Making a big bang…kind of

Posted: March 17, 2008 | Author: Doug | Filed under: Buddhism, Jodo Shinshu, Religion | Leave a comment »

Well, Sunday service here at the local Jodo Shinshu temple had an unusual schedule today, due to our annual Spring Bazaar. Each year we sell a huge array of food (all cooked by temple members, many nice old Japanese-American ladies) to the community to raise funds for the temple. This plus our Bon-odori (Obon Dance) festival are the two big community events we hold here each year. I helped this year some with dish washing Saturday morning, but with the Baby, I decided that Sunday I would just attend regular service. Before the Baby, my wife and I had volunteered more in the past.*

Since most of the congregation was downstairs cooking like mad this Sunday morning, so the temple was near-empty for the service. So, one of the ministers asked if I would ring the large temple bell, or bonsho (梵鐘), before the service began. This is normally assigned to more senior members, but why not? He gave me some helpful instructions, and I ran off to ring the bell across the street. The bell has been around for a long time, like the temple, and looks very similar to the one pictured here:

So, I followed the instructions, and gave the bell 10 good rings (the last ring is a double-ring). I was enjoying myself, priding myself on my mindfulness as I did it, and imagining myself a Buddhist monk of some kind. Happy with my effort, I ran back to the service, and my wife looked at me confused. She asked if I rang the bell, and I said “of course, didn’t you hear it?”

Evidentially, I hadn’t rang the bell loud enough for anyone to hear it!

Standing there, the bell sounded pretty loud to me, but it seems I really under-rang the bell. Suffice to say I was promptly humbled.

It was a fun experience, and I can understand why monks are said to have hearing loss from years and years of ringing temple bells, but next time I will have to try harder and stop being full of myself. Bells are used in Buddhism to clear the mind and bring about focus and mindfulness, but it only works if you can hear the bell, in more ways than one.

Overall it was a good service, and a good day. I will say one thing: Jodo Shinshu temples are very community, family-oriented, and I think one would be hard-pressed to find this sense of community in some of these newer “meditation” centers that crop up now. In such centers, everyone comes in for their own selfish reasons, while at the boring old (as in NO MEDITATION) temple I go to, we are bound more by community. I have to admit that latter is pretty nice when you think about it.

* – In one year, I remember washing dishes for six hours non-stop on a Sunday morning. I was dead-tired, but I felt a wonderful sense of elation. I think this was a sample of what it means to live life as a Bodhisattva, and utterly forsake one’s self in one’s work for the benefit of others. If only I could step out of my own selfish world more than 6 hours…

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