I thought I would comment further on some of the practices that a Sangha performs together.
I saw this quote in the bookclub:
You can't walk the path alone. It is impossible. What is possible, is how you walk the path.Uchiyama on page 168,
There is no one who can claim to always embody bodhi-mind, the mind that aspires to practice and attain enlightenment. Each of us gathers and contributes his or her own little bodhi-mind to the general effort.
There is a undecernable oneness to things. That includes everything that arises at this moment. Some may have a deep realization of this, and some might be getting there, and some might be in the dark.
Eating, sleeping, working, sitting, and bowing together, is a great practice, experience, or even a reminder, that we are in this together. You will never be left out. You cannot be left out.
Some might see doing things like bowing and Oryoki, from a perspective of "I am doing Oryoki in a room with other people." This is not it. Everything is doing Oryoki at that moment. This includes: the room, the people, the bowl, the sunlight, the birds and so on.
When we bow, what are we really bowing to?
Gassho