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Inviting and Listening to the Mindful Bell
Plum Village was born in 1982 and this year marks the 28th Summer Opening. In 2012 it will celebrate its 30th anniversary – “bien établi à l’âge de trente ans” – and you’re invited to propose songs, poems, theater pieces, big cakes for 3 000 people, books or other creative offerings. From 170 practitioners at the first opening, Plum Village has grown worldwide: daughter Sanghas in Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, and many ordained teenage monastics (aged 12–14), five or six of whom are now Dharma teachers.
The practice of the bell uses a mini-bell with its “inviter” rather than a stick. Children (and adults) learn to bow to the bell as a Bodhisattva, hold it mindfully, breathe in–out twice and recite the four-line gatha:
- “Body, speech, and mind in perfect oneness.”
- “I send my heart along with the sound of this bell.”
- “May those who listen to me awake from forgetfulness.”
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“And transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow.”
Next comes a half-sound to give six to eight seconds’ pause, then a full sound followed by three in- and out-breaths. A second full sound ushers in the two-line gatha “I listen, I listen, this wonderful sound brings me back to my true home,” with three breaths, and a third sound with three more breaths before replacing the bell and bowing in gratitude.
Beyond physical form, every practitioner cultivates:
• a Dharma body through mindfulness, concentration, and insight;
• a Buddha body—the buddhahood already alive in us;
• and a Sangha body—the collective energy of peace, joy, and compassion that supports and transports our practice.
Mindful breathing and walking bring you “home” to the kingdom of God or Pure Land here and now, as swiftly as any tele-transportation.
