The mountains are his vast temple The sounds of the cow bells, his one Mountain Bell At night, the rain, his merciful blessing, How can I ever express this vastness
Mountain Bell
The start of a “we“ grew out of one of our members organising yearly retreats with Flint Sparks, whom she met in a Hakomi training. The depth and richness of his Zen buddhist teachings led her to organising retreats in Switzerland from 2009 until 2018, inviting people from the UK, Switzerland and other places to share the experience.
Then some of us travelled to the UK to continue to receive dharma teachings as retreats took place there. And in 2026 we again organised a retreat in the Swiss Mountains with our teachers, Trudy Johnston and Josh Gifford as well as Roshi Flint Sparks. This was an important step for our Swiss group and showed the blossoming of our multiple sanghas.
In 2023 we began weekly meetings, mostly online as we live in the French and the German speaking part of Switzerland.
We reached out to Flint on our search for a name. The sound of a bell was somehow in the air and Flint suggested Mountain Bell, joining the esoteric meaning of the sound of bells from the mountain temples in China and Japan calling the people to practice, as well as the bells of the Swiss cows representing the every day grounded aspect of life.
In our weekly meetings, we chant in english for now and we begin by 30 minutes of zazen followed by shared reading and an exchange on what resonated within us. Everybody is welcome to join. We start at 8:30 CH time.
From time to time we meet in each other’s homes, which deepens our connections, intimacy with each other, zazen and our relationship with the dharma.
We are planning another Swiss Retreat for 2028.