Our daily bread

Then, this is how you should pray:

"Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name, 

your kingdom come, 

your will be done, 

on earth as it is in heaven. 

Give us today our daily bread. 

And forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

And lead us not into testing, 

but deliver us from evil." (Jesus)[1]

--

Our daily bread. Jesus did not say "our daily fancy food", "our daily big mac", or "our daily deliciously expensive big steak". He said "bread". Actually, the meaning is much deeper than this [2], but we can have a glimpse of the humbleness required from our prayers, the same humbleness that must be cultivated in our hearts.

Bread may be a simple food for many of us today. But even the simplest of foods have the value of the whole universe. Starting from the wheat seed, planted over an entire field, there are countless people involved in making a wheat flour [3]. It normally takes at least 3 months between planting and harvesting, and the crop must be supervised sometimes. So, yeah, there are lots of guys (and sometimes kids) involved in making that bag of flour that the baker in your favorite bakery used to make the bread you are eating. You can increase the list by including all people responsible to make water reach the bakery, and all of those who cultivated the yeast; and all people involved in the process of making the bag you use to bring you bread to your table. And I have only talked about people so far! In order for the wheat to grow, it was fed a lot of nutrients by the ground. It received energy from the Sun, and water from the rains. Also, all the effort of the earthworms and all of the small little living beings that little by little chew the hard ground and transform it into a nutrient rich food for the wheat plantation.

There is the effort of the whole Universe in one single slice of bread. What have we been doing to deserve it? 

In Japanese Zen Buddhist temples, we normally recite a verse before meals. It is called "Five Reflections" (Gokan no ge, 五観の偈) [4] :

"First, we reflect upon the effort that brought us this food, and consider how it comes to us;

Second, we reflect on our virtue and practice and whether we are worthy of this offering;

Third, we consider greed to be the obstacle to freedom of mind;

Fourth, we regard this food as medicine to sustain our life;

Fifth, for the sake of attaining the truth, we now receive this food."

In Japanese:

　一には功の多少を計（はか）り彼（か）の来処（らいしょ）を量（はか）る。

　二には己が徳行（とくぎょう）の全欠を忖（はか）つて供（く）に応（おう）ず。

　三には心を防ぎ過（とが）を離るることは貪等（とんとう）を宗（しゅう）とす。

　四には正に良薬を事とすることは形枯（ぎょうこ）を療（りょう）ぜんが為なり。

　五には成道（じょうどう）の為の故に今此（いまこ）の食（じき）を受く。

The whole universe is contained in your simple cookie. And this very cookie will then be part of your body. Every food is precious: think about it. In Buddha time, the monks collected alms: they could only get as much food as would fit in their bowls. I am pretty much sure not all of the foods they were given were good, but Buddha instructed them to receive all of them equally, eat them equally, and be equally grateful for every little thing that was offered. Without judging or discrimination, they were all completely satisfied - even with a single grain of rice.

--

Notes:

[1] Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6. As from the New International Version (NIV) translation.

[2] "Daily bread" means much more than simply the bread itself. It means provision of all that the earth can give us, that we really need to live: air, water, food, job, etc. Some go further into discussing this actually includes the "spiritual food" (i.e. blessings), but I don't buy that. The line 'Your kingdom come' should account for all of this already. 

[3] This page has a nice explanation.

[4] Composed by the chinese monk Dàoxuan [Dousen, in Japanese] (596 - 667 C.E.). You can find it in this page, along with all recitations made in the daily morning service.