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About my little bell

small_hand-beaten_brass_tibetan_singing_bowlMy little “bell”- as I call it- is something of an instrument and something of a voice- yet it is neither. It represents the traditional Tibetan “singing” bowl, a Buddhist object used for thousands of years in the Himalayan regions of Tibet and Nepal. The metal bowls, when struck with a wooden stick, release circular waves of sound that assist

in various ways during meditation.  They are most commonly used used to mark the beginning or end of a meditation period, or during meditation to re-focus the mind.

The sound of the bowl represents the sound of mind/heart- a thought, or feeling for example.  The wave of the sound is likened to the wavelike movement of a thought or feeling, and/or the way the impact of a thought/feeling spreads outward, influencing more thought, feeling or action.  The silence represents the ability to become quiet and “empty.”  To make still the swirling waving of thought and feeling. The absence of sound is said to contain everything and nothing that can be thought and felt in the universe.

These bowls are traditionally made from seven metals: silver, gold, mercury, copper, iron, tin and lead. Some say the metals  correspond to seven spheres in our solar system: Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, respectively.
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