There are two questions I get all the time. One is 'How do I choose a good bowl" and the other is 'How do I know which bowl is good for a specific chakra' People also call to obtain a bowl with a certain musical note. The answers to these questions are founded in the Eastern philosophy rather than from a Western mindset, because this better reflects the nature of the instruments as they were intended:
Choosing a good bowl requires a few things. Quality: Either an eye and an ear for excellent quality- or knowing and trusting someone who knows the bowls and can help you. Many people sell bowls and most are new and machine made to look old. Many people who sell bowls in shops and on the internet are not very knowledgable.. so ask a lot of questions. When someone says a bowl is old.. in this country old can mean 50 years. That is new by my standards. A real old bowl it will be at least 100 years old and more often hundreds of years old. If the vendor doesn't know the region the bowls were made in, and how the markings help distinguish the type of bowl.. they probably don't know much..Bowls were made in a variety of regions of Tibet and their shape and markings are telling. Some of the bowls have consciousness transformation as their primary intention, and some have physical healing. This can be determined by their shape. There is more about this and photos in my home study course available on my website. A high quality, ancient bowl is an investment. If it is inexpensive and old,then it was probably obtained in a less than honorable manner...A good bowl is an investment and the price can range from $110 for a very small bowl to thousands of $$ for a huge bowl. Get educated on what you will use the bowl for( ie healing, meditations, yoga practice, creativity etc). That will inform what bowls and how many would be most effective. I can help you here.
Tone: The tone of the bowls should linger for quite some time when struck. There should be several layers of tones you can hear that produce overlaying harmonics. When you hear a bowl, listen to your body. If it opens your heart, or moves you deeply in some manner; if you feel tingling all over, or the tone directly impacts one area of your body.. these are all good signs. Bowls were created for consciousness transformation and healing. You should feel their effect on you.
Bowls and Chakras. In the west we work with seven chakras. The Tibetans work with five regions of the body. The bowls were created to bring us back to our experience of the interrelationship of all things.. thus they are not calibrated to work on just one chakra.. Their very nature encompasses our wholeness. In this way they are very different instruments then the western counterparts- tuning forks and crystal bowls. However there are some bowls whose tone and size lend themselves more naturally to certain areas of the body. Lower tones for grounding, largest bowls by the feet, etc. This is too complex to go into in a blog but there is more on this in my home study course. But you must understand that even if you have only ONE bowl, it will impact all of you, and not just one chakra.
Please post your comments or email me at diane110@cox.net. My home study course is available on my site as is a variety of instruments for purchase. I can help you select some by phone or skype. Website
