This recording contains nothing but the pure sound of a Tibetan singing bowl being repeatedly struck with a soft mallet. Each time the bowl is struck, it rings for about 40 seconds. During the first 5 minutes of this meditation, the sound never completely fades away; the bowl is struck again before it fades to silence.

Slowly but surely the gap between each strike is increased, allowing you to gradually experience longer and longer moments of complete silence.

By the 15 minute mark, silent spaces of around 15 seconds have opened up between each bowl strike, and the overall volume has become a little quieter. By the 30 minute mark, these silent spaces have increased to 25 seconds and the volume is reduced just a little more. If you choose to continue meditating for more than 30 minutes, you’ll find that each 40 second bell sound is separated by 40 seconds of silence.

In this way, Mindfulness Bell Volume 1 trains you to become more and more comfortable with the sound of silence, and more and more capable of achieving mental stillness on your own.

So what is your role to play in all of this? Just sit quietly and listen. If your mind wanders, simply return your attention to the sound of the bell - your reliable anchor to the present moment. 

For Meditation

The calming sound of the bell is your focal point for meditation. Simply absorb your attention in the sound of the mindfulness bell. No mantra is required, no special breathing techniques are needed, just let your awareness be consumed by the sound of the bell.

Your mind will become clearer and more calm with each and every bell strike, and as the bells fade into silence, your mind is given the opportunity to experience a very natural state of stillness.

This bell actually encourages your mind to become still and silent, but alert. This is mindfulness training at its best!

For General Relaxation

While this recording was designed as a meditation aide, you can still listen to this recording for general relaxation purposes. Lying down while listening may help you to drift off to sleep. Playing the recording while you are performing simple tasks at home will also imbue your surroundings with a gentle, calming atmosphere.

No matter how you choose to use this recording, please be sure to play it at a quiet, comfortable volume.

If there is one thing I learned while recording Mindfulness Bells Volume 1, it’s that meditation bells are not all equal! I sampled dozens of different bells and eventually exhausted my own collection of over 65 different bells and meditation bowls before I found "the one". Just for fun, I decided to call him "Henry".

Meet "Henry", our perfect mindfulness bell

Henry is over 10 inches wide and he weighs 4 pounds. He is made from seven different metals and he was born in the Himalayas. He's a big boy, but he has a very calm disposition and he loves to sing in a deep, soft voice. Henry is the star of Mindfulness Bell Volume 1, but he promises me that he won't let all this sudden fame go to his head.

Henry has all the qualities of a perfect mindfulness bell. He’s never shrill, clangy or boomy and when you strike him he sings effortlessly. His two most prominent harmonics oscillate with a low delta frequency of 0.5 Hertz, and at a delta frequency of 4 Hertz. (You can hear these oscillations pulsing away in the audio sample). Much like the effect of binaural beats, these oscillations are deeply relaxing and can actually help to guide your brainwave activity into a state of deep meditation.