Of Buddhas & Bells… Guest Entry

This is a guest entry by Ted “Baba” Katrensky

Meditation
Creative Commons License photo credit: gezgin.bloggum.com

When I was studying zazen in Hawaii in the mid-70’s a senior student told me a story.

Our daily routine was tough, about 6 hours meditation in the zendo under the watchful gaze of our Roshi and about 6 hours of hard labor…

We were building a road which entailed cutting down trees without the aid of power tools and carrying buckets of gravel to “pave the road” tamping that down with concrete building blocks. As a result, many of us were tired most of the time and tended to doze off during meditation.

This is when the senior student would come by with a wooden paddle and administer a sharp quick blow to the back of the dozing meditator, bringing instant alertness.

This same senior student told me that there was a monk in China who used to meditate on the precipice of a 1000 foot cliff. He sat at very edge of the drop and had a small bell tied to his forehead.

Whenever he started to doze off, his head would fall forward and the bell would ring, waking him and saving him from certain death.

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