About the Bowls

I signed up to go to the local convent (hehe - not everyone has a local convent, but I do!   How blessed am I???)  to attend a Tibetan bowls singing session.  I didn't know a thing about the guy who was bringing his collection of bowls or really what the session would be like, but I saw it in the Spirituality Newsletter that the nuns put out and it called to me.  I had to make special arrangements for the kids because I thought it was on a Friday, but it turned out it was on a Thursday, but still I knew I wanted to make the extra effort to be there.

I arrived.  I sat RIGHT in the front figuring that would be the best BLAST of tone. :)  I sat and listened to his explanation of how he had collected these bowls.  They had all come from Tibet having been carried over the Himalayas to safety in Nepal.  I listened to the people explain why they chose to come to the session.  Most people were curious and had never heard them before.  I explained that I am a Reiki Master and have had them used on me after treatments and wanted to hear what a whole bunch of them together would feel like.

Then we started.  I sat on a crack in the cement basement floor (remember this is a very lovely convent).  You could see a few inches down to the foundation... decent sized crack.  Immediately a bird was in my face.  I saw the eye opening and closing right near my nose.  I was not alarmed.  I have had elephants in my face before... it just means they REALLY want you to pay attention.  Then he stepped back... he was a white bird and a warrior... he was human sized and carried a sheild.  He was proud.

Next came the flames... almost like ocean waves, but I knew they were flames.  In the flames were faces of Asian ninjas.  They flickered in an out of the flames.  There was no color.  It was all in black drawings, but the drawings were animated.

When the smaller bowls were played together a very unnerving sound resulted that made my shoulder muscles tense up.  These tones caused tension whereas the warrior bird and ninja flames visions didn't cause a physical reaction.  My shoulder and neck muscles felt very brittle the entire time actually... even after the visions stopped and the BIG bowls were played and got to the deep comforting tones.

After he was done ringing the bowls, we talked about our experience.  I listened as people talked about how they felt very relaxed and had some memories surface and felt like their focus in meditation was assisted by the ringing.  I sat there quietly listening.  I really didn't want to go into what my experience was.  I told the teacher at the end that I saw a bird right at the beginning and that was it.  I didn't say that I think the bowls wanted to tell someone about the war and fire that they have witnessed.

Maybe the moral of the story is... don't sit on cracks in the floor during a bowl meditation... :)  OR maybe those bowls really needed to send that message to some earthly being and that was me.  What an adventure!  EE