108 Bells *moved to top*
In Japan, New Year’s Eve is marked by the ringing of 108 bells. As old customs tend to do, this ritual has acquired various meanings. The way I learned it, this is a Zen Buddhist tradition. Humans are plagued by 108 negative emotions that stand in the way of their happiness and enlightenment, and on New Year’s Eve, a bell is tolled 108 times to cast out those emotions and face the New Year with a clear spirit.
In my Zendo, we tolled the bell ourselves. Somehow, our Sensei (he was also my karate teacher) had gotten hold of an ancient Chinese bell, a heavy metal monster that had apparently been buried in the ground during the Chinese Revolution to hide it from authorities.
A carpenter who was part of the group had built a frame to hang it from, and for years, on New Year’s Eve, we drug it to the center of the town and set it up as part of the First Night celebrations. We lit coals, and in turn, each person dropped a pinch of incense on the coals, bowed, and then struck the bell with a rubber mallet.
We usually lost count; I suspect that sometimes we cast out a good 200 or so negative emotions, because we wanted to give all interested passersby a chance to get rid of whatever they were carrying.
The tradition came to an end the year the Grannies for Peace squatted on our site and got snotty with us when we pointed this out. The irony of a throwdown between the Zendo and the GFPs was not lost on us, so we retreated and rang the bells among ourselves in the Zendo that year.
The year after, I had an infant and couldn’t go, and I haven’t rung them since, but I always liked the tradition. It surrounds the desire for a light heart and a new start into a ritual, and I believe there can be real value in a ritual like this.
A couple of posts back, my friend commented that she doesn’t make resolutions, instead listing 101 wonderful things about the past year. With proper credit to her, then, for being the partial spark to this idea, here is my twist on the 108 bells ceremony, adapted to this bloggy world.
I invite you to leave, in the comments, the things you want to remember about this year, large and small, that gave you hope, joy and peace, that made you feel accomplished, that you can carry with you into the new year, one in which you will find what you seek, one that will be kind to your and your loved ones. They can be little or big, funny or serious. Leave as many as you like (and come back as you think of more), but number them, and let’s see if we can get up to 108 good things.
Ready?
I’ll start:
1. Rediscovering what wonder really is, as I experience things that have become mundane to me through the enraptured eyes of my daughter and realize just how amazing it is that dogs are soft and flowers bloom in the spring and the harmonica makes noise when you blow on it and people make peepees and poopies inna POTTY! (I am looking forward, especially, to her discovery of a. the inside voice and b. discretion!)
2. The feeling of accomplishment as I ran toward the finish line in my first race.
3. Walking arm in arm with my sis and my friend M on a brisk but beautiful night in Boston. I spend far too little time with both people, my sister especially.
4. The beaming smile on Jim’s face every time Eliza correctly IDs one of his favorite songs.
5. The day I spotted the flyer announcing that the Y was going to start offering karate lessons, thus making it possible that in 12 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes I will be at my first class in nearly two years.




