There is probably no religion or teaching that does not use a bell or some variation of it that produces a beautiful, sustained ring. This is no coincidence: such ringing has a very beneficial influence, not only at the energetic level but also physically, as even ordinary instruments can detect. Water is purified, disease-causing microbes become fewer, and so on. Bells may be large or small, with or without a clapper. There are also the simple cymbals so widely used in Tibet and India, suspended metal plates such as gongs, and even tubes... It would be impossible to list everything used for working with sound over many millennia in different parts of the world.

I would like to give you a practice using a bell, as I think this will be the simplest option for most of you. The photograph on the right shows an ordinary small Valdai bell. It has a beautiful tone and rings for a long time, about 10 seconds. I think you will easily find something similar in a music shop in your town, usually named something like "Melody" or "Musical Instruments", or perhaps by mail order. You can use any bell, not necessarily the one shown here. What matters is that you like it and that it has a sustained ring.

So, you have your bell. Remove its clapper: the part inside the bell that makes it ring by striking its sides. The clapper is usually attached to a small ring inside that can easily be opened, for example with tweezers. Tie a thread or ribbon 15–20 cm long to the ring from which the bell hangs, as in the photograph above. You will also need a metal rod to strike the bell with. You can use the clapper you removed, but it is better to use something more convenient. There are specific reasons for removing the clapper. First, its presence inside "breaks" the harmonious vibration, or sound waves. Second, this practice requires controlled sound rather than random ringing. I will explain this below.

You now have everything you need for this practice, which I will describe next.

Description of the Practice

1. Light a candle and place it in front of you. For example, if you are sitting on a mat on the floor, place the candle on the floor about half a metre in front of you.
2. Sit upright, cross-legged or simply on a chair, and relax.
3. Lift the bell by its thread. Hold the end of the thread so that the bell hangs freely from it.
4. Position the bell roughly opposite your muladhara chakra (you can read about chakras on the Your Yoga website here). It does not have to be positioned precisely; somewhere near muladhara is enough.
5. Then strike the bell with the metal rod. You can strike it on the outside, the inside or even the bottom rim. Strike it only once.
6. While the bell rings, right up until the sound fades completely, concentrate on the muladhara chakra with the feeling that the sound is "entering" it. After striking the bell, you will hear its sound slowly fade. As it does, imagine the sound entering this chakra, being absorbed into it and disappearing within it.
7. Once the sound, even its faintest trace, has died away completely, raise the bell to the level of the svadhisthana chakra and do the same: strike it once and imagine the fading sound entering svadhisthana.
8. Do this with every chakra. When you reach the sahasrara chakra, hold the ringing bell above the crown of your head. If your Third Eye is not yet open and you cannot strike the bell directly above your crown, strike it within your field of vision first, then move the ringing bell above your crown to attune the sahasrara chakra.
9. If you wish, repeat the entire sequence once or several times, beginning with muladhara.
10. Then strike the bell at, or roughly near, the very base of your torso and slowly raise the ringing bell from there to the crown of your head. As you do so, focus your attention on sushumna, the central energy channel in the human subtle body. When you bring the bell above your crown, it may still be ringing. Hold it above the sahasrara chakra until the sound dies away completely. Repeat this several times, for example 3–4 times.
11. Next, position the bell in front of your torso, roughly at the manipura chakra. Focus on the energy field around your body. You can sense or imagine a sphere about 3 metres in diameter, with your physical body inside it. Keeping your concentration on this energy field, strike the bell. Once the sound has faded, repeat this several times, for example 3–4 times. This will cleanse your aura and attune it to vibrations of light.
12. Then imagine "dividing" the energy field into two halves: left and right, Yin and Yang. Focus on these areas of your energy field, strike the bell and swing it from side to side with your hand until the sound fades completely. This will bring your energy system into balance.
13. Then focus on your energy field again, strike the bell and move it in clockwise circles, as viewed from above, until the ringing fades completely. Repeat this several times, for example 3–4 times. This will create energetic protection around you.
14. Finally, focus your attention on the space around you, extending far away in every direction. Keeping your concentration on this space, strike the bell, still held in front of you near the manipura chakra. As the ringing spreads into the surrounding space and fades away within it, think about whatever concerns you most at this moment. You can use various thought-forms. For example: "May the space around me always support me", "May all the conditions for my rapid development begin to form in this space right now", "May all the conditions for my recovery begin to form in this space right now", and so on. Repeat this several times.

Notes

1. When concentrating on a particular chakra, you can imagine its colour to improve your concentration (in the practice for working with the chakras I give information about the colour of each chakra).
2. Let me repeat: do not strike the bell several times as is usually done. Strike it only once and wait for the sound to fade completely.
3. Do not carry out this practice when you are in a bad mood or thinking negative thoughts. First calm down and bring yourself into a balanced state of goodwill towards everyone. This is very important, because in this practice you are touching a very important element: Space. Your thoughts while creating the vibration are very important.

Practice given on 24 May 2008.
© Author: Sergey Veretennikov (Om Shanti)

Questions and Answers

• Questions sent to me in correspondence about the practice above have been edited for ease of reading.

Q: I have not managed to find a bell yet. I will buy one soon, of course; that is not a problem. But I wanted to try the practice now, so I took a tube from a feng shui wind chime, the kind people hang in their homes, and used that. Is this all right?
A: A bell is better. Of course you can use something else, even a shamanic drum, which is also essentially a bell, but a bell is preferable.

Q: I do not understand how to swing the bell or rotate it. Should I move my hand in a circle and back and forth?
A: Simply imagine a swing. Its support stays still; only the seat swings. Your fingers are the support, and the bell is the seat. It is just an ordinary swinging movement. Move your hand only slightly to set the range of the bell's swing.

Q: May I leave out any of the stages of this practice?
A: You may, but it is better to do them all, in the order I have given.

Q: May I do this practice for my son, who is ill? If so, how? Thank you!
A: Try either of these two options. Option 1: skip the steps before Step 11 and begin directly with Step 11. Instead of concentrating on your own energy field, concentrate on your son's: have it in mind and imagine it. Then continue in the same way through the final step, Step 14. Option 2: do the whole practice as described on the website, but focus Step 14 on your son. Change the thought-forms to something like: "May all the conditions for my son's recovery begin to form in this space right now", "May the space around my son always support him", and so on.

Q: Is Space in this practice God?
A: Space is space. Simply know this one truth: before anything manifests in the material world, it first appears in subtle form in space.

Q: Should I imagine sushumna running along my spine? My spine has been slightly deformed since childhood.
A: Sushumna is a straight channel connecting the muladhara and sahasrara chakras. You do not need to think about your spine at all, especially its particular structure. Sushumna always has a perfect form, unless, of course, deliberate energetic attacks have been made on you to alter it.

Q: For some reason I imagine the left half of my aura as white and the right half as red when I swing the bell. But your practice says nothing about colour, so I do not know what to do.
A: That is acceptable. But it is better simply to keep this division into Yin and Yang in mind as an approximate idea, without drawing such definite boundaries.

Q: I have a church bell that has been blessed. Would that be better?
A: Any bell that rings will do.

Q: In one of the practices on your website, you wrote about purity and impurity. I washed my bell to make it clean. Could you tell me how to make it even cleaner? I am not sure it is completely clean yet. Thank you for the practice!
A: Water and your thought and intention to cleanse it are very good means of purification. If you wish to do more, hold the bell close to a flame, for example a candle flame, with the thought and intention of cleansing it.

Q: My wife and I have been practising and studying esoteric teachings for a long time. It is very convenient because we work as a pair. We usually do things for each other, such as cleansing one another's channels. May we do this practice for each other? For example, I could hold the bell near my wife's chakras from behind and imagine everything she is supposed to imagine. Then she could do the same for me. This is an amazing technique; thank you very much. It leaves such a unique feeling of freshness and balance.
A: Yes, you may.

New Questions and Answers

(New questions and answers dated 26 May 2008.)

Q: Does it matter which hand holds the bell in your practice?
A: Use whichever hand feels comfortable.

Q: I do this practice lying on my back with my eyes closed. I can see well with my eyes closed, and this is more comfortable for me. Is that all right?
A: Yes. But do not use a pillow: you should lie flat.

Q: I have serious health problems. Very serious. I do not want to give details, but the illness is localised. Is there a way to work directly on the affected area?
A: During this practice, give more attention to the chakra at the level of the affected area. For example, for the liver or stomach, this is the manipura chakra; for the thyroid, it is vishuddha, and so on. You can also work locally. In addition to the practice itself, hold the bell near the affected area and do everything I described for the chakras: strike the bell and imagine the sound fading into the troubled or diseased area. Of course, you must understand that this is not a call to treat an illness solely in this way; it is simply my answer to your question.

Q: I really like your practice for healing eye problems, which I happened to find on your wonderful website (clarification: "Improving Eyesight" Training). My eyesight really is improving, and I am endlessly grateful to you. I decided to use the sound practice too. I take the bell and perform this technique near each eye. Do you think it will work?
A: Yes, you can do that. You can also simply give more attention to the ajna chakra and to Step 14, where you create a thought-form for healing, for example: "May all the conditions for healing my eyes begin to form in this space right now."

Q: I do not understand how to work with the ajna chakra. Is it the area between the eyebrows?
A: It is the area in the centre of the head. In this practice, imagine the area right in the centre of your head, preferably deep blue in colour.

Q: I live near a bell tower. Not very close, but I can still hear it and, as I now understand, the vibrations probably reach my home too. Are these bad vibrations? Is there some way to protect myself from the ringing of the bells? I belong to another faith altogether, but there is nothing I can do, unless I move somewhere else.
A: What matters in this ringing is the consciousness of the person ringing the bells. If their thoughts are about material things, then, as you can understand, the vibrations in that place will carry greatly amplified thoughts about material things. If their thoughts are confined within the boundaries of that religion, the same applies. I see no special protection against this other than the principle of mutual respect between people and between religions. If that is lacking in your town, try making the "Space Harmoniser" described on the Your Yoga website.

Q: In your last letter you wrote that everything first appears in space. Could you tell me how to use this practice to send back what has emerged from it? For example, the malicious people who constantly torment me.
A: Cleanse the space around you, and nothing bad will appear or manifest any longer. There is no need to "send" malicious people anywhere. For example, there are many vipers, jackals and scorpions on Earth... Do you see them every day? I do not think so. Most likely, you have never seen them, except perhaps in a zoo. So cleanse your space, and everything that does not belong to your world will leave you.