Over the years I receive so many questions and comments about the Himalayan sacred sound instruments. Normally they are about how to play them for someone else's benefit. The questions themselves inform me about the owner and his/her degree of understanding regarding the instruments. Many questions have to do with technique, but having a technical understanding of patterns and layouts does not make a great practitioner. The instruments come from the Buddhist tradition which strongly emphasizes going inward. Spending tons of time discovering the different voices in the instrument for oneself and being able to call those voices forth is an essential part of the healing process.
One woman wrote telling me that if she rang the ganta it would break up energy in the entire house, and asked if she could just sing it instead. This let me know that the woman did not spend much time working with her instrument to discover it... but only to use it. All the instruments, tingsha's, ganta's and bowls have so many textures of sound to experience. In the case of the ganta- it can be rung so gently that it sounds like a drop of water- an ever so gentle tap, tap, tap of the clacker to break up stuck energy. Breaking up energy doesn't always require a bulldozer. But the ganta can be a bulldozer too! Each instrument can be played to offer a neutral, awakening, energizing or soothing sound. Each of these sound textures has a role in the healing process if the time to discover them for oneself is taken.
