The Dharma of the Second Bell

Standing up for what’s right isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s just plain difficult, maybe even doomed to fall short. But we do it anyway. In this travelogue-meets-teaching, Rev. Joan Amaral recalls “Operation Bring John Home”—an effort to break through the bureaucracy that kept a married couple apart—while living one’s values and remaining unbowed.

On the first bell, sit down, feel the earth beneath you, give yourself to her. Take a breath and expand within, filling your whole body with fresh energy. On the exhale, expand into the space around you. Occupy that space. And now on the second bell, like Avalokitesvara in her posture of royal ease, with that one knee up and her foot on the ground, rise up and share your heart with the world, that heart of yours that burns for justice, and peace. Just to do this continuously is called the host within the host. —Chan master Dongshan Courage has nothing to do with our determination to be great. It has to do with what we decide in that moment when we are called upon to be more. —US poet Rita Dove WEDNESDAY 4/24/19…

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Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly (Digital) - 1 Issue, Summer 2023

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