Kris,
One of the projects I dropped when I resigned from Zen Desert Sangha in Tucson
after 23 years -- to start a new sangha devoted to Ch'an practice in Sheng
Yen's style, but not exclusively -- was a project to collect 10,000 bronze US
pennies (pre-1983), to melt down.
I would pour the melt into a solid plate, with embellishments in the mold, such
as of a dragon's body, or etc.
This would be a "gong", actually a Bronze "Han", and would be struck with a
rubberized hammer as an instrument in the zendo.
This would be "the 10,000 things returning to the One".
I would have called it our "Hundred-Dollar Bell".
By now I think I have all the pennies; I have been collecting them personally
since about 1992. Glass jars full of them, sorted by date (again, just
pre-1983; they are the ones still made of solid coinage-bronze, and are not
just sugar-coated Zinc as the newer ones are).
To do this project, I set myself to learn the principles of foundry work, which
I did. I have no equipment, though, I'd have to make it all. I would purchase
the crucibles, though.
Maybe make the 100-dollar bell for our new sangha. Meanwhile, a wooden Han is
fine.
It may be considered "defacing-of-US-Currency", but nobody has to *know* about
this but me and you, and the lamp-post, right?
Lamp-posts have ears and EYES these days, though, notice?. Stay safe!, Old Man,
--Joe
;-)
> The 'Ten Thousand Things'
> Arising in countless ways
> Still mind is counting
------------------------------------
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