Two traditions, two systems
Everything you have learned so far belongs to one system. There is a second, it uses different notes for the same chakras, and it is used for different reasons.
Almost no English-language sound healing course mentions that a second system exists. Getting this straight is the foundation of the whole of Course Three, because a practitioner who mixes them is doing neither.
By the end of this lesson you will know both note maps, know what each system is used for, and have heard the difference between them yourself.
The two note maps
| Chakra | Vedic | Tibetan |
|---|---|---|
| Crown | B | B |
| Third Eye | A | E |
| Throat | G | A |
| Heart | F | D |
| Solar Plexus | E | G |
| Sacral | D | C |
| Root | C | F |
Only the crown agrees. Every other chakra is assigned a different note by the two systems, and in some cases the disagreement is severe — the Vedic root bowl, C, is the Tibetan sacral bowl. The Vedic solar plexus bowl, E, is the Tibetan third eye bowl.
This is not a transcription error and it is not one system being wrong. They are two separate lineages that assign notes on different principles, and they arrive at different answers.
What each system is for
| Vedic healing | Tibetan healing | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | The Veds | Himalayan Buddhist practice |
| Used for | Chakra healing, general wellbeing | Stress, anxiety, low mood |
| Range | 131 Hz up to 250 Hz | The Tibetan note map |
| Session length | Around 30 minutes | 30 minimum, 45 standard, 60 maximum |
| Also includes | Both healing and therapy | Its own massage form, worked on the back |
Sunita's notebook puts it briefly. Of Vedic healing it says: we do it to make our chakra heal — it is very powerful, we use both healing and therapy, and elsewhere, for normal people, only healing. Of the Tibetan system it says: for stress, anxiety, depression.
An important qualification. Depression and anxiety disorders are medical conditions and they are treated by doctors and therapists. Sound work sits alongside that care, never instead of it. If someone comes to you describing persistent low mood, hopelessness, or thoughts of harming themselves, the correct response is to encourage them toward professional help — kindly, and without treating it as a failure of your session. This applies whatever any tradition claims.
Why are there two?
The likeliest explanation is geographical. Nepal sits on the line where the Indian and Tibetan worlds meet, and a healer trained in Kathmandu is often working within both inheritances at once.
The Vedic system comes down from the Sanskrit tradition — the same lineage that gives us the chakra names, the mantras and the mudras you learned in Course Two. The Tibetan system comes from Himalayan Buddhist practice, which is also where tingsha, the Om Ah Hung syllables and the second mantra list in Lesson 2.10 come from.
A practitioner in Nepal inherits both, and keeps them separate the way a doctor keeps two treatments separate — not because one is false, but because mixing them produces neither.
The Tibetan sequence
The notebook records a playing order that looks arbitrary until you hold it against the Tibetan map:
F · C · G · D · A · E · B
then back
B · E · A · D · G · C · F
Read those notes against the table above. F is the Tibetan root, C the sacral, G the solar plexus, D the heart, A the throat, E the third eye, B the crown.
It is simply root to crown, then crown to root, in the Tibetan system. What looks like a strange sequence of letters is the same up-and-down movement you already know, written in the other language.
That is worth sitting with, because it tells you something about how the two systems relate. The structure is shared. Only the note assignments differ.
How to choose between them
The plainest guide, drawn from what the notebook says of each:
- Vedic for chakra work, for general wellbeing, for someone with no particular complaint who simply wants a session, and for the whole of the self-practice you learned in Course Two.
- Tibetan for someone arriving with stress, worry, a busy mind or persistent tension — and always alongside whatever professional care they are receiving.
If you are unsure, use the Vedic system. It is the one this course has taught you properly, and it is the one described as being for ordinary people.
Practice: hear the difference
This takes ten minutes and needs at least two bowls.
- Choose one chakra — the heart is the clearest to work with.
- Sit with your attention at the centre of the chest.
- Play the Vedic heart bowl, F, three times with full silences. Notice where in your body the sound settles.
- Rest for a minute in silence.
- Play the Tibetan heart bowl, D, three times the same way, with your attention in the same place.
- Write one line comparing them.
Most people find the two feel noticeably different at the same point in the body, and neither feels wrong. That is the useful discovery. You are not looking for the correct note — you are learning that a system is a set of relationships rather than a set of facts.
If you own only a seven-bowl set, you already have every bowl both systems use. The same seven notes are simply assigned to different places.
Common mistakes
- Mixing the systems in one session. The single most important rule in this lesson. Choose before you begin, and stay in it.
- Deciding one is correct. They are different lineages, not competing claims. A practitioner who dismisses one has halved their inheritance.
- Using the Tibetan map for chakra work. Chakra healing is Vedic. The Tibetan system is used for a different purpose.
- Assuming Tibetan means better because it sounds more exotic. Most of what you will do is Vedic.
- Treating "for stress, anxiety, depression" as a medical claim. It is a description of when the tradition reaches for this system, not a treatment protocol.
How do you know you got it right?
You can write out both note maps from memory, and you can say which chakras the C bowl belongs to in each system without hesitating.
You should also be able to answer this: a woman comes to you saying work has been relentless and she has not been sleeping properly. Which system, and why?
Tibetan — the complaint is stress and a busy mind, which is what the notebook reserves that system for. And you would work downward, because as Lesson 1.6 established, a complaint in the head is settled from above.
Something to sit with
Two traditions looked at the same seven places in the body and assigned them different sounds. Both have been practised for centuries. Both work well enough that neither has been abandoned.
What does that suggest about what the notes are actually doing?