Bell in the morning 早晨鐘

In some morning, I heard brother Phap Dei (young brother) inviting the big bell and singing a morning chanting, which I heard before in Taiwan (I thought this came from Chinese rhythm ). My tears came out when hearing this chanting, with gratitude for my Taiwanese tradition. I said thank you to brother in lunch time and he patted me as grandfather.The big bell in Deer Park made up by Taiwan. I went to the bell factory with PV delegation this April. We Taiwanese likes to put our name on bell or wall in temple to prove our efforts, believing we may have benefit for donation, but the most important thing should be practice. I realized how lucky I am to be able practicing right now.

早上5:45開始敲鐘，大家陸續進入大禪堂準備6:00的坐禪，梅村法師唱頌著諸佛菩薩名號，有時候是英文有時候是越南文。第三天早上比較早起就慢慢的呼吸跟走路走向禪堂，聽出來今天的法師聲音比較雄厚，才發現是Brother Phap Dei在唱頌 (聽說他已經高齡八十多了，大家應該在台灣retreat對他很有印象)。 young brother雖然年紀大但聲音好好聽，等我走到了鐘的附近，他換了一個調，那是在台灣聽過的"叩鐘偈"，聽著聽著眼淚就流下來，感受到自己因為台灣許多道場的幫忙，有了些許踏實的基礎今天才可以走在這裡。

那日稍晚遇到young brother，感謝他唱頌了這首 (應該是中國傳統的曲調)讓我哭了出來，他很感動地拍拍了我，但我想他應該還是不記得我的名字吧，不能太要求他老人家啦，非常感謝brother !! 

PS: Deer Park的鐘是台灣製作，看到許多中文字供養名單，且這個工廠我還去過呢，雖然華人供養了這個鐘，但禪修營中卻只有我一個台灣人。想起來四月禪修營鐘有許多情緒起伏，感嘆著名字跟情緒有如浮雲很快就會飄走了，唯一踏實的是知道自己當下在修習。