We all know and practice body cleaning using water. Shower before work, shower after heavy exercise in the gym, warm bath to relax and indulge ourselves. This is nothing new.
But how often do you bath yourself with fire? Fire?!? Who washes with fire?
Well, having in mind that our body is not only physical but that we also have other bodies, like astral or etheric, water can clean only physical. And water is only one of the 4 or 5 metaphysical elements.
In Tibet, it is common practice to wash your body with the wind. You stand with your hands stretched to the side and let the wind (air) clean your body. It is very uncommon for Western civilization to use it. Not that there is no wind, but it is not practice brought from the East.
More practiced, but also quite rare is the practice of sound bathing. You can say it is metal quality as we usually use triangle or Tibetan bowl to make the sound. You may have seen Tibetan bowls used for healing or for Feng Shui to clear stale energies in your home. The patient sits and the therapist goes around him, using a sound-producing instrument. As sound is a wave just as our bodies are, it cleans deep inside of us.
In Roman, Greek or other ancient text, fire is used for cleansing as well. Similar to sound cleaning, this time the therapist has a candle or vessel that is filled with burning oil that hangs on a chain and uses it going around the body of the patient. In the East, they say that it cleans our aura and astral body.
The oddest practice is using mud for cleaning. Oddest as adults often are not happy if their kids come home all muddy. But, in many spas and medical facilities, mud is used as therapy. It is also used in cosmetic parlors. In India, it is a common practice of holy men to cover themselves with mud. You have surely seen photos of not very nice looking muddy gurus. But mud is earth and has this stable energy to ground us.
So from now on, if you want your body to be clean, besides the water, use sound, fire, mud, and air to clean it as well. There is saying that fire should be used once a week, and the other three at least once a month.
