Bells

[martin]

Bells..
I've been an early bird since going with Dad on his milk round when I was a nipper,
but at something on a Sunday morning there is a radio programme which might just have escaped the attention of most people, as it quite often escapes mine. It is scheduled, I reckon, to rouse the population in time for Fourthought and Something Understood, both of which sometimes annoy me and occasionally inspire me. The programme needs only it's name, Bells On Sunday to described it's full on content. Perhaps it would be improved if it was called Bell At A Considerable Distance On Sunday. My musical sense is not good enough to distinguish between one peal and another, and is a bit overwhelmed by the clangour.

The Grande Champlein monastery is no place for the aurally hypersensitive either. I have seen an almost silent film about the austere lives of the monks that live there. Their day is ruled by a sharply voiced bell that is run by a brother with no time to waste. The result can be seen in the hasty stride of the figures on their way to prayer. It was monks like St. Dunstan who cast the first Western bells in medieval times, and even as early as 400 A.D. It is a bit ironic that, having once been bell masters, the monks are now mastered by bells.

The Westminster chimes from the Elizabeth tower are a much more mellow reminder, and no one could object to the genteel tinkles you get with your Victoria sponge in any decent tea shop.

The bell that I would really like to start my day is the largest of the sort that is used in Buddhist temples of the far East. They are sometimes seen on travel shows and the like, and are hung from hefty wooden frames, and struck by a large hardwood beam which swings on ropes. These bells are far too serene to clang, and instead emit a considered vibration, set centuries ago. The earliest evidence of bells was found in neolithic China, an incredible 4000 years ago. I have set one of these sonorous Asian giants up as my alarm call and their measured tone seeps into my dozy brain as slowly and insistently as dawn.

I quite fancy a device that looks like a mantel clock, that I can set to go TINGGG at regular intervals, as they do in meditation halls. I don't want to carry it around, as I want to react mindfully, in present circumstances, and not automatically. Does anyone know of such an timer ?

Martin.

[JonW]

Lovely post, Martin. Thank you.
Maybe there's a blog to be had out of mindfulness and bells...
Haven't seen a mantel clock timer but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Until recently I was using this: http://www.soundtravels.co.uk/p-Meditat ... GwodDlAEhw
Then it stopped working. Now I'm using my smartphone which never feels quite right. There's something jarring about setting a phone, then sitting.
Cheers,
Jon

[Peter]

"Now I'm using my smartphone.."

That's it. There are no people left without smartphones. You were the last one, Jon. Haha. I remember you saying "Someone gave me a smartphone recently, an iPhone contraption. I chucked it straight in the bin. Seemed like a mindful thing to do." I liked that
Peter

[JonW]

I succumbed last week, Peter. As I'm going to be living in a tent for the next five years and need to be in contact with the wider world, I figured that two tin cans tied hopefully together would not suffice.
So I have finally joined the 21st Century in all its shiny ugliness.
So help me God.
Jon

[Peter]

OMG is it for five years? I didn't know that. That's unbelievable! That's so great! I would like to do that too! You're going to love it, I believe! If I didn't have my wife and my young children, I'd do that too (probably in another country though ).
Peter

[Happyogababe]

I'd love a mantel clock that chimed in that way too. If anyone finds one please share.

Lovely post.

[Happyogababe]

This is all I've seen, rather expensive

http://now-zen.com/Digital_Zen_Alarm_Clock.html