Taking Refuge in the Island Within | Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh, 2014-03-20

Listening to the Bell

Everytime we hear the bell, we practice together listening to the bell. We don’t say we hit the bell or ring the bell, we say we invite the bell to sound. Before we invite the bell to sound, we breathe in and out three times. We have to calm our body and mind. The quality of the sound depends very much on the peace inside. So the bell master should practice breathing in and out three times before he or she invites the bell to sound.

If you want to be a bell master, you have to learn by heart this verse. The verse has four lines. You breathe in with the first line and you breathe out with the second line. Then you breathe in with the third line and you breathe out with the fourth line. After that you are calm enough. You are qualified to be a bell master. The verse is like this:

Body, speech and mind in perfect oneness
I send my heart along with the sound of this bell
May all of you who listen to me awaken from your forgetfulness
And transcend the path of anxiety and sorrow

Breathing in and out like that, you calm your body, your feelings. The sound of the bell will have a higher quality.

And then you will make a half sound. After about 8 – 10 seconds, we invite a full sound of the bell. Everyone practice mindful breathing 3 times. You may recite the gatha for listening to the bell:

I listen, I listen
This wonderful sound of the bell brings me back to my true home

My true home is here and now. In a practice centre, we consider the sound of the bell as the voice of the Buddha calling us home. The Buddha in our heart is calling us back to our home to ourselves.

We come back to the island within ourselves. We all have an island within us. Before the Buddha died, he said, “Dear friends, don’t rely on anyone. Don't rely on anything. Rely on the island within.” That was the Buddha’s last recommendation.

So everyime we hear the bell, we practice mindful breathing and go home to the island within and take refuge. We don’t risk to be drown in the ocean of worries and suffering. In that island we are protected by our spiritual and blood ancestors.

There is the practice of deep listening. You don’t practice just to listen with your ears and your mind. You have to listen with your whole body. It is possible to invite all the cells in your body to join you in listening to the bell. All our ancestors, blood and spiritual, are still alive in every cell of our body. They are still alive. They have not died. You can get in touch with them in every cell in your body. That is why when you listen to the bell, you invite all your ancestors to join you to listen to the bell. Every cell in your body is breathing together with you. When you breathe like that, peace will penertrate into every cell. And transformation and healing can take place. So when I said “I listen, I listen”, that is not very correct. We have to say “We listen, we listen” because all our ancestors are listening to the bell together with us.