It is said that the first uses of the sounds of metal bowls for the purpose of the transformation of consciousness were by the original followers of the Buddha 2,500 years ago. Before the teachings of the Buddha were brought to Tibet by Padmasambhava in the 700′s the craft of making exquisite objects from precious and semi-precious metals was well established in Tibet. The first practitioners using the sounds from metals in Tibet were the indigenous Bön whose practices permeate modern Tibetan Buddhism and provide some of its distinct flavor.
In old Tibet singing bowls were used in ceremonial practices and as a medium for receiving teachings. Based on accounts of early travelers in Tibet it would appear that monasteries would have hundreds or even thousands of singing bowls that would be brought out for grand ceremonies. Sometimes the singing bowls would be rung in such a way as to sound like a tune or music to the observer, other times not.
Stories about the use of singing bowls in actual practice are virtually non-existant, that is you are hard pressed to find any written teachings using singing bowls. This would indicate that most teaching lineages in Tibet did not have use singing bowls or they were reserved for private transmissions, empowerments and initiations.
Three Levels of Practice
In Dzogchen, one of the schools of thought within Tibetan Buddhism most compatible with the use of singing bowls for transformation, it is said that there are three levels of teaching. These three levels are the outer or the readily apparent, the inner that one becomes aware of when the solid “reality” of the outer is breached and the secret most profound that provides. The secret teachings are ones that are passed on once the student has mastered (or in Dzogchen terms stabilized the view of) the inner teachings. The secret teachings involve invoking and experiencing states of pure, unvarnished awareness beyond the operation of karma.
With singing bowls the outer level is the sound. The beautiful sound of a fine ancient singing bowl can lift our spirits, sharpen our minds and heal our bodies. I go into some detail about these outer level benefits in the use of bowls section. The inner level is the use of the singing bowl to bring into ourselves the experiences available in meditation - experiences of one pointed awareness, silence and brilliant mundaniety. My conjecture is that this was the primary level on which singing bowls were used in monastic Tibet and by other Himalayan practitioners. The sound was used as a means of cleansing the mind, a way to slow down the emergence of thought and to eliminate the grasping of what thoughts emerge.
The secret level would be going one step further. In Tibetan lucid dreaming practice an ultimate goal is to be able to travel to the pure lands to receive teachings from enlightened masters. With singing bowls the analogous secret level would be to perceive the teachings or transmissions contained within the sound of the bowl. The singing bowl itself might contain the teaching or the sound of the bowl would alert the sources of the teaching to transmit them through the sound of the bowl to the listener. Not all singing bowls, of course, would be percieved as transmitting a profound secret teaching (unless one is operating at a level where all objects are doing so). The singing bowls that would have this quality would likely be ancient ones charged by the intentionality, prayers and practice of their previous owners.
Special Singing Bowls
While many singing bowls served dual purposes some were made for specific practices. Medicine bowls are large flat bottomed bowls that were used by monks to lay out a mandala of herbs for use by the sick. It could take a long time to lay out the mandala and then the bowl would be placed on the body of the person for whom the herbs were meant. Then the bowl would be rung, sometimes only once, to potentate and actualize the medicine and to enhance the person’s receptivity. These bowls are rare and very expensive. One kind of bowl that is still available are lingham bowls. These bowls come with a raised area in the center signifying the male principle. Often these bowls were altar pieces and extremely well preserved examples hundreds of years old still surface from time to time.
Truly Ancient Singing Bowls
In old Tibet there was a solid tradition of retaining objects and relics for many centuries. Unlike Europe, China and the Middle East Tibet had a long history of relative peace where institutions, monasteries, could accumulate and protect precious objects. Tibet was never subjected to the kind of financial stress that would result in the wholesale melting of precious objects for bullion nor was there a religeous reformation that necessitated the destruction of the previous belief system’s touchstones. In 1950 there were likely ancient singing bowls in Tibet, some over a thousand years old, that had been in continuous use in inner and secret practice. What these singing bowls looked like and where they have gone is one of those mysteries that comes to mind sometimes when I hold a really special bowl.
