Meditate, Relax, and Be Healthy: Get a Tibetan Singing Bowl!

Are you contemplating powering up your health and wellness? Why not add something natural, relaxing, effective, and enjoyable that you can do at home? It will benefit your whole being: physical, mental, and emotional. Like the one provided by the Tibetan Singing Bowls, that should be sound therapy. 

It’s also called the Himalayan Bowl. It’s a “standing bell” that generates appealing, therapeutic sounds. Think about the songs and music that make you feel happy and great. Regardless of what type of songs and music you go for, you know that they make you feel good. Positive feelings help promote good health. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. If you’re new to singing bowls, read on and be introduced to how it can benefit you.

Tibetan singing bowls function just like sound therapy. The sounds and vibrations from them relax the body and mind. They stimulate the natural ability of the body to heal and repair itself. They help you de-stress, calm down, and feel good with the release of ‘feel good’ or happy hormones and neurotransmitters. 

These ‘happy hormones’ include dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Dopamine is associated with pleasurable sensations, learning, memory, and motor functions. Serotonin balances your sleep, mood, memory, appetite, and digestion. Endorphin acts as a pain-reliever for discomfort and stress. These hormones contribute to promoting good health and well-being. 

Getting such benefits from sound therapy is fantastic. Aside from being effective, environmentally friendly, and natural, it is non-invasive. They’re precisely the words we’d love to hear about medical treatments and procedures. We’re getting tired of expensive medical bills, medications, and equipment that mainly only treat symptoms. 

With the coronavirus pandemic still around rearing its ugly head, and spikes (pun intended), we are strongly advised to minimize going out. Spending more time at home means more time to devote to worthwhile pursuits, especially about health and wellness. You would agree, it’s the perfect setup and opportune time to learn and enjoy the advantages of the Tibetan singing bowls.

Tibetan singing bowl’s sound, sound wave, and vibration

When a Tibetan singing bowl is struck with a mallet, both sound and vibrations are generated. Sound is a longitudinal wave passing through the air, the medium. Simply put, sound waves travel in the air. Now, our body itself vibrates, although we can’t feel it because it’s so subtle and undetectable. You hear, or listen, and bask physically in the therapeutic sound made by the bowls, and “feel,” or imbibe their vibrations. Any vibration in the physical body that is out of whack gets fine-tuned or corrected. That results in the body’s healing, physical, mental, and spiritual. The detailed scientific explanation for it may be so technical and complicated for most of us, so this is just a layman’s explanation for easy understanding.

A brief history of Tibetan singing bowls

Not only is the origin of the Tibetan singing bowls sketchy. At the same time, its entire history may appear somewhat complex and quite challenging to grasp. There could even be gaps we may not bridge, leaving many questions unanswered. Many passionate debates and intense disputes may have occurred as well. But sifting through all the arguments, speculations, and deliberations, its strong link and evidence to the ‘Bon’ tradition carry a lot of weight.  

Specifically, the Bon tradition antedates by many centuries the emergence and practice of Buddhism. Buddhism had a profound impact on Tibetan life and its people. However, Bon’s shamanic traditions and complex rituals have been practised for so long that they have been preserved and have flourished since, up to the present. It means the singing bowls already existed and were used long before Buddhism was practised in Tibet.

Among the ancient singing bowls, three were considered precious relics. They are believed to have been used by Gautama Buddha, then named Buddha Shakyamuni. He utilized the singing bowls to have the energy in delivering lectures in teaching. It shows how unique the Tibetan singing bowls are, even back then. A fantastic realization also occurred. The singing bowls gave out not-so-good tones when used by someone with negative karma. However, the same exact singing bowls generated beautiful tones when handled by a person with positive or good karma. Archaeological evidence from excavations done on the Tibetan plateau points to the existence of ritual bowls (precursor to the singing bowls) around 4,000 years ago. 

Significance of the metals singing bowls are made of

Due to the popularity gained by the singing bowls through the years, we see singing bowls made of just one or two metals. Examples are bowls made of copper, brass, or bronze. That means these bowls are made of only one metal (copper) or two other kinds of metal. Copper is a metal. Brass is a metal alloy of copper and zinc, while bronze is a mixture of copper and tin metals. 

In contrast, a single Tibetan singing bowl is made of seven kinds of metals considered holy. They are gold, silver, mercury, copper, tin, iron, and lead. Even numbers in Tibetan culture are not propitious numbers or lucky. Odd numbers like seven are. 

With a singing bowl made of 7 kinds of metal, more tones and harmonics are produced when played. So, it has a broader range of healing properties. Different metals also provide more shades of colour, making the bowl a sight to behold.

Final thoughts…

You may be deciding right now to take up sound therapy with Tibetan singing bowls for the first time. Or you’re already a proud owner of one or two sets. Either way, you’d certainly want to dig deeper and learn even more. Here’s a nifty little guidebook to understanding not only the history, types of singing bowls, and other astounding trivia. We titled the book ‘The Tibetan Singing Bowl.’ It will walk you through step-by-step instructions on playing a singing bowl. Not only that. You’ll learn three types of techniques in playing them, the different types of Tibetan singing bowls, self-healing, and assisted-healing techniques. And we listed down here only 5 of its 24 sections! Lastly, if you already own a Tibetan singing bowl and it has stopped singing, follow these steps.