The Roji-no-ge

The eight lines fall into two halves of four. The first three lines describe the one who strikes: to subdue Māra and remove the passions, the gaṇḍī is struck on the open ground. The fourth line calls to the monks: "Monks, when you hear it, gather." The last four lines carry the call beyond the monks. They invite all who long to hear the Dharma and all who would cross the sea of birth-and-death: when you hear this wondrous sound, all of you, come and gather here.

Striking the bell is the temple's task, but the one the verse calls to is the person who hears it.

More than two thousand years ago, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, Shakyamuni had a seat prepared outdoors on open ground, the roji. It was the day of jusai, which closes the summer retreat (ango). In the sutra, Shakyamuni explains jusai this way: the monks face one another in pairs, confess their own faults of body, speech, and mind, and ask for pardon.

Shakyamuni called his disciple Ananda and told him, "Strike the gaṇḍī on the open ground at once." The gaṇḍī is a sounding instrument used to gather the monks. Ananda went to the hall, took up the gaṇḍī, and declared, "Now I strike this drum of the Tathagata's faith. Let all who are disciples of the Tathagata gather."

After this declaration, he recited the eight-line verse.

In later times this verse also came to be called the verse on hearing the bell (Monshō-ge). In the Tang dynasty, the Vinaya master Daoxuan set down these eight lines as the verse chanted when the monks are gathered. In the Song, the Vinaya master Yuanzhao wrote that the verse is chanted together by the people who hear the sound outside the hall, and is not the verse of the one who strikes.

Who chants it has changed with time and place. Yet in every age, the one the verse calls to is the person who hears the sound.

Practice today differs from temple to temple, so when you visit, please follow the guidance given there.

Roji means open ground with no roof. Nothing blocks the sound, so it carries straight out. It was in such a place that Shakyamuni had his seat prepared.

Roji has a second meaning. The "Parable" chapter of the Lotus Sutra tells of children who escape a house wrapped in flames, sit down on open ground, and find their hearts at peace. The sutra calls this safe place roji. The burning house stands for the world of delusion, and the open ground for the peace found on leaving the house of suffering.

Both kinds of roji are places with nothing in the way. There the sound of the bell carries straight, and there the children who fled the burning house rest at peace, free of every hindrance.

The verse calls to those who long to hear the Dharma and those who would cross the sea of birth-and-death. Its call is not limited to monks.

There are no set words to say as you join your hands. Put your palms together and turn your heart toward the thought, "I am being called now."

The next time you hear the bell, treasure that moment.