When you chant the meal verse, what images/thoughts do you hold in your mind?

It occurred to me yesterday that sometimes my recitation is shallow, perfunctory. I just say it out of habit, without much reflection.

I've started to hold an image in my head each time. Perhaps that of a farmer toiling in the field, a worm crawling through the earth, a truck driver hauling produce to the market, etc. Basically something to help cement the idea that this meal comes from literally everything, and holds everything within it. We would starve without the efforts of everything.


Gassho, Kaishin