The year has passed here in Tsukuba!
A New Year's tradition at Buddhist temples across Japan is the ringing of the Joya-no-kane (除夜の鐘) ...
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... the temple bell near midnight. The bell is rung 108 times (sometimes by the temple priests, sometimes by parishioners, and really nobody keeps count) to cleanse the listener of the 108 mortal afflictions (bonno ... anger, greed, ignorance, envy, hatred, arrogance and the rest) that, in traditional Buddhist thinking, are the causes of suffering. By ringing out the old year and ringing in the new, each earthly desire will be taken away and therefore we can start the New Year with a pure mind.
Past moments ... the up and downs, happiness and sadness ... are now gone, and a new beginning rings out ... ever new and renewing.
Master Dogen wrote,
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"Zazen ... is like the hammer striking emptiness,
the bell's melodious sound continues to resonate as it echoes,
endlessly before and after.
It is not limited to this moment."
Many temples in Japan are live streaming like this one, which is pretty cool, from a Pure Land temple, one of the largest bells in Japan, about 500 years old (quite a bang, watch from anywhere around the middle of the video):
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Here is typical scene in a smaller temple, a Soto Zen temple in a small town where local people come to ring the bell (but it is the same at most of Buddhist temples in Japan tonight):
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WISHING YOU A GALLOPIN'
YEAR OF THE HORSE 2026
YEAR OF THE HORSE 2026
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Gautama's Horse, Kanthaka
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