"This bell here: Do you think it’s large or small?
[A layman answers: “Small, sir.”] Small, eh? It’s not large? Hmm. Is that how you see it? This bell is a physical phenomenon. Your feeling about it is a mental phenomenon. There’s a physical phenomenon and a mental phenomenon: your mind, your intention. Craving can want to make this bell larger right now or smaller right now. All of you sitting here: When you look at this bell, it’s hard to answer. You don’t know whether it’s large or small because there’s nothing else to measure it against. If you put an alms bowl right here, you’ll see that the bell is small. It’s not large any more. But if there’s no alms bowl, the bell is large. Why is it like that? Everyone who says the bell is small wants it to be larger than this, and so the bell gets smaller. But actually, if the bell stands here by itself, it’s not large and it’s not small. It’s just as much as it is. What makes it large or small, if not craving?—the desire for it to be smaller or larger. The bell itself is neither large nor small. It’s just the way it is."