Singing Tibetan bowls have been known for thousands of years as a means of meditation and healing. Their sounds saturate the body with additional energy and contribute to the treatment of such ailments as headache or muscle pain, insomnia, urological and gynecological diseases, hypertension, heart failure and many others. Their healing effects have been confirmed by research carried out in the most modern laboratories, but they remain mysterious.
Throne birthday
In Buddhism, these round bowls are used not only for medical purposes, but also during prayer rituals and chants, accompanying them with the sound of certain phrases in mantras and hymns. The bowls themselves are often engraved with words of prayers or images of the gods. Their sizes can be very different - from a few centimeters to a meter or more. Sounding is achieved by lightly touching or driving a wooden stick along the edges of the vessel. The special timbre of each bowl is determined by its shape and the alloy of metals from which it is made.
Scientists believe that such healing sources of sound appeared at least 2500 years ago. True, it has not yet been possible to find such old bowls, but their images are on many ancient drawings.
In addition, numerous legends and legends are associated with them. According to one of the newest stories, for the V Dalai Lama, the spiritual ruler of Tibet, who lived in the 17th century, the Kungar Ava palace was built next to the Drepung monastery - and the throne was made in the form of a singing bowl. It has survived to this day, the Tibetans consider the birthday of this bowl on July 15th. Every year on this day, people come to the monastery to listen to its sound, believing that the one who has done it at least once will never go to hell.
According to another legend, such bowls were intended for collecting alms, and in ancient times the first Buddhist monks walked with them around the world. Any donation, even the most trifling one, should be accepted with gratitude. The ringing of the bowl was considered one of the future incarnations of the Buddha, who had the name Maitreya, which can be translated as "harmonious resonance."
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Missing substance
The most ancient legend says that once the spirits of the higher intelligence told the lamas that to communicate with them, an object in the shape of a bowl was needed, consisting of an alloy of seven metals: gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, tin - and some unknown element … The monks tried to do without him, but the chanting of these bowls did not have a beneficial effect on people. Only after many years of communicating with spirits, a meteor shower came to the country - and the cosmic substance turned out to be exactly the missing element of the required alloy, after which the magic bowls began to emit an enchanting sound.
In 1950, Tibet was captured by the Celestial Empire and became part of the PRC. Many Buddhist monasteries have been desecrated and plundered. At first, the Chinese did not attach much importance to singing bowls, mistaking them for ordinary containers for food or food storage. This was facilitated by the fact that bowls were actually used as kitchen utensils: Tibetans believed that food in them was cleansed and became more useful, especially for pregnant and lactating women. In addition, minerals and precious stones were placed in such bowls, which were then used for non-traditional methods of treatment.
Later, the properties of the sounding bowls became known not only in China, but also in Europe - due to the fact that after the destruction of monasteries, Tibetan monks had to wander around the world. It also turned out that such "musical dishes" have long existed in Japan, India, Korea and other Asian countries. But the best in sound and effect of the bowls were made in Tibet. The fact is that their unique melody is achieved by the simultaneous sounding of several harmonic overtones (overtones) - in other words, in the vibrations of an object made of an alloy of metals, we perceive the electromagnetic waves of each of them. The difference between the ancient bowls of Tibet is that they contain meteorite matter from the area - and the falling celestial bodies here pass through a thinner layer of the atmosphere, and their composition has unusual properties.
Another feature of Tibetan singing bowls is that they were made with a large amount of silver, so that their sound never breaks off, but only fades out.
Coincidence with body rhythms
Different in size, shape and alloy from which they are made, bowls not only emit different sounds, but are also used by Buddhist specialists to treat various diseases.
Nowadays, their use is called sound baths or sound massage. But what determines the healing properties of singing bowls? There are a lot of versions put forward by scientists, we will consider only the most interesting of them.
The Belgian sound therapist Hans de Beck believes that the vibrations of the singing bowls contribute to the synchronization of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain. It is known that the left hemisphere is more developed and is responsible for logical thinking, while the right one controls our feelings and impressions. When listening to the singing bowls, the right hemisphere receives the missing activity, and both halves of the brain act on equal terms - that is, the person becomes a truly harmonious personality. Even these minutes are enough for the body, thanks to the internal signals of the brain, to be able to reorganize and overcome diseases.
The Dutch Buddhist expert Eric Brain in one of his books compares the various overtones emitted by the singing bowls with the sound of the organs of the human body: the noises of circulating blood, heart tones, vibrations of organic processes, etc. Each sound increases in strength due to resonance, which contributes to the healing of the internal organ.
The Austrian professor Arnold Keyserling speaks about the same effect of music in general (not only of singing bowls): in the body of every person there are primary sounds tuned to the rhythms of internal organs and the brain. It is their vibrations that contribute to the order and harmony of the organism. That is, if we continue this thought, the ancient Buddhist monks did not just create sounding bowls, but made them so that they would coincide in vibration with the basic primary sounds of the human body.
Sounds from space
Opinions about the internal healing abilities of our body from the sound of Tibetan bowls are opposed to the version about the cosmic factor of such a treatment.
The Swiss mathematician Hans Cousteau and the German music theorist Joachim-Ernst Berendt studied planetary frequencies (the number of oscillations per second) at different times and compared them with the traditional scale.
It turned out that each of the large celestial bodies has its own note, which is close to it in frequency. For example, Venus - A of the first octave (note frequency - 440 hertz, planets - 442.46 hertz), Jupiter - F-sharp, Moon - G-sharp, etc. Our planet has several tones, the main one being the C sharp, the sound of the constant vibration of the Earth.
And here a surprise awaits us! It is the tone corresponding to the C sharp note that is reflected in the ancient Indian texts as the sacred "om". This is the sound of tranquility, full of inner harmony, enlightenment and reason.
Unfortunately, written evidence of the creation of ancient singing bowls in Tibet has not survived (or is still awaiting its discovery). But, based on the above, we can confidently assert that many millennia ago, the Eastern sages already knew about the tones of vibrations of the planets. This means that the Tibetans could make their own bowls, taking into account the sound of large space objects and their impact on people. After all, the response to the behavior of celestial bodies is initially present in every organism and affects our well-being and consciousness.
Scientist and musician Rainer Tillmann created a number of compositions based on the sound of the singing bowls of Tibet. Depending on the astronomical calendar, he recommends listening to certain melodies for healing and well-being. In his opinion, it is precisely the sounds of the planets that are transmitted by the bowls that help.
The water becomes healing
Other researchers note that the singing bowls fully correspond to the division of everything that exists in the East into masculine (yang) and feminine (yin) principles. Accordingly, yin is the cup itself, yang is a stick or hammer for its sounding, and their general energy gives rise to a sound that can be compared with a child that appeared from the womb of a mother. Thus, the sound of the singing bowl reflects the harmony of the whole world and contributes to the fact that the listeners necessarily become cleaner and kinder.
By the way, Buddhists often place precious or semi-precious stones (diamond, tourmaline, rock crystal) next to singing bowls, each of which also has its own sound tone and, thanks to resonance, helps to heal from a certain disease. In other cases, the healing effect is enhanced with aromatherapy or a specially selected color range.
And one more mystery of the singing bowls: the water poured into them, under the influence of vibration, becomes healing, has an anti-inflammatory and regenerating effect. What affects here: the influence of space or the ability of the internal forces of the body, it is impossible to say unequivocally - but the magical sounds of Tibetan bowls are already revealing their riddles and helping us to live in harmony with ourselves.
From the book: “Great and Legendary. 100 great mystical secrets”. Author: Platon Viktorov