I have been living at a Buddhist monastery for the past 8 months, and am feeling ready to update this blog again, at least once in a while. 🙂

The other day I accompanied the sisters who I am on rotation with to ring the big bell at 5 am, which one of the sisters rings each morning to wake everyone up at the monastery in time for sitting meditation. 

It was a beautiful and even profound experience for me, one of the reasons being that I sat on the deck very close to the bell, as Sr. Phú Nghiêm sounded it with something I can only describe as a battering ram. The bell is about five feet tall and perhaps four feet in diameter, with a sonorous voice which carries quite far. I could feel my entire body vibrate with each sounding of the bell, and tears were streaming down my face for reasons I couldn’t describe.

Later that day I wrote this poem, and wanted to share it with you:

Great Mountain Bell

The moon sees

through hundreds of leaves

movement on every tiny flower.

.

The eucalyptus tree

feels the throbbing hum

of wild honeybees.

.

The ground receives

the white petals drifting

like sand slowly sifting

to the bottom of the sea.

.

These ears hear the bell

calling over the mountaintop

responding to each touch

of the battering ram

with a soft thunder.

.

This body resonates deeply

bones shuddering

with each sounding.

.

These eyes fill with tears

not knowing why they cry

as they look over the hushed community

of wild buckwheat and peppertrees

sage brush and yucca leaves

casting moon shadows

over furtive rabbits

and lizards sleeping in dusty hollows.

.

Life resonates deeply

through the lungs

of the coyotes.

.

The bell tolls

the wild dogs howl.

.

And these feet walk slowly

with nowhere to go

and no one to become.

.

-Jahnavi