singing/prayer bowl

I was thinking about how something just suddenly "hits" you ... like ... maybe you've been thinking about something you didn't even realize you were thinking until ... suddenly ... you just know and knowing arrives to announce "Hey ... guess what ... now you know."  What is like that? I asked myself ... and I remembered this wonderful singing bowl that I saw in a shop several years ago.  I really wanted it.  I liked it well enough that even though I knew I'd never buy it, I went back to the store to visit it.  I even thought it might make a wonderful anniversary gift for my husband ... yes, an standing bell, a singing bowl, a rin gong ... a prayer bowl.  He would have been nice about it, but ... he would never want a thing like that ... he might even think it was offensive 'cause of the religious overtones.  I thought of it as ... just beautiful.  It yielded a pure sound which could be felt as well as heard. I rolled the mallet around inside the bowl as if stirring something and it rendered a tone series which was ... ethereal.  Gosh, I wish everyone could experience it ... stirring an empty bowl and sound that is more than sound floated delicately up ... out ... about.  Exquisite.
That is exactly what something you didn't know you were thinking about feels like ... it's like your mind is the bowl strummed ... you think it's just sorta empty, at least of that, and it is so pleasantly surprising when you suddenly know.  It is a small smile.  I love that. 

Singing bowls are used worldwide for meditation, music, relaxation, personal well-being. They are used by a wide range of professionals, including health professionals, school teachers, musicians and spiritual teachers. Singing bowls are used in health care by psychotherapists, massage therapists, cancer specialists, stress and meditation specialists. They are used to help treat cancer patients and also for post traumatic stress disorder. They are popular in classrooms to help facilitate group activities and focus students' attention. ~ Wikipedia

So ... I went looking for a picture of a singing bowl ... the one I liked looked like this one, simple like I like, but there are many ornate examples on line.  I went looking for that and found this too ... which I really think is neat.

And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. ~Revelation 5:8
May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

That is just outstanding ... excellent ... gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people.