PAUSING - Listen to the bell of mindfulness

Hi

Here is an wonderful article which I read in today's newspaper. The author is Marguerite Theophil, Mumbai based organisational consultant and workshop leader. I felt this article would be useful for many of us who are busy engrossed in their work that they don't have time for their own self. Hope after reading this article, you do get some time out for yourself. Have a wonderful weekend.

There are many ways by which we mark time. Before we had our own clocks in the home, and later pocket or wrist watches that we could carry with us all the time, what we had were the town or village bells, usually those of the local temple or church. They ritually marked the phases of the day for us. However, the main function of the community bell was not to just mark the passage of hours, but to indicate that these were times for people to carve out small, prayerful spaces in the midst of their day-to-day preoccupations.

The Vietnamese Buddhist teacher, Thich Naht Hanh, known to his followers simply as Thay, which means teacher, popularised the tradition of the 'Mindfulness Bell', that we see used in many places today. In many meditation or retreat centres, and even in homes, you might hear a 

bell sound and suddenly people around you stop whatever they are doing.

In such places, at the sound of the bell we are invited to pause, relax our body and become gently aware of our in-breath and out-breath, as we do this for a short period, perhaps just for three rounds. And we are guided to do that naturally, with enjoyment, without too much solemnity or show. We become aware that the mindfulness bell has called out to us: "Listen, listen. This wonderful sound brings me back to my true home." In the pause, we allow ourselves to realise that this moment is a sacred moment, this place is sacred, this time is sacred.

A teacher explained it to me the first time as: "In a busy and often unaware day, by frequently stopping to breathe and restore our centredness, we come back to our true self, we become aware of the present and precious moment. In this space, as we become more real, more free, our work too becomes more enjoyable, even the person before us becomes more real." In a beautiful gesture, and borrowing a phrase from the Vietnamese custom and language, we do not strike or hit the mindfulness bell, but treating it with a lot more respect and graciousness, we 'invite' the bell to sound.

In everyday practice, apart from the more traditional bells, bowls or gongs, people also use the sounds of the ringing of a telephone, kitchen timer, doorbell and even rickshaw horns and ambulance sirens as mindfulness bells. I too have a mindfulness gong on my computer that can sound hourly or randomly as it is set. With just three conscious breaths we can release the tension in our body and mind, returning to a cool and clear state of being, seeing things in a fresh and more real way.

It is not only in monasteries or retreat centres that the mindfulness bell can be put to good use. These days, even several organisations have incorporated the practice into their work-day. At one such place each day at the same time, the head of the organisation puts his phone on intercom mode and strikes a mindfulness bell, letting employees know that it's time for group meditation, or for those who prefer, simply quiet time alone for 15 minutes of silence.

Pausing is a wonderful and simple spiritual practice. Pausing to listen to the mindfulness bell, we find that we can afterwards carry on with whatever we were doing in a more attentive and loving way. The mindfulness bell can be considered by different people as the voice of the Buddha, of God, or of our own inner spirit, calling us back to ourselves.