He must meditate on silence at exactly 12 midday everyday.
After a week of failure the acolyte, despondent and unhappy, comes to the master to complain.
He says, 'How can I meditate when the monks have to ring the bell twelve times at the very moment I must start my mediation? All I can hear is the bell ringing over and over and I can't stop thinking about it, and this means I cannot find the silence!'
The master smiles. 'Ah...you have discerned why I have chosen such a time! Make the bell the object of your meditation! And when it has come under your control order it to be silent,' says the master. 'Make this a task of your will and your thinking will follow into silence and in so doing you will have passed the test.'
Understanding dawns, and the acolyte soon learns that meditation is a way of life and that silence is a state of mind.
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