A View From Inside the Bell

Linda Braga, Castro Valley, CA

A huge bronze Japanese bell hangs near the Zendo on the grounds of the Green Gulch Zen Center in Marin County, CA. About five feet tall and three feet wide, it hangs suspended from a wooden beam under a sheltered canopy of wood. A long, thick log striker hangs beside it, parallel to the ground, ready to be swung against the bell to sound the call to meditation. This massive blue-green masterpiece is a touchstone of beauty, clarity and function.

During a recent visit to the Zen Center on a gorgeous Sunday morning, several T’ai Chi Chih teachers found themselves standing near this huge relic. They sipped hot herbal tea and savored warm, homemade muffins served with generous simplicity to a hundred meditators in the warm sun.

A question arose in their minds. When is this bell most dynamic? Before it is sounded, when full of potentiality but hollow, empty? Or after it is sounded, when resonating deeply so that the sound carries for miles over the valley, out to the sea? Or is it only at the moment it is hit, responding according to its own nature?

In order to pursue this thought, these usually self-controlled teachers found themselves responding to innocent but curious impulses. Each person thus did what any curious child would do. Each teacher crept under the great bell (one at a time), standing up inside. With no clapper hanging down to limit the space, it was a uniquely spiritual experience to be “inside the bell.”

It was truly a sacred space.

Then the striker was bumped against the bell (oh so quietly). And lo . . . the melodious sound made them go into spontaneous chanting! The vibration lasted far beyond the audible hearing range. It went on and on, like ripples in a pond, spreading out to infinity.

The question about the bell faded as the beauty of this experience took on substance and personal meaning. The bell after all was like Tao: a balance of polarities, both full and empty, quiet and resonant, behaving according to its nature.

A view from inside the bell revealed a deeper truth to each of us that day. We are all held, suspended from Above. We are all a balance of polarities, both empty and full. We are all resonanting with vibrations, according to our own unique nature.