
¨ç Fold the wrapping cloth in half two times to form a rectangle and place it on the right side of the bowls. Remove the dish cloth and place it on the folded wrapping cloth.
¨è Spread the place mat in front of you with the four bowls on it.
¨é Put the lid of the bowl on the dish cloth( the lower right side).
Take out the bowls one by one and place them orderly on the place mat. Place the smallest bowl on the upper right side of the place mat; it is for cleaning.
Place the next one on the upper left side; it is for your side dish.
Place the next one on the lower right side; it is for soup.
The largest bowl remains on the lower left side; it is for rice.
Take a spoon and a pair of chopsticks out of their case and put them in the bowl of cleaning (the smallest one). Put the case on the folded wrapping cloth.
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After everyone has laid out their bowls on their place mats, by the sound of one clack of the Jookbee, the servers will start serving cleaning water first. You hold up the rice bowl (the largest one) with two hands to receive the water. They pour water into the rice bowl. This water is for rinsing the bowls before dining and washing the bowls after dining.
¨ç When you want to show you have enough water, wave the bowl slowly from side to side few times.
¨è Rinse each bowl with the cleaning water in turn in an orderly sequence: the rice bowl, the soup bowl, and the side dish bowl, and keep the water in the cleaning bowl (the smallest).
Rice, soup, and side dishes are passed around. When a rice container comes in front of you, you take only as much as you can finish. Everything you take, you have to finish.
When a soup container comes in front of you, you take only the amount of soup you can eat.
When a side dish container comes in front of you, again take only the amount of food you can eat. At this time, do not forget to take at least one piece of kimchi. You will use this piece of kimchi to scrape and to rinse the bowls with water after eating.
After receiving the food the containers are passed around one more time. At this time if you have had more than you can eat, you can put some back in the containers. Then pass the containers to the next person.
By the sound of three clacks of the Jookbee, the diners say grace with both palms held flat together in front of their chests.
Rinse a piece of kimchi in the soup to get rid of the spices. And diners start eating quietly holding the bowls one by one with their left hands.
When diners are about to finish their meal, there will be sound of two clacks of the Jookbee. Then Soongyung(rice tea) will be served. Diners receive rice tea in their empty rice bowl.
With the piece of kimchi you have kept and with your water, scrape and rinse each of your bowls one by one. When everything is spotless, drink the rice tea, and eat the piece of kimchi.
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With the water that you have receive at the beginning in the cleaning bowl (the smallest) on the upper right side of the place mat, clean and rinse the bowls with your hand. The water used for cleaning is kept in the cleaning bowl.
At the sound of one clack of the Jookbee, the servers pass around a water container from juniors to seniors. Diners then slowly empty their cleaning bowls into the water container until a small amount of water is left in the cleaning bowl.
If even a tiny bit of food or spice particle remains on bottom of the cleaning bowl, the diner has to drink the remained water and food particles. When the servers collect the clean cleaning water from all diners, a head monk inspects the water. If he finds any food or spice particles remained in the water collected from the diners, the diners have to share in drinking the cleaning water.
If the water collected is clean enough, the servers pour out the water into a specially arranged gullet which is located in front of the dining hall. The water is symbolically given to the starving demons in the hell.
The cleaned bowls are dried with the dish cloth.
Stack the smaller bowls into the largest bowl except the smallest bowl.
¡Þ Desserts
¨ç Take some desserts in the clean water bowl and finish your dessert with your hands.
¨è Finishing your dessert, collect the peels of fruits and other remains in the container passing by.
Wipe and clean the water drops in the clean water bowl (the dessert bowl) with the dish cloth.
Stack the bowls on each other, put on the lid of the largest bowl, place them on the folded placed mat, and lay them on the wrapping cloth.
Put the spoon and the chopsticks into the case, place the case on the lid of the largest bowl, and wrap all of the table wares with the wrapping cloth except the dish cloth.
The servers collect the used dish clothes and wash them for the next dining.
At the sound of three clacks of the Jookbee, all the diners do a half-bow sitting on a cushion, stand up holding their Balwoo dining kits, and place them in the cupboard.
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