"When I talk to people about the bowl, it is always about something else."

"It’s a metaphorical conversation about ritual, like in the tea ceremony, or about the fabrication process. It’s very hard to just talk about the bowl itself. We talk around the bowl."

Please talk about the bowl. I knew somebody who had, amongst the cardboard boxes stacked up in his garage, a box marked "BOWELS."

Are you familiar with the typo/misspelling distinction? I make a big deal about it in the comments thread here, and ultimately assert: "Under that definition, I don't think I have ever misspelled writing this blog, other than (very rarely) the occasional proper name."

Put that in the bowel of your pipe and smoke it.