Poem: Venerable Dishes

Enter the scene:
Noble silence
Dish line
After breakfast
Zen retreat
The Venerable Zen Master
Senior monk
Ordination teacher
Steps behind me
In the line
To hand rinse
Morning’s used
Plates, cups and spoons
I am a simple beginner
A laywoman, and
I know who he is:
a Zen master
Even though he wears
the plain brown robes
of any ordinary monk
I am alert
The thought passes,
The Venerable is behind me
Holding his dish
I should offer to wash his dishes
for him.
In the silence, shyness comes
I wait in the space
uncertain. My
offer unextended,
stuck, hanging between thought
and behavior
Suddenly a junior monk appears.
He has been working,
making breakfast.
He has his blue work apron
tied over his brown robes.
He sees the Venerable
Waiting in the dish line.
He bows to the Venerable
and extends his palms, open up.
The Venerable slowly transfers
His plate, cup and spoon
to the junior monk’s open
hands
Then smiles politely
The Venerable gently walks away
with powerful firm steps.
He has been relieved of the
dishline.
The junior monk wants to
Go back to his kitchen
duties.
He solicits the junior nun
Now appeared standing behind me
in the dish line
Eye contact.
Smiles.
Bows.
P O E M
Venerable Dishes
In noble silence,
The Venerable’s dishes transfer
gently
from the junior monk’s hands
to those of the junior nun.
The junior monk returns to the
kitchen.
The junior nun is in the dish line
Behind me
Holding her plate, cup and
spoon.
I am amused.
I turn and bow to her.
Eye contact.
Smiles.
I say quietly, “I will wash them.”
She gently transfers the
Venerable monk’s
plate, cup and spoon
to my care.
I am in the dish line
Handwashing the instruments
of the Venerable Zen Master’s
breakfast
I smile and observe
He has eaten grapefruit.
I scrape the empty peels
into the compost bin.

PARLIAMENT OF
THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS
S I S T E R L ỰC N G H I Ê M A N D
S I S T E R T R Ì N G H I Ê M
The Parliament of the World’s Religions (PoWR) is a gathering to cultivate friendship and mutual understanding among the world’s spiritual traditions to achieve
a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Its roots lie in the 1893 World’s Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, US, where the historic first convening of the PoWR
created a global platform for interfaith dialog and engagement.
The connection between Plum Village and the PoWR began in 1993 when
Thầy, along with other spiritual leaders, contributed to Towards A Global Ethic:
An Initial Declaration,1 a powerful statement of unity in our increasingly fractured
world. It reminds us that religious leaders today have a responsibility to their congregations to transform violence, oppression, discrimination, and war. In a virtual
livestream in 2009, Thầy presented The Five Mindfulness Trainings as a viable,
nonsectarian proposal for a global ethic at the PoWR in Melbourne, Australia.
Now, when religion can be a more divisive than unifying force and young people
increasingly identify as atheist or spiritual but not religious, the Plum Village tradition feels built for these times.
Invited by the Elijah Interfaith Institute, we joined a group of twenty religious leaders convening in Chicago in August 2023. We were honored to bring the
teachings of Thầy and Plum Village to the PoWR again. Our contributions included
offering the practice of Beginning Anew with the Earth during the Climate Repentance Ceremony, led by Sister Trì Nghiêm, and another plenary session, Friendship Across Faiths Initiative, where Sister Lực Nghiêm spoke on the love we need
to have in our hearts for dialogue to be possible, sharing examples and experiences of friendship from her peace pilgrimage to Ukraine in spring 2022.
We came together to explore what the notion of “religious leader” means to
us and were all asked to write a paper about the religious or spiritual leader who
most inspires us. These two papers are our responses to that question.
1 Available at parliamentofreligions.org