Recorded in 1999 & 2001.
Duration 79’
BEL CD 013. £10 (CD only)
Volume 4 in the TIBETAN SINGING BOWLS Series is a CD of minimal Tibetan Bowl music designed to awaken, balance and heal the Chakras. The chakra system is the vehicle of the soul and located in our subtle body and it is said that as we evolve in consciousness so, too, we move into the level of consciousness associated with each of these 7 major chakras.
I took for the inspiration for this track the vision of the painting by Nicholas Roerich Lumen Coeli:
Lumen Coeli 1931 by Nicholas Roerich courtesy the Roerich Museum New York.
Much
of the music on this CD has evolved from my second wave of sound healing
which focused upon using Tibetan Singing Bowls which began
in 1983. To find out more about this Sound Healing click
NEXT here:
From time to time I have found chakra bowls which also have a very good sound. However, these can be rare. I've spent over two decades searching through over 4,500 bowls and, as an example of just how rare finding some of these bowls is, from these 4,500 I've only found 2 Sacral Chakra bowls, 5 Root Chakra bowls, and maybe 5 Third Eye Chakra bowls. I've found far more Heart Chakra bowls than for any other chakra. Even then, it is only a few of these chakra bowls that can truly be called sacred in the sense that they've been charged with certain psycho-spiritual powers and specific visualisations and activations creating on various levels of Being numerous forms of vibrations attuned to the specific Chakras in question.
Due to the potent nature of each Chakra sound meditation, when using this CD it is best to sit comfortably with spine erect as kundalini will be awakened to some extent. It is also very important to have a closing ritual for sealing the chakras after working with them (for those who've not been initiated into a particular method I offer the system given by White Eagle - click HERE and read the item CLOSING RITUAL). It may not always be practicable to listen to all 7 chakras at once and then we must choose the chakra we feel is most in need of assistance - in the text of the CD booklet indications are given concerning the application of these chakra pieces. Ultimately, it is best, if not already initiated, to seek training from a suitable teacher - most probably from a spiritual school which has teaching upon this subject and to which you feel at-home - as there are dangers along the Spiritual Path. These were originally secret teachings within the tantric and shaktic traditions.
Those ancient Singing Bowls, found to be spiritually attuned to each Chakra, are allowed to dominate in this music, so affording the maximum stimulation to the chakra in question, i.e., it is possible to focus one's listening attention upon the bowl(s) in question in each piece whilst allowing them to convey teaching or whatever other form of spiritual communication to your Being. Many years were spent in contemplating the form of this special Chakra CD. As the form that the music would take for each separate chakra emerged so it was recorded. So it was that after a few visits to the recording studio over a two year period the entire chakra set had been created. The musical nature of this CD is of necessity of secondary importance. However, the music has been composed with the overall Chakra system in mind. One example of this lies in the fact that those chakras beneath the Heart Chakra are all composed mostly using struck bowls (Yang) whilst those above are mostly stroked (Yin). This reflects the fact that the lower three chakras are concerned with the outside world and issues of power whilst the upper triangle are more concerned with our inner world. Something of the quality reflecting the level of consciousness of each chakra has also been represented. The Tibetan Chakra system differs from the Indian model inasmuch as the lower two chakras (Root and Sacral) are linked together as one and aligned to the Earth Element, whilst the two topmost chakras are likewise joined together (Brow and Crown) and related to the Element of Space. This is represented in the Tibetan Stupa with its five levels and also incorporated into the Tibetan Mandala with its five directions and also in the five dhyani Buddhas. I have blended both systems of approach into this music so that it is possible to apply either path.
I do not consider it helpful, and would advise against, using these sound meditations alongside visualisations upon a sequence of colours with each chakra. These are SOUND meditations and the colours produced by each chakra bowl used will differ from the popular attribution of colours to the chakras (used for artistic purposes in my diagram above - CD cover illustration) and could therefore create a distraction from receiving the full benefits of these resonant vibrational fields. For example, in the music for the Throat Chakra; in the main, four Throat Chakra bowls were used with one bowl producing the colour Blue, another bowl Green, a further bowl Gold, and finally the fourth bowl creating a bright White Light. In the music these are blended harmoniously in respect of their healing qualities. Meditating on one colour could block the colours that manifest upon the vibrations of the other bowls.
In this ancient tradition, it is precisely in the effect upon our innermost being of the sounds of each singing bowl that is important - their so-called magical power to transform consciousness - not their musical qualities, although these can be remarkable, if unconventional, to Western ears. Accordingly, although much thought has gone into each Chakra piece, the basic effect upon the chakra in question has been of paramount importance and compositional ideas have been surrendered for the greater good.
I believe that in ancient times the traditional approach would have consisted in playing the chakra bowl in question alone (either for personal meditation or for healing purposes) - as indeed I do also at times during my sound healing work. However, I have further extended their traditional uses into the field of acoustic binaural brainwave stimulation via matched pairs.
Regarding the Second Chakra (Sacral Plexus or Svadisthana) there are two schools of thought, one of which places it in the spleen whilst the other places it a few inches beneath the navel. Again, I have striven to embrace both applications. Perhaps it is for this reason that the Spleen Chakra bowls are higher in pitch than are those for the Solar Plexus Chakra? Nevertheless, regardless of systems, these Spleen (or Sex) chakra bowls were chosen by me because they affect this chakra, as is the case with all my set of Chakra Bowls.
I have no intellectually derived or devised system to apply (mathematical or otherwise) in finding correspondences between bowl sounds and chakras - e.g. C is the 'note' of the Root Chakra and also the colour Red. This is something of an intellectual system (not based upon supersensible observation) wherein the lowest vibratory rates of motion within any septenary collection of components are all linked together as one e.g. Saturn (the slowest moving planet - within the 7), relates to Red (the colour of the slowest vibrations), which then corresponds to the note C as that is the starting note (lowest note) on our Western piano - and all of these would then correspond to the Root Chakra which is the lowest chakra of the 7. Actually, virtually every astrological system I have ever encountered attributes the colour Red to the Planet Mars - never, ever have I seen it associated with the Planet Saturn. And so we encounter a problem straight away! In my experience, it is also rather clumsy to simply link one planet to one chakra, as often there can be found to exist several links of correspondences between one chakra and several planetary rays.
Yet another problem with this neat system arises from the fact that the 7 notes of our Western diatonic scale don't exist in Tibetan music. Perhaps, it is because the bowls are said to be made from 7 metals that invites one to form such correspondences? If it actually works for you, then use it! I have no wish to lay down any strict laws or rules. So-called Chakra bowls are chosen by myself only if they actually work upon a specific chakra! (or also found capable of resonating with two or three chakras) - I tolerate no 'near misses'. As far as I am concerned, stating that a certain bowl is a chakra bowl is certainly never simply a superficial 'sales pitch'! After it has been ascertained that any one bowl relates to a specific chakra, it is then determined precisely how they affect the chakra in question and then applied in my sound healing and musical work or passed on to the purchaser.
I began my studies in such correspondences in 1973 using my psychic and spiritual faculties. (Should you wish to read more about these aspects of my work then click HERE). Again, what we might term this rainbow system breaks down with regard to Tibetan singing bowls in my own experience as indicated above regarding the 4 Throat Chakra bowls featured on 'Portal of Initiation'. Apart from producing different colours upon the higher etheric plane, they are also distinguished by possessing different fundamental pitches and producing different harmonics - and not one of these fundamental pitches corresponds to any of the tones found in our Western scale. It has been stated by certain sellers of Singing Bowls in the East that it would take a search of around 2,000 to 3,000 bowls before one is found that might be close to a Western musical Note! The situation is further complicated by different attributions of pitch e.g. the famous "A" could be anywhere between 415 cps or 446 cps. The same situation regarding an inability to correspond with the Western equal-tempered diatonic tuning system occurs with the 5 Heart Chakra bowls used on 'Hymn for the Golden Child of a Fiery Heart.
Residing at the centre of this sevenfold Chakra system lies the Heart Chakra. So it is that at the heart of the intention behind this sound creation is the wish for you to unfold safely within the Heart of the One Supreme Universal Being.
Agni, the divine spark, resides in each heart and as this flame of Divine Love is awakened so this Golden Child is born within our own hearts - the Virgin Birth of the Cosmic Christ Spirit.
© Copyright by Frank Perry 2001. All rights reserved.
© Frank Perry, 2001. All of these articles are copyright. They may individually be copied and shared with others in a spirit of knowledge-sharing and fair play, but they may not be sold, printed or reproduced in quantity or changed in form without the permission of the copyright holder. None of this material may be reproduced in workshops or lectures of any kind unless quotes are credited or properly attributed.
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