Singing Bowls & Sickle Cell Pain Management

The first singing bowl I bought was made only of one metal and was machine made. About a year later I purchased another bowl that was made from seven-metals, as Tibetan Singing bowls should be. And let me tell you, the difference in sound quality between the two is incredible! When struck, the seven-metal bowl chimes much longer than the other bowl and has an amazing range of tones.

The note at which my seven-metal bowl is tuned to is D, which targets the “Sacral Chakra,” the stomach area. I was amazed when I first began using the seven-metal bowl; it felt as though the tones from the bowl truly targeted the stomach area of my body. I could feel the harmonics of the bowl resonate in that area of my body more powerfully than any other part. It’s really interesting.

When I use my singing bowl in my meditation, and I don’t always use it, I may choose to do one of the following. I will sit in the chair I use for meditation, relax my body and close my eyes. I hold the bowl in one hand. (The hand must be flat; if you put your fingers on the side of the bowl, your fingers will absorb the vibrations and the bowl won’t sing.) Holding the mallet (also called striker) in the other hand, I move the striker around the bowl’s rim.

People often ask me, “Doesn’t the act of moving your hand around the rim of the bowl make it harder to relax and meditate?” In truth, I’ve found that it allows me to clear my mind and enter a meditative state quicker and more easily. Often I will make the bowl sing for only a few minutes, long enough to enter the desired state of mind, and then stop using it.

The second way I use the bowl in my meditation is, rather than making it sing, I use the mallet to strike the bowl. When struck, the “chime” is first loud and slowly fades. I may think of the fading chime as my cluttered thoughts becoming more and more quiet, or as my pain becoming less and less intense.

If I’m making the bowl “sing” by rubbing it with the mallet, I may imagine the sounds of the bowl as: a healing energy that fills my body; drives out my pain; or instructs my body to produce healthy red blood cells. Sometimes I imagine a bright white light flowing out of the bowl, into my body, filling my room, my home, and spreading out across the world. I’m sure there are many other ways to use a singing bowl in meditation that I haven’t learned yet.

Here is a third way I sometimes use the bowl in meditation. I will lay on my bed, place the bowl upon my stomach or chest and strike it with the mallet. This allows my body to feel the bowl’s vibration much more powerfully. Every twenty seconds or so, I’ll strike it again, each time trying to feel the vibrations from head to toe. The only problem with this method is that it’s very relaxing and easy to fall asleep. When I’m in a sitting position, I never fall asleep while meditating.

For me, the use of Tibetan Singing Bowls has helped to make my meditation more enjoyable.

This was the first bowl I purchased. It was machine made.

This is the second bowl I bought. It is a seven-metal bowl that was hand hammered.

You can see that the seven-metal bowl is larger than the other. The tone is also deeper.

The mallet on the left came with the seven-metal bowl. Like the middle mallet, it has leather wrapped around it. The leather helps to bring out some of the lower tones when making it sing. The striker on the right has felt wrapped around it. When used to "strike" the bowl, it brings out the deeper tones. The felt is thick and is only used for striking the bowl; it's impossible to make it sing with a felt striker.