It’s been more than three years since I’ve sung the Evening Bell Chant at the Cambridge Zen Center: yet another practice interrupted by the pandemic. But when three attendees at last night’s meditation intro class asked to hear the temple bell, I decided to show them the bell the best way I could, and that was by hitting it.
The Evening Bell Chant is a short–two- or three-minute–solo chant sung at the beginning of evening practice by someone who accompanies themselves on the big brass bell that sits like a tank in one corner of the Dharma room. It is my favorite chant, either to sing or listen to, largely because of the bell itself, which reverberates with a thrumming pulse. That sound spreads throughout the room–there is no missing or mistaking the bell when it is struck–and when you are the one hitting the bell with a worn wooden mallet, those vibrations thrum through your entire body. You hit the bell, but it feels like your own body is ringing.
The lyrics to the Evening Bell Chant are in Korean, with a translation in the back of the chanting book. The sound of the bell, those lyrics explain, cuts off thinking, and the sound of the bell coupled with the mantra repeated three times at the end Destroy Hell.
Hearing the sound of the bell,
all thinking is cut off,
Wisdom grows;
enlightenment appears;
hell is left behind.
The three worlds are transcended.
Vowing to become Buddha
and save all people.
The mantra of shattering hell:
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha
Usually when I sing the Evening Bell Chant, I have to keep one eye on a laminated printout with the lyrics and pattern of hits in LARGE PRINT: there’s nothing worse than forgetting your lines or literally missing a (bell) beat when an entire Dharma room is listening. But last night, as soon as I sat on the cushion and picked up the mallet, the words came back like muscle memory. It was as if the bell itself were singing the words.
Mar 17, 2023 at 1:22 pm
I can give you a partial rendering of what’s what in the chant. Except for the last three lines, which are probably transcribed from Sankskrit (sa-ba-ha = svaha = “hail!” but functioning almost like “Amen”), all the other syllables come from Chinese. Most Korean words (70-80%) have Chinese roots. So the chant could be written totally in Chinese. The syllables for this chant are the Korean pronunciations of the Chinese characters.
mun jong-song (jong = bell)
bon-ne dan
ji-hye jang (jihye = wisdom)
bo-ri saeng (bori = prob. “bodhi”; saeng = come into being)
ni-ji ok (ji-ok = lit. “earth prison” = hell)
chul sam-gye (chul = exit; sam = 3; gye = world[s])
won s(e)ong-bul (seong = attain; bul = Buddha[hood])
do jung-saeng (joong-saeng = sentient beings, living creatures)
pa ji-ok jin-on (pa = break; ji-ok = hell; jinon = mantra)
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha (om = AUM; sa-ba-ha = svaha = hail/amen)
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha (can’t help you with the “gara-jiya” part)
om ga-ra ji-ya sa-ba-ha
I think the fancy term for the three worlds is the “trichiliocosm.” I saw that in Robert Buswell’s book The Zen Monastic Experience. Last I heard, Buswell was teaching at UCLA. He was a monk in a Korean order for five years; before that, he was in a Thai Theravadin order. Interesting guy.
If I ever get a dog, I’m going to name it Joongsaeng.
I find “ji-ok” to be an evocative term for hell: earth-prison. The German Hölle (hell) is etymologically related to an older proto-Indo-European word for “hole.” Hell was, in many cultures, the underworld: you had to dig to get there, or hell was a deep cave.
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Mar 17, 2023 at 1:50 pm
Do you know whether the etymology of earth-prison is similar to that of earth-treasure, which is how I’ve heard Ji Jang Bosal translated?
Either way, I think both terms are evocative. One person’s earth-prison is another person’s earth-treasure.
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Mar 17, 2023 at 3:44 pm
I had to look it up, but here’s something…
地藏菩薩 Jijang Bosal in Chinese
지장보살 Jijang Bosal in Korean
(Keeping in mind that Chinese uses characters whereas Korean uses letters: it’s an alphabet.)
The dictionary entry for “Jijang Bosal” says:
무불 세계(世界)에서 육도 중생(六道衆生)을 교화하는 대비보살.
The Great Bodhisattva who edifies the [sentient beings] of the six realms in the world without Buddha(hood).
Bosal = bodhisattva
Breakdown of the characters:
地 ji = earth
藏 jang = hiding; Buddhist scriptures
菩 bo = bodhisattva; bodhi
薩 sal = bodhisattva
In Chinese, two characters might have similar meanings and end up paired with each other. I don’t know why this happens so often, but it could be a kind of pleonasm.
I’m using a Korean reference (Naver dictionary) in conjunction with Google Translate to try to figure this out since I don’t really know Chinese—especially traditional Chinese. It could be that “jijang” meaning “treasure” is possible when “ji” is combined with “jang.”* I don’t know enough to say. I’ll put the question to a professor friend of mine. If you’re still in touch with Andi/Seonjoon, her Korean and Chinese knowledge leapfrogged mine by a mile when she plunged into her Buddhist order. I bet she’d know. Anyway, I’ll consult my buddy and get back to you soon. It’s about 4:45 a.m. in Seoul right now, so this might take a day or so given time differences.
Bit of trivia: there are women who work in the temple refectory in Korea, and/or they help to maintain the grounds. In Korean Buddhism, these ladies (they’re usually ladies) are referred to as bosal-nim (honored bodhisattvas).
*As one scholar says, the words “air” and “craft,” when separated, have certain meanings, but when combined into “aircraft,” they have a new, specific meaning. The same applies to collocated Chinese characters.
Sorry I can’t do better! Back soon. Enjoy St. Patrick’s Day!
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Mar 17, 2023 at 1:24 pm
I typed a comment that had two links in it, so the comment was sent into moderation. (Nothing inappropriate, I promise.)
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Mar 18, 2023 at 4:01 am
Okay, so I asked my buddy Charles, who teaches at Seoul National University (Korea’s Harvard/Yale/Oxbridge), to give his insights into your question. I jokingly told him to do so with a minimum of swearing since I was going to cut and paste his answer here. So here’s what Charles wrote (I’ve inserted remarks [in brackets] so as to transcribe and translate certain Chinese and Korean terms):
*****
My answer probably won’t be nearly as accurate as it could be if it is not absolutely laced with profanity, but I will try my best. The short answer is no, 地藏 [Jijang] can’t be translated as “earth treasure.” However, that is very close to one English translation: earth treasury. In Korean, the most common meaning of 藏 [jang] is indeed “hidden,” but it can also mean “to protect,” and in Chinese the character can also mean “storehouse.” That’s where the “treasury” part comes from, but I don’t really like that translation, to be honest. “Earth store” is another translation that I think is a little closer to the mark, but in isolation probably doesn’t make much sense (so it’s a store where they sell earth, or is it a place where they keep earth?). I’ve even seen “earth womb,” which immediately strikes me as weird, but I can see the point. A womb is a place of nurturing, and a place where beings reside before they are born into the world, which plays into the idea of reincarnation. As you know, the 지장보살 [Jijang Bosal] took a vow not to achieve Buddhahood until all the hells were emptied, so he is considered to be the protector of all those who reside in the various hells. (In the webtoon [Shin-gwa hamgge, together with the gods/spirits] (which is great, by the way–you should read it if you get the chance), 지장보살 [Jijang Bosal] is depicted as an advocate for the deceased, acting in opposition to 염라대왕 [yeomna daewang, king who judges the merits of those in hell] and trying to keep souls from going to hell in the first place.)
Anyway, I can see how “earth treasury” might be shortened to “earth treasure” in a telephone-game way, but I think it could foster an unfortunate misunderstanding of the nature of the 지장보살 [Jijang Bosal]. The answer to Lorianne’s original question, though, is in fact “yes”–the etymology of 지옥 [ji ok, hell] and 지장 [Ji jang] are not only similar, but the former influenced the latter.
I hope that answers your goddamn question. Oops.
*****
Well, there you go. Straight from the scholar’s mouth.
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Mar 18, 2023 at 12:49 pm
Excellent: please thank Charles for the thorough answer, and thanks to you for taking the time to ask and transcribe.
(For the record, profanity would have been fine, but I suppose Charles has a professional reputation to protect.)
I asked because I’ve always liked the idea of Ji Jang Bosal overseeing/protecting the “earth treasure/treasury” of the dead: basically, that buried (or cremated) folks aren’t dumped or disposed of, but hidden and protected. This is completely my own word-association, apart from any official etymology.
This idea of an “earth treasure” has always reminded me of the line from the Gospel of Luke’s account the birth of Jesus, and it’s said that Mary “treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (NIV, other translations linked below).
I like the idea that the dead are treasured in our hearts, and we watch over and remember them just as Ji Jang Bosal keeps watch over his “earth treasure”: again, my personal take.
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Luke%202:19
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Mar 18, 2023 at 3:41 pm
I’ll pass your thank-you along to Charles.
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