Rice Offering

The meaning of the rice offering is to always share food and donations with other beings. It teaches us to be humble and grateful for all gifts.

Every Korean temple does at least one Rice Offering Ceremony a day before lunch, in Chinese Zen usually twice a day - before breakfast and before lunch. In Japan, the Sangha chants the Heart Sutra before every meal. At Won Kwang Sa, we do this ceremony at 6.25 am and 11.40 am.

By placing two bowls with food that will be eaten for the next meal, we start the offering. Everybody who will eat this food should take part in the ceremony. During the entire ceremony, the two bowls stay on the altar. When the ceremony is over, the food from the offering bowls is brought back to the kitchen, put back into the cooking pot and served.

In Korean Traditional temples his ceremony takes about 1 - 1,5 hours.
At Won Kwang Sa we do a short version during off-retreat period (in kor. “Hae Jae”) and a 1-hour ceremony with chanting:

During kido only:

• Thousand Eyes and Hands Sutra
  (repeating Great Dharani three times)
• Kwan Seum Bosal Kido
  (at least 10 minutes of repeated mantra recitation)

Every day:

• Homage to the three Jewels
• Rice Offering text (see below)
• Three full prostrations
• We chant the Heart Sutra in Korean, facing the deity altar
• We bow to each other (standing bow)
• We bow to the Buddha (standing bow)

Rice Offering Text

We offer this food
To the Buddhas of the ten directions,
To all wise people and sages,
And to all beings throughout the six realms.
May each one without distinction receive nourishment
And may the givers of today`s offering
Obtain unlimited perfections in virtue.

Note:
When the temple receives a donation in form of food or other material gift, we always put it on the altar and include it into the Rice Offering Ceremony. When those are material gifts, we say "we offer this gifts" instead of "we offer this food". The rest of the text stays the same.