[OSList] The Bell of the Silence

[doug]

Lovely, Paul. Poetry.

			:- Doug.

On 07/02/2013 05:44 PM, paul levy wrote:
> /I watched him. He’d been playing with his gong for over ten minutes,
> building up to the moment of power when he’d give it a little whack./
>
> /A little whack of almost-forever./
>
> /The bell would sound and keep sounding, resound and sound on, and reach
> all four corners of his virtuous circle./
>
> A call back to the circle. A call to stop talking, to stop doing, and to
> come back.
>
> /The room would fall into silence and an obedient circle would form and
> wait expectantly./
>
> He watched it work. It always worked. This was powerful magic. And he
> was more than a facilitator at this moment – he was a wizard or, better,
> a shaman.
>
> /He knew the effect of this incredible piece of kit. You see…/
>
> /.. he’d gonged it many times before./
>
> /Then the moment came. And he gonged, a twinkle of benevolent godliness
> in his eyes./
>
> /The circle reformed. So easily!/
>
> /The room fell to silence, even as the sounding still sounded and
> sounded and sounded some more, never falling to complete silence, but
> simply travelling on its way to further corners of the ever-expanding
> universe./
>
> /It was beautiful (he thought) –  almost as beautiful as his soul in
> that moment./
>
> /But it was *his* moment. And in stealing that moment, and combining it
> with such an age-old bell from Tibet; he stole the power of the group./
>
> /He felt stronger. They were silent and powerless. They waited, not on
> potential. They waited for *him*./
>
> /They waited for him to speak./
>
> /Self-organisation had expressed itself, not in the community, but in
> the organisation of his self./
>
> /And I sat there, imagining, following that healing tone on its journey
> out through the double doors./
>
> /I imagined that bell, just for a moment, resting on a chair, at the
> side of the room; a gift to us all./
>
> /I imagined that quiet person over there, who hadn’t yet spoken, three
> hours into the event./
>
> /I imagined her walking across the room, in golden silence, picking up
> that bell, finding the right moment floating above the circle, and
> simply giving it a ting./
>
> /I imagined her letting it sound not to the group, but out of it./
>
> /And then I imagined the silence of self-organisation, and the
> expectation of a powerful community./
>
> /A community ready…/
>
>
>
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