Tea House Meditation
In addition to personal and contemplative uses, the Zen Timers can also be used as a progressively persistent, yet gentle way to bring people together for meetings or sessions, and to disperse them when their meeting time is over.
Having a timer set to signal the end of a meeting can be very useful, especially in intense situations where it is socially difficult to play the role of “meeting police” by cutting people off at the allotted end time. Yet the buzzing of an ordinary alarm clock or beeper watch is also an inappropriately abrupt end. If you shut off the alarm, the meeting often continues unabated; but if you let the alarm keep ringing, the meeting does not have a chance to conclude gracefully. However, when you use your Zen Timepiece as a meeting timer, the first bowl strike of the clock’s automatic, progressive strike sequence provides a gentle warning of the meeting’s agreed-to conclusion, with the following strikes acting to bring the meeting to a timely end. Because the more frequent, ‘alarming’ bowl strikes only occur at the end of the clock’s ten minute strike sequence, these more frequent, disruptive strikes will only be heard if the meeting runs late.
Use Zen Timers to Begin Meetings On Time
The Zen Timepiece’s progressive bowl strikes are also useful to call meetings to order. A gradually-increasing ten minute “call to order” is a perfect way to begin meetings on time. For use in calling a group to order, the timer is most effective when attendees have advance notice of the purpose of the striking bowl. Whether you are calling your family to the dinner table or beginning a church service, the Zen Timepiece provides a lovely way to begin and to end.
Zen Timepiece by Now & Zen
When the clock’s time reaches the alarm time and activates the alarm, its signature “progressive awakening” strike sequence begins with a single bowl strike. Then automatically, three and a half minutes later, the clock strikes again … then in two minutes … then in one minute … so that the chime gradually continues over ten minutes.
Now & Zen Headquarter Store, 1638 Pearl St., Boulder, CO 80302 (800) 779-6383
Posted in Now & Zen Alarm Clocks, Zen Timepiece by Now & Zen, Zen Timers
