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Mindful Clock Software

Downloads

For those of us who practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, when the temple bell or grandfather clock sounds, we stop what we are doing and come back to our breath, for at least three full breaths. Sometimes, to remind ourselves of our intent, we say the gatha:

Listen, listen, 
this wonderful sound 
brings me back 
to my true self 

In a Mindfulness at Work workshop in 1996, Mitchell Ratner mentioned that it would be wonderful to have a computer program that would simulate the bells of mindfulness and grandfather clocks at Plum Village, Thich Nhat Hanh's center in France. David Steigerwald, a software and sound engineer, said it should not be difficult to design one. Several months later, he had a working model. 

Mindful Clock will sound either a bell of mindfulness or Westminster chimes -- on the hour, on the quarter hour, or randomly. It also includes a meditation timer.

Since the first Mindful Clock program, David has added many improvements. It is now used on computers at Plum Village and around the world. 

Downloads

Mindful Clock for Windows

This program will work on almost any computer running Windows 95 or later. 

NOTE: If you have a previous version on your system, please uninstall the old version, then restart your PC, prior to installing this one. (Go to the Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs to uninstall.)

* Just right-click these additional bell sounds and save to your c:\Program Files\MindfulClock folder. Then open the Mindful Clock control from your System Tray and select one of the new sounds by typing its exact file name into the "Main Bell" field. You need to close the Mindful Clock control for the new bell sound to be used.

Another Program for Macintosh

Although Mindful Clock is only available for Windows, another program - ProdMe - can be set up to work in a similar fashion for the Macintosh. The program can be downloaded at http://cruftforce7.com/. If you would like ProdMe to use the sound of a meditation bell, simply download the bell sounds (sbell2.wav and bell2.wav) and place them in your "user/library/sounds" folder. The bells will then appear in the drop-down menus of ProdMe when specifying a sound to use.  For example, to hear the sound of a meditation bell every 15 minutes, set:

"Chime Type" to "Clock Chimes" 

"Chime on the" to "Quarter hour"

"Sound" to "bell2". 

Breathe and Smile!