The mirror and the bell

The reading of The Mirror and the Bell makes me reflect on negative emotions such as fear, anguish, anger, and jealousy that keep a person in a state of suffering because he does not release them. These emotions are represented in the story of the reading by the farmer's wife's mirror. For the farmer's wife, the mirror represented the tradition of her family. Her attachment to that tradition did not let her go to make a bell.

The process of replacing the mirrors with the bell is important. The life is a mirror that shows us our attachments like money and people, that help us progress. We must seek to detach ourselves and find emotions of generosity, of help, and that seek a common good. This is present in the story, by the community who was very happy to collaborate with the bell, and how generously they detached themselves from their mirrors.

These feelings of guilt of donating the family mirror, led the farmer's wife to take her own life and cursed the bell, so that whoever came and was able to destroy the bell, would be filled with riches. His intention was negative, destructive and vengeful.  People who lust for having a lot of treasures try to destroy the bell, and the priest ends up taking the bell out of the city.

This makes me think how it is important to appreciate what we have and to respect the gifts you are given. In this story you can see a lot of buddist metaphors like not getting attached to things-- especially material things. We also learn about  “nazoraëru,” which means "to substitute an action to obtain magic." We can see that happen when she kills herself and makes the bell magical.