Like the idea of celebrating a holiday meal with thankfulness and rare moments of silence?
The Day of Enlightenment is a Zen Buddhist holiday traditionally celebrated Dec. 8 in Japan, but on other dates for other sects. It can be a time of quiet contemplation amid our upcoming chaotic American holidays.
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The Rev. Kyoki Roberts displays the ingredients of a traditional Zen Buddhist meal: (clockwise from left) pumpkin, kombu or dried seaweed, shiitake mushrooms, garnish, tofu and burdock. (Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette) |
"We blend a lot of our traditions around here," said the Rev. Kyoki Roberts. "This is also celebrated as my dad's birthday."
Kyoki is wearing her black monk's robe with a rakusu, the name for the golden overlay that is a special part of Buddhist festivals and holidays. She is the resident monk at the Zen Center of Pittsburgh.
She set aside some time to talk about the traditions of her faith over bowls of rice, miso soup and steamed vegetables -- and, oh yes, a coconut cream pie brought by her mother, Helen Roberts of Sewickley. Also attending were visiting priest Ryoen Mahler from the Mount Equity Zendo in Muncy, Lycoming County, and Dustin Misosky of Johnstown, a resident at the Zen center, which is in Bell Acres near Sewickley.
"People don't have to take up Buddhism to do this," said Kyoki. "Even the dalai lama says that people should stay with their own traditions but take up a life that comes from a deep part of yourself."
When the Zen Center's cookbook, "Stone Soup," arrives from the printer this month, the hundred-plus recipes will be mostly American food, with a few Japanese, Indonesian and Chinese recipes collected from Sunday service participants who stay for the center's potlucks.
"These are the traditional recipes of people who come here," says Kyoki.
It will also feature her mother's pie recipes. "She's truly the pie queen," says the black-robed daughter of her 85-year-old mother, who is wearing a sweater and blue jeans.
"We're moving this week. I have no business being here, but that's what mothers do," said Helen.
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Zen Meal Chant
Taking food and drink, vowing with all beings, to rejoice in zazen, filled with delight in the Dharma.
Zazen: our meditation carefully attending to the present moment.
Dharma: the teachings of the Buddha.
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The Day of Enlightenment -- commemorates the day the Buddhist faith began, more than 500 years before the birth of Christ. Buddha means enlightened. The name was given to Siddhartha Gautma, who founded the faith. Legend says he came to this enlightened state after sitting beneath a tree for eight days. The dalai lama is the best- known follower today.
Buddhists practice physical discipline and meditation as a way of obtaining inner peace, or nirvana, which is a Buddhist term. Followers meet regularly for festivals at the Zen Center. The Day of Enlightenment is a time for getting out the good china or, in this case, the lacquered bowls known as oryoki.
Kyoki's bowls were a gift from her parents upon her ordination 10 years ago. They are used for the seven days of sesshin -- a silent retreat that leads up to the Day of Enlightenment.
"Traditionally, the only possessions a monk had were three bowls, three robes and a backpack to carry it all in," explains Kyoki. "You also had enough money for a burial if you died during your travels."
Kyoki, the name she chose for herself, means strong or courageous life force. "Or stubborn," she quips.
She grew up as Christine Roberts. She rode horses on the family farm near Sewickley and majored in agriculture in college.
"When she became a pig farmer in Nebraska, I thought she'd never come home," Helen said. "This is what brought her home -- it has definitely added a new dimension to our lives."
Twenty years ago, Kyoki and her husband owned an organic hog farm in Nebraska. She was introduced to Buddhism while subsequently going through a divorce and being involved in mediations between farmers and government. She returned to Pittsburgh three years ago, opening the Zen Center in 2000.
Her son, who has remained in Nebraska, went to a Catholic high school. "He had a Buddhist monk for a teacher," she said, pondering how she had always had a quest for a deeper spirituality.
Her father, Joseph Roberts, was one of the brothers who ran the Downtown Roberts Jewelry Store, which closed when they retired. Her parents are Episcopalians.
"Mom and Dad did bring that spirituality into our lives -- we always went to church. It led me to wanting to know more."
In most monasteries, meals are eaten in the meditation room on a raised platform. "We adapt everything here," says Kyoki.
The Zen Center is the former home of her aunt, Mary Roberts, and her late husband, Steele. Then it was known as Thirsty Hill, for its lack of a good well, but Kyoki renamed it Deep Springs.
"Our family always celebrated Christmas here every year," she said at the dining room's oak table.
A typical lunch for Buddhists is always a soup with rice and a vegetable. Breakfast is rice gruel and a pickle -- "you need something sour to get down the gruel," says Kyoki. Supper is known as the "medicine meal, because there is no eating in the afternoon," she says. It would be the same as lunch, except in colder climates, such as our own, when Japanese noodles are dipped into a sauce.
As the rice, soup and vegetables cooked, Helen demonstrated the final steps of making a meringue. "The secret to the meringue is adding cornstarch to sugar and water. Then, cool it completely before adding it to the whites. I do that first before I even start the pie dough."
Her pie crust recipe uses vinegar. "I used to throw my crusts out until I happened upon this recipe," she said.
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The Rev. Kyoki Roberts helps her mom, Helen Roberts, put the finishing touches on a coconut cream pie at the Zen Center of Pittsburgh. (Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette) |
A miso soup is made from a clear soup base with miso, a fermented soybean paste. Tofu and mushrooms are traditional, but "we just use whatever is in the refrigerator," says Kyoki
She uses a rice cooker, but it's not essential. "In Japan you would use wood stoves -- there's no electricity and it makes much better rice."
She sprinkled the shiso, a purple seasoning made from the beefsteak plant. "I miss my cream sauces on rice," says Helen.
But, Mahler points out during lunch, "If it isn't plain, the Japanese would consider it cat food." Everybody laughed.
This meal was an exception to monastery meals, which are eaten in silence, intermixed with chanting.
Is there a special name for any of this? "I call mealtime 'Joyful time,' " jests Misosky, who finishes off the last of the soup. After all, monastery time is structured from the first seated meditation, held here at 5 a.m.
"The person I studied under became enlightened in Japan; they get up at 3 a.m.," says Kyoki with a chuckle.
Traditionally, a meal ends with the washing of the bowls. Each person washes his or her own bowl with a separate cloth and extremely hot water. They believe no soap is needed, because there is no oil or fat in the meal.
"In a monastery, this prevented disease, and then you would drink the water -- nothing wasted," added Kyoki.
Normally Buddhists don't eat dessert, but this day's meal ended with the coconut cream pie. It was truly joyful time -- with a hearty thanks to the dharma and an "amen" from the Protestants.
RELATED RECIPES
Dashi
(Soup or Broth Base)
In Japan, Dashi is used as the base for clear and miso soups, a dipping sauce for various noodles, or the broth for cooking vegetables.
- 4 cups water
- 4 shiitake mushrooms (normally found dried, but fresh work)
- 6-inch piece dried kombu (seaweed)
Bring ingredients to a boil, reduce to simmer and remove mushrooms and kombu. Remove stems from mushrooms and return to broth, either whole or sliced. (Kombu may be sliced very thin and then boiled until all liquid is gone in a mixture of soy sauce, mirin, sake and brown sugar. Use as a garnish.) Makes 4 servings.
Clear Soup
Add to Dashi base:
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/8 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
- 1/8 cup sake
Add clear soup ingredients and boil for 10 minutes. Adjust flavors, as desired (see tester's note). Add finely sliced vegetables (celery, celery leaves, carrots, spinach, fresh mushrooms, sorrel, tofu). Boil 1 minute and serve.
Miso Soup
To clear soup above, using a mesh strainer held in the broth, (we used a spoon) add to taste: Walnut-size spoonfuls of miso base (found in Oriental or organic markets). Do not boil the miso.
Tester's note: Most miso soup recipes are extremely salty. We used a scant 1/8 cup of mirin and sake, a scant 1/4 cup of soy sauce, and about an acorn-sized ball of miso. It resembled a beef broth-and was fat free.
Although Kyoki Roberts shops twice a month at the East-End Food Co-op, you can find mirin, miso, kombu and shiitake mushrooms at most health food stores. We called Dewalt's Health Food Center in Ambridge ahead of time and they put in a special order for the mirin. Sake is available at the state liquor stores. The total cost will be around $30 for all ingredients, with enough left over for several batches of soup.
To prepare Japanese Boiled Vegetables (a recipe in the cookbook), she uses a stronger concentration of the clear soup in which the vegetables are steamed. For this lunch she used pumpkin and dried burdock, a weed common both here and in Japan.
"Stone Soup" by the Zen Center of Pittsburgh. Recipe originally from the Shogo-ji Monastery on the island of Kyushu, where Kyoki Roberts trained.
Helen's Favorite Cream Pie
Helen's Best Pie Crust:
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups shortening (she uses Crisco)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 5 tablespoons water
Vanilla and Coconut Cream Filling:
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups whole milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3/4 cup coconut
For the crust: Blend the flour, salt and shortening. Add 1 egg beaten with vinegar and water. Recipe makes enough for 2 single shells.
Bake at 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 8 minutes.
Tester's note: This is a light and flaky crust recipe that rolls out nice and thin. We had a little trouble with ours pulling away from the pan as it baked -- forgetting a good tip to turn the shell upside down as it bakes.
For the filling: Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 1 1/2-quart saucepan. Mix well.
Mix milk, egg yolks and butter well. Add the egg yolk mixture to the sugar-cornstarch mixture slowly, using about 1/4 cup at a time until all is used. (The egg yolk is added slowly to prevent it from scrambling or cooking.)
Heat the mixture on medium heat until thickened. Stir well, so mixture doesn't stick to bottom of pan. Turn off heat. And add 1/2 cup coconut and vanilla.
Pour into warm pie crust. Add meringue (recipe below) and top with 1/4 cup coconut. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, or until brown. Serve when cool. Do not refrigerate.
The Perfect Meringue
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 5 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 egg whites
- 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Mix cornstarch and sugar well, adding water slowly. Cook until thick and clear. Cool.
Beat egg whites at high speed on mixer until almost ready to stand in soft peaks.
Add cooked mixture slowly. Beat 4 to 5 minutes longer.
Seal meringue to edge of pie crust.
"Stone Soup" by the Zen Center of Pittsburgh
The cookbook "Stone Soup" costs $15, including shipping, and can be ordered through the Zen Center of Pittsburgh's Web site, www.prairiewindzen.org. Or send check and shipping address to the Zen Center of Pittsburgh, Willow Ridge Road, Sewickley, PA 15143.
Jane Miller is an Avalon freelance writer.
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