Buddhist Bells and Dorje: The Enlightenment Recipe

The Buddhist bells and dorjes are more than only ancient ritual accessories used in Tibetan Buddhist meditation. They hold a very symbolic value and each have a particular objective in order to help you reach enlightenment. There are some fundamentals you need to know when using them that will enhance your meditation practice right away. That’s what you will find out in here; their power individually as well as together.

Let’s first talk about the basics a little bit. The bell is typically held in the left hand and the dorje in the right. On the symbolic side of things, the Buddhist bells represent the feminine facet of wisdom and nothingness. The dorje, on its side, corresponds to the masculine facet of compassion. They represent the static and dynamic aspects of Nature; which is consequent with the fact that meditation is a static state of the body alongside a very dynamic state of mind to accomplish a oneness with the universe. When put together, these two tools stand for the inseparability of wisdom and compassion in enlightenment. When looked at individually, they are each of a great emblematical meaning that is worth thinking about.

The Buddhist bells, held in the left hand, correlate to wisdom, the attainment of emptiness. By its sound, the bell asks the divinities to contribute to the meditation session while driving away the impeding forces. The ringing of the bell also represents the emptiness because the sound is present and slowly disappears into the air leaving no mark. Furthermore, as a musical instrument, the Buddhist bells with their sound can serve as an present to the deities.

The look of the bell is also very symbolic. If you look attentively, you will notice lots of markings on it which all have a particular purpose. One of the circles serves as the unbreakable fence of fortification and is bounded, on each side by a ring of pearls. The upper ring of pearls is also protective circle, but it also symbolizes the expansion of the higher state of consciousness that allow achieving enlightenment. The bottom ring, on its part, is the wisdom of flames, representing the five elemental wisdoms. To get the Buddhist bells to reverberate to its optimal sound, the dorje has to be whirled through the inner surface of the bell using just the right angle.

The dorje, held in the right hand, means "Lord of Stones” in Tibetan and relates to compassion. It represents the aptitude to convert any experience, as common as it can look like, into one that brings you closer to enlightenment. The dorje holds five amazing attributes: it’s is impenetrable, immovable, immutable, indivisible, and everlasting. It’s the symbol of the spiritual superiority of the peaceful deities over the obscure forces.

The bell and dorje are only two minor parts of Buddhist meditation. To learn even more about meditation and how to reach enlightenment, I strongly suggest you to take time to go see Steven Adams’s www.meditate-for-beginners.com. On that site you will find a whole lot of information about meditation from a guy who has been around and who shares his experience and plenty of dependable and beneficial content through his free Ebook. This document is a great guide for anyone who wants to push his meditation further; it’s definitely going to help you complement your knowledge about Buddhist bells.