Amidst the Chaos

For a couple years, I lived in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong. This area of Hong Kong is especially crowded with nearly all of the 8 million or so inhabitants trying to cross the same street at the same time.

You may see pictures of this bustle or maybe even experience the crowds, but unless you actually live there and have to swim upriver in this stream of humanity on a daily basis, it’s hard to image the confinement and smell of these crowds as you try to deal with them every day, multiple times per day.

After the excitement of living in HK wore off, I began to get annoyed at all the sensory bombardment that would occur. In the midst of this trauma, this very peaceful, musical note would ring out. It took me awhile to figure out what the peaceful sound was amongst all this chaos. I finally found the source of the sound. The source was a bald, saffron-robed monk holding a finely tuned, brass bowl that doubled as both an offering bowl and as a beautiful instrument.

After months of listening to the gong of the bowl and of receiving the peaceful calm that would overcome me upon hearing the clear notes, I approached the monk who was banging his bowl-gong. We smiled at each other and I rambled on asking where I might be able to purchase such a fine instrument. He continued to smile at me until I realized that we had no common languages. I deposited an offering in his bowl and went on my way.

Over time, I would observe the bald, robed monks at the crossing in Causeway Bay. Occasionally, I would approach them again and go through my same standup routine, only to drop more money in their bowls and depart with no more knowledge about the mysterious ringing bowls.

Finally, I mentioned my quest to one of the Chinese executives of my company. The next day, we jumped in a car and we drove over to one of the ubiquitous and anonymous 40-story buildings that populate the Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. We entered the building and took an elevator to the 16^th floor. We got out of the elevator and I looked to my left where there was yet another office. I then looked to the right where there was a non-descript door. He led me to the door and we entered to find an entire Buddhist temple, resplendent with incense smoke, all the normal offerings, statues and peaceful calm that you always find in such a temple. Right in the midst of this skyscraper! He then led me to another small alcove where there was a little shop selling an assortment of Buddhist items, including three different sizes of my magic bowls.

I still occasionally bang on my magic bowl, much to the chagrin of my wife, but to this very day the sound brings me a peaceful calm.