124. Tibetan Singing Bowls: Effects on People

For goodness sake, we all need a bit of heaven on earth! And this is the right time for getting it when everyone is feeling festive and happy... or is that an understatement? Overstatement?

Probably two thirds of the world’s population is not festive or happy at any time of the year, in absolute.   Some of these are the prisoners in Nepalese, Tibetan, Chinese or other Totalitarian states who believe that correcting a person’s point of view is done with hands tied behind their backs with an iron bar between their arms so that they cannot sleep, clean themselves, walk or eat in a humane way.  The bit that really trumps everything is that these people are not criminals, their only crime is thinking and maybe expressed that thought to someone else. 

There are places in the world where you can even throw worn out shoes at the President of the United States and probably nothing will be done about it because, a. No one was harmed and b. It was considered a form of freedom of expression and I’m sure George Bush would be quite happy to leave it at that.  If you did such a thing to a visiting President in Sadam Hussein’s days you would probably have ended frizzled up by some power voltage device or other. 

 I was able to take a snap at the end of the session

Then of course there is hunger, not only in Africa or India, but at times on our own doorsteps too.  The poor in India are hungry and live in squalid conditions, but somehow they are not trampled upon and derided by those better off than themselves as they are in Africa.   In Africa they have the added injury of being persecuted, killed tortured by their African leaders who are flesh of their own flesh, blood of their own blood.  This time, no one can blame “White Man” for such depravity.

The poor in our society are a different kettle of fish.  In the western world we have institutions, welfare, charities, the local parish or Town Hall will help out those in dire need- even Berlusconi’s government have come up with the Social Card.  It is therefore, only on exceptional occasions, it is not the person’s fault if one ends up in dire need.  Often one becomes destitute because he or she have allowed themselves to become that way.  They have taken drugs, they have not wanted to work, they have felt sorry for themselves, they have not lifted a finger to help themselves.  These are usually the refuse of those mothers and fathers who couldn’t have cared less what happened to their offspring or they are the forgotten ones whom our society ignored or the ones who simply chose to be wild, free and rotten. 

So when in our western world you have groups of people who flock together to share in one same experience that causes no harm to others-how can you not welcome it?  That’s precisely the effect Tibetan Bowls have on people- it draws them together to inwardly search themselves and empty their beings of much of the poison they have accumulated in their sojourn on this earth. 

the above session with the Tibetan Bowls was held in
the library of Vittorio Veneto

I don’t remember which atheist said “Religion is the opium of the people” and when you see all these people with their eyes closed listening to the sounds these bowls, added to the human voice of the Group Leader, you are almost ready to believe this is so.  But while you are sitting there for an hour or so listening to the resonance, the hum, the drone, the echo, the chime and tinkle the mind forgets the world around  and you enter deeper and deeper within yourself.  To the Nepalese and Tibetans these rituals are second nature, this is their way of reaching the Highest of the High. 

To import a ritual from another nation, people, culture, then place it in our society is a grandiose thing, because it can only produce good, it cannot harm- and isn’t there a need for the west to shut out the noise, banging and screeching of brakes in our world to draw that person into the nothingness that his being occupies?

You may agree with that or you may not, and say, but haven’t we got our own God, our own way of communicating with our Creator?  That is also true but I remember someone else asking the same question and the answer was that who was not against Me, was for Me.  

 near the library there is a First World War museum
which ended in this city of Vittorio Veneto

However, I shall be honest with you, I am not totally satisfied with that kind of imposition on my person.  As I sat there with my eyes closed trying as hard as I could to reduce my mind to a space of nothingness, I felt I could not do it.  I had a great temptation to open my eyes, observe what was going on, scrutinize the effects of the sounds through the expression on people’s faces.  The writer in me, I suppose, demanded the freedom to observe human nature and report on it.  But this was not possible and hence for me such inability invalidated whatever benefits  I may have obtained from the ritual. 

the Cathedral where the Bishop resides-
Vittorio Veneto is the headquarters of our Diocese 

I have not said this to diminish the benefits or authenticity of the tradition of the Singing Bowls- there would be no sense in doing so considering that meditation is practised by every religion- but to emphasise that not only has God made us all different from one another and given us totally different missions, but He has also provided many mansions in His house so as to accommodate all of us accordingly- thank goodness.