Singing bowls in Tibetan shamanism

     The role of shamanism in ancient Tibet

     Tibetan culture goes deep to the ancient shamanism of Northern and Central Asia. These traditions are still of interest at this time since most Tibetans practice Buddhism, which came to us from mediaeval India. However, Indian Buddhism merged with local ancient shamanism in Tibet, which gave Tibetan Buddhism unique flavor. The shaman’s basic duty was to cure his tribesmen of diseases of all sorts and kinds. Therefore, much of Tibetan culture is owed to folk medicine and healing. It is not only a body but also soul that Tibetan healers cure. The tribe considered its shaman a healer as well as a psychotherapist and spiritual guide. Also, the shaman attended on the dying so that their souls will be on the right path in their final journey. The shaman has a gift of clairvoyance and prophesy thanks to his ability to master alternative states of consciousness to perfection. He is capable of falling into a special ecstatic trance to become a medium between a person and cosmic powers and help others to enter parallel realities and spirit worlds. By falling into states of trance, the shaman drifts into the in-depth exploration of shy recesses of the mind, soul and unconscious collective and then gets back having treasured up the knowledge and might to use them for the good of all living beings. Spiritual and psychotherapeutic techniques of shamanism have been known to people from time immemorial as they are coevals with mankind and older than all living religions.

     Curing of a body and soul in shamanism

     Shamans were the first spiritual and cultural leaders of the time, who startled humanity out of the ooze of purely savage existence towards the light of human consciousness. They were the first people to walk with gods and spirits of ancestors and to open up the knowledge of the postmortem fate and reincarnations of the soul in various bodies. In the context of shamanistic culture, indispositions and illnesses are considered as aftereffects of the disharmony or disturbance of the course of nature and ethical principles of the world. The weakness and imbalance of the human energy field were also treated as the seeds of diseases. Being in a normal state, the energy shall circulate easily in the human subtle body. But fears, negative actions and thoughts give rise to blocks that impede natural energy flows. And then physical diseases spring up in places of such blocks. The curative procedure involves dissolving these blocks and restoring the energy circulation.
The ancient culture of pre-Buddhist and Tibetan shamanism as well as animism goes by the name of Bon and its followers are known as Bonpo. Bonpo by birth still practice shamanism in lots of remote places in the Himalayas. However, being influenced by Lamaism, Bonpo practices have become of mostly ritualistic nature rather than trance and ecstatic one. It is possible to draw a parallel to India in this regard as ancient Indian rishis gained spiritual knowledge and wisdom through personal emotional and out-of-body experience (astral journeys to other worlds) and ecstasies. However, established by them traditions were declined bit by bit by priests-Brahmans, who laid special emphasis on rites.
 
     Sound practices within Bon traditions

     People who walk with gods and evoke spirits are called «Bonpo» in Tibet. Bonpo were experts on mantras and magic incantations. The mantra is a sound, and the sound is energy. The sound is of great power; therefore shamans use it in their practices. In Tibet, Nepal, India and other countries of Asia there were lots and lots of musical instruments dedicated to spiritual and magic practices. Tibetan bells symbolize the pragiya principle (wisdom) and the feminine, whereas dorjes represent upaya (the way to exercise wisdom) and the masculine principle. By playing magic musical instruments, skilful masters entrance people around and help them to get purged of negative energy.
 
     Singing bowls as a means of meditation

     The singing bowl being a kind of bell cuts a conspicuous figure within shamanism. It is called «a sleeping bell». It is widely believed that singing bowls are made of an alloy of seven sacred metals in agreement with seven planets as Bon traditions demand: gold (the Sun), silver (the Moon), mercury (Mercury), copper (Venus), iron (Mars), tin (Jupiter) and antimony (Saturn). However, the number of components may vary from three to nine. And by some traditions bell bowls are made of twelve metals. The legend has it that in ancient times the territory of Tibet was struck with the meteorite treated as the heavenly metal. And that meteorite’s splinters were also added into the said alloy. It is a wide-spread opinion that such bowls are of great power. The larger number of various metals an alloy contains, the richer sound a bowl has. The bowl of seven and more metals has lots and lots of voices and semitones, and you may hear all these voices sounding in unison and separately all at once. The permission to posses such bowls was not granted to ordinary laymen and even novices in cloisters. Highly positioned lamas only were entitled to use bowls in the course of mediations and secret rites to facilitate their out-of body experiences. Legends say that the said bowls’ sound endues a meditating person with tremendous might; therefore such practices shall be kept under wraps so that the uninitiated would not seize them. The secret science of sound power is called Nada yoga. It is devolved in full face to face only, and in actual fact too few people have been initiated into that. 
 
     Methods of listening to a singing bowl

     Nowadays singing bowls of all kinds and alloys are available for sale. It is essential to choose your bowl in no hurry. Set yourself up well for the process, listen to attentively and feel the bowl’s sound deeply. Every bowl has its unique sound, spirit and soul. You may pick up several bowls of different sizes and sounds to use them to experience different states of consciousness. The sound produced by a singing bowl and resonating with it aligns a body with soul, entrance a person and helps him to gain the feeling of unity and integrity. If you listen to this sound being relaxed, you may feel its vibrations pass through your whole body striking it to the marrow. You shall relax all over and let the sound pass through you leaving your thoughts and opinions aside. Every cell of your body will start vibrating in unison with this sound. And that’s Om (or Aum) sound,  Alpha and Omega of existence.