Cretive Thinking: Chiming bells
Here is one of my favorite stories. On a faraway island there was a beautiful temple with one thousand silver bells. The wind made them chime sweetly and it was said that whoever heard their peal would have a wonderful spiritual experience. With time, the temple sank into the ocean but the village elders kept saying that the bells could still be heard by those able to perceive their sound. A young man came from a distant land to attempt to hear such sound. He tried for a very long time but to no avail. He sat on the beach and concentrated deeply, sternly attempting to ignore all the nature noises that surrounded him (the waves, the wind etc.). In spite of all his effort, he never succeeded in hearing the bells. When he finally decided to leave, with great disappointment, he went to the shore one last time to say good-bye to the ocean. This time he didn’t try to eliminate the surrounding sounds. He just sat on the golden sand and relaxed. In so doing, he experienced and enjoyed true communion with nature. Right then, miraculously, he heard the sweet peal of the silver bells that had always eluded him till that moment.
A comparison comes to my mind. If we see our life as a long slumber which is lived day by day in an almost unconscious manner, we realize that we are not “living” the way we should. Each human being believes that he (or she) is awake just because he has feelings and sensations, because he moves, thinks, speaks and acts. In performing such actions, though, he often behaves like a sleep-walker, as he is not aware of what he is actually doing. The fact that he looks at people and situations “only” from his own perspective makes him unable to perceive reality as it actually is. But “Life”, at a certain point, gets tired of being misunderstood, so it places a big obstacle in front of him. The poor soul is dramatically affected, gets depressed, complains, feels a victim of a cruel destiny. He cannot understand the cause of his predicament.
The young man in the story was desperate for being unable to hear the bells. He had refused the reality of his surroundings, he had made an effort to erase all that was there in order to achieve what, on the other hand — and just because of his behavior — was totally out of his reach. He had become blind and deaf. He was “asleep.” In case you find yourself in a similar situation (and you do, more often than you know), realize that time has come for you to “wake up,” too. How? Just face the unpleasant situation, analyze it and understand it. Is this enough? No, it isn’t. First of all — and here comes the most difficult part — it is necessary for you to “accept” it. No more denial, no more excuses, no more refusal of responsibility. The instant you can clearly see that so far you have been living in a fictitious world created by your one-sided beliefs, you are also able to understand the reasons of your being here on Earth. You understand why you had to be born in a certain environment, why you find yourself in your present situation, why you had to be in your family of origin and in the one you later created.
You can clearly see why this is the time and place for you to be here, you understand that you are experiencing exactly all that you need to perceive, i.e. what is here for you to see and hear. When the young man of the story stopped opposing nature, he was also able to hear the silver bells of his dream. In a similar way you can become aware of the meaning of your existence, have a glimpse of what your “mission” is. All you have to do is stop twisting and bending things to make them agree with your prejudices, conditionings and pre-conceived ideas. Let your mind soar, let it be free to see beyond your every-day horizon, let it see from a much broader perspective. You can do it!
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