Imbrications

Peter Levitt in the preface to Thich Nhat Hahn The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra writes of the importance of bells.

With that in mind, when the bell was invited to sound we would put down our garden tools, our hammers, our paint brushes or pen, and come back to ourselves for a moment, breathing with a natural serenity, smiling a sort of half smile to ourselves and all those around us [...] It is truly remarkable how deeply the sound of a bell can ring inside a person. After this pause we resumed our activity with renewed energy, perhaps even a little more attentively, a little more aware.

I like the figure of inviting the bell to sound. It reminds me that timers can be set for such reminders. (In the i-Apple world the clock can be set to call out the quarter hour.) Being in the space where machines are timed to activate and in their activation make noise allows one to compare the clock with the quality of light and thereby be responsive to multiple cycles.

And so for day 80
04.03.2007