The model of the tuning bowls

  Have you already had the experience where you find someone very likeable without knowing anything about them and without even having spoken to them? As you get to know this person later you often find that you have many things in common. In particular you will normally find that he has similar objectives in his life. Or, since we often prefer to speak about experiences, you have both had similar experiences in your lives. Pure chance - or perhaps more likely not? Similar life experiences mainly point – according to everything we have previously discussed – to the fact that we are working on similar development steps. Since we do not develop by ourselves this finally however indicates similar objectives for our lives.

Our own objectives are difficult to hide since in fact we constantly «radiate» our objectives all the time. In reverse we frequently feel the objectives of other people without even knowing anything about that person and without having spoken to them.

To help to introduce the model let us consider the following example, which may be well-known from our schooldays: We take two tuning bowls which make the same sound. One is put somewhere in a corner of the room, the other is then made to sound by hitting it. Now the tuning bowl which is sounding is touched so that it cannot vibrate any more. We then find with surprise that the other tuning bowl in the corner of the room has also started to vibrate and continues to vibrate. «Somehow» the vibration of the first tuning bowl has transmitted the vibrations to the second tuning bowl without touching it. In technology we call this a resonance effect. This effect can happen if both tuning bowls have the same sound or expressed more scientifically if they have the same natural frequency. We will return to this form of the transmission of vibrations in the next chapter.

Figure 8: Tuning bowls

Previously in the model of the sphere we represented our capabilities as a sphere around our body. The larger the sphere the more developed are our respective abilities.

Now let’s also introduce a model to represent our objectives: In this model we can represent every non-compatible goal¹ which we pursue by a tuning bowl, and better still a tuning bowl which is within us. We ourselves keep these tuning bowls vibrating, in other words for every incompatible objective we radiate a sound at a certain frequency.

The loudness of this sound strongly depends amongst other things on the priorities which we have assigned to the respective objectives. The louder a tuning bowl sounds the higher is its priority.

If for example a person pursues 3 incompatible goals, we can represent this in our tuning bowl model with 3 different tuning bowls. This person simultaneously sends out 3 different sounds. The loudest sound corresponds to that goal which is presently taken as the main guideline for decisionmaking. As we have already indicated earlier the priorities in setting goals can quickly change. In our model another tuning bowl would then sound louder.

With this model we would next like to discuss the mutual influence between abilities and objectives. We can assume that in making a decision, we use that objective as a guideline which at this point in time vibrates the most intensively and thus makes the loudest sound.

Abilities and objectives influence one another

 

Right at the start of this chapter we established that abilities and objectives clearly mutually influence each other. If expressed according to our two models, we considered the relationship between the light sphere, which represents our abilities and the tuning bowl, which represents the corresponding objective. Apparently the tuning bowl and the light sphere cannot be considered independently of one another. There is mutual influence between them¹.

We have seen before that our abilities can only be developed if we pursue a corresponding objective. A light sphere can only develop further if a tuning bowl, which representes the corresponding objective, vibrates within us. Thus for example in order to increase our awareness sphere a tuning bowl with the objective of «respecting the basic rights of existence» is necessary. The number of tuning bowls and light spheres is also identical for this reason.

 

In the model with the tuning bowls we can assume that as the guideline for a decision we always select that objective which is the one that vibrates the most intensively at that moment. To put more energy into an objective therefore causes the corresponding tuning bowl to vibrate more intensively. The more of our personal energy we put into a particular objective the more intensively we can pursue this goal. This is how we set the priorities of our objectives.

On the basis of the above examples with the football player and the programmer, we have seen however that in reverse the abilities, which already exist (light spheres), can influence our choice of goal (tuning bowl) when we make a decision. A sort of momentum arises: The objective brings about the development of the corresponding abilities. On the other hand the already-existing abilities have the effect that the corresponding objective is more and more selected as the guideline for decisionmaking.

 

Figure 9: The influences of light sphere and tuning bowl

Now let‘s transfer these findings to the two models: If we use our personal energy to pursue a particular objective then the corresponding tuning bowl begins to vibrate more strongly. The more of our energy we put into this the more intensively this tuning bowl vibrates.

This leads to the fact that we select the respective objective more often as the guideline for our decisionmaking. Our abilities to achieve this goal can develop by means of this frequent training. The light sphere around us which corresponds with this ability, increases in size.

If for example we assign a higher priority to living the basic rights of existence, then the tuning bowl which corresponds with this goal, vibrates particularly intensively and thereby will sound loud. We will therefore frequently select this goal as the guideline for our decisions. This leads to the white light sphere being able to increase in size – and our awareness develops.

However the energies between the light sphere and the tuning bowl flow in both directions: The vibrations of the tuning bowl permit the enlargement of the light sphere and in reverse the illumination of the light sphere encourages the vibration of the respective tuning bowl. As already indicated an interaction takes place between the tuning bowls and light spheres or between objectives and abilities. In the technical area this can be compared with vibrating systems. For example with a flywheel, a mechanical spring or an LC network (tuned circuit) in electrotechnics. We would like to briefly discuss this with a simple electrical oscillating circuit with a power source Q, an inductivity L, a capacitance C and a lamp R as shown in Figure 10:

Figure 10: LC oscillating circuit and spring

The voltage source Q corresponds with a tuning bowl and the other elements together represent a light sphere. The size of the light sphere is symbolized by the light intensity of the lamp. The more power which vibrates in this system, the brighter the lamp shines.

Without an external power supply the system will gradually oscillate more and more slowly and the lamp will get darker. If however we feed sufficient external power the oscillations will be strengthened and the lamp will shine more and more brightly. The supply of electrical energy in our model corresponds in real life with the energy which we employ to pursue a particular objective. As we have already established many times, our abilities – that is our light spheres – can develop that much better, the more of our own energy we make available ourselves for achieving the corresponding goal. To express this according to our model, through the power source (the tuning bowl) we feed energy into the oscillating circuit. This increases the amount of energy in the oscillating system and hence leads to a more brightly shining lamp.

Even if we supply no more energy from outside, the system will continue to oscillate and the lamp in Figure 10 will continue to shine. According to the properties of the elements in the oscillating circuit the lamp can either continue to shine for a long time or only for a short time. At the voltage source Q we will still be able to measure a voltage. This corresponds to the interaction between the tuning bowl (voltage source) and the light sphere (lamp or the remaining power circuit).

This comparison with technical oscillating systems permits us to illustrate yet another very important characteristic: It is very difficult to suddenly change your objective. If a person has pursued certain goals for a long time and then suddenly replaces them with incompatible goals from one day to the next, he will invariably find that time and again he will make his decisions based on the guidelines of the old and no longer valid objectives.

We can explain this behaviour as a habit which has become established over a long time. There is however another method of explaining this with the example of the influence between the tuning bowls and the light spheres we have just discussed:

Within the course of time we have acquired certain abilities for the achievement of our old goals. These abilities are naturally still available even if we throw overboard the corresponding objectives. It may even be worse: These abilities will lead to the no longer valid objectives being activated in us several more times, so that we will use them as guidelines for decisionmaking.

 

If for example someone has previously attempted to control all conflicts through the use of force, it is not sufficient to simply set behaviour without force as the new goal. As soon as this person feels irritated again he will more or less automatically try to combat this as before by pure force. This sort of behaviour can only be changed slowly. This new objective, which is no longer compatible with the old one, will only become a guideline for decisionmaking over a period of time. A strong will is necessary for such a transition.

Above we compared the light spheres and the tuning bowls with a technical oscillating system. This behaves in completely the same way: A flywheel doesn’t suddenly stop when we no longer drive it. A spring doesn’t stop vibrating as soon as we stop activating it. If we want to stop an ideal oscillating system we have to use just as much energy to stop it as we used beforehand for accelerating it. We can draw several conclusions from this:

• It is not only hard work to pursue certain objectives but it is just as hard to change these objectives. According to the degree to which we have developed our corresponding abilities, we will still pursue these goals for some time until we we can finally put them aside. Not least this also explains why human development takes so much time, since just as we acquire a new behaviour or new abilities through training, then because of the training already successfully carried out, we only slowly let go of existing behaviour patterns and abilities.
• It is worthwhile carefully selecting our goals. For having selected our goals we start to develop abilities. When we later change our goal the earlier abilities will often have to be eliminated in a very slow process.

These findings by the way apply to all objectives which are incompatible with one another. The selection of objectives for our life has such serious consequences for us and for our environment, that we should actually urge mankind generally to apply serious thought to this periodically!

In saying this we are not trying to force anybody to set the living of the basic rights of existence as his highest objective. Everyone should of course be completely free to select their own personal goals, but each of us should (must) at least apply some thought to his own goals.