Tummo Instructuons by Loco
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Descripción: Gtummo...
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Instructions for Tummo Practice Written by LocoAustriaco in Kenneth Folk Dharma Forum. Compiled Compiled by Dharmandy Dharmandy
Last Uptade November 6th, 2011
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Prep Prepar arat atio ion n Phas Phase e
1. Brea Breath th 1 : One should should be able able hold the breath breath for 1 min 30 sec minimum minimum before before one begins the real exercise. exercise. Everyda Everyday y practice practice should make it possible quickly quickly.. Hold your breath whenever whenever you can and relax the whole body especially especially the neck, the back and the eyes. eyes. Avo Avoid id any pressure building building up in the body. body. Get gent gentle le when when it gets harsh. harsh. Never Never go over over 2 min. I have have friends friends who can can hold the breath breath up to 5 min, one for 9 min (christian (christian is champion champion in apnoediving). apnoediving). Don’t do this. Stay Stay under 2 min for medical reasons (brain cells dying). It is not necessary to have no braincells left to get enlightened. When you inhale and hold, fill the lungs only 75%. Give Give already a 25% tension tension to the lower lower deep core (abdominal) (abdominal) muscles muscles (m. transver transversus sus abdominis). abdominis). these are the muscles muscles in the exact middle between between bellybutton and pubic bone. When you exhale and hold, breath out and let the mind follow the breath, when the breath stops send the mind further into infinity (let it go and watch it vanish in infinity). Don’t let the body collapse when you breath out, its important that the spine makes a kind of up straightening movement when you breath out (self elongating). The sequence in that phenomena for the beginner will arise in the body is this: Warmth - Shaking Silence You will know what I am talking about when you do Tummo. Tummo. Now this circle circle can already happen by just holding the breath, must not but could happen. At the beginning there can arise panic (to choke) probably between warmth and shaking or shaking and silence. silence. IGNORE IGNORE IT. If you master master the fear of dying you will have a new level level of tolerance tolerance for all fears soon. Fear will no longer make you do or avoid anything and later will not be a topic in your daily life (if one has psychological anxiety problems make an additional therapy, its easy to cure normally). Look at the watch and hold your your breath. breath. Nothing Nothing can happen to you in 1 min 30 sec. Start slowly slowly but get better quickly. Your willpower will increase soon to a tremendous level. This is the first step. The traditional explanation is that the inner fire will burn through the blocked energy channels and this this mak makes es it that that painfu painful. l. Its not true but it helps helps to see that the pain is somethin somethingg good. whenev whenever er you avoid avoid something something in daily life it is because of this pain that you will feel in tummo. get used to it. get through it. it will disappear soon. 2. Pelvi Pelvicc muscles muscles:: lay lay down on the back. back. let the knees knees fall outsid outside. e. Increa Increase se the power power of your your pelvic floor. a) At a) At the beginning just pump the muscles fast and without any power but as long as you can. can. the moment moment you give give the impulse impulse,, let already already go. with with time you will get a feelin feeling g for it, it feels feels nearly nearly autonomo autonomous, us, like the body would would do it by himself himself,, like like havin havingg a orgasm orgasm,, like like a twitc twitch. h. don’t don’t use power. power. let it inten intensif sify y by itself. itself. let the rest of the body be relaxe relaxed, d, just train these these muscl muscles. es. b) then contract first the anal muscles at the backside, if they are fully contracted, contract them stronger :-) then go forward and add the front “door” like you would stop to pee and hold contracted as long as possible possible,, contra contract ct stronger stronger.. strong stronger! er! the picture picture that is taught taught is that of a bench vice. vice. you you can always always do it stronger than you think. think. let the rest of the body relax and the breath completely completely normal and gentle. gentle. Its important important to separate separate the flow of breath breath from the contracti contraction on of the pelvic floor. there are a lot of western descriptions in books like “tiger feeling” of this pelvic gymnastics or “kegel-execrises”. Within 2 weeks you will reach reach a level level from where one can b egin with tummo. your your muscles will get stronger and stronger. 1. Do the exercis exercises es in the morning morning before you have eaten . Dont Dont do them them with with someth somethin ingg in the stomach! Don’t do them in the evening, you will probably not be able to sleep. 2. You will already notice increased self confidence, willp ower, ower, sexual lust, vital masculinity/femininity, masculinity/femininity, 1
Tsa Lung can be practiced practiced instead of this. See later.
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appetite, potency and a strong feeling for your territory and knowing what you want, and what is yours. thats all ok! but be prepared prepared for more to come. inform your your girlfriend(s girlfriend(s)) so that she knows about the change :-) or don’t, she will be the first to realize it. Just for the Info: Preparation phase Tsa Lung/Trul Khor It would be clever to let the body get used to the new levels of energy to reduce unwanted side effects like itching in the forearms and legs, headache, stomach problems etc, but I know nobody will listen, so go to amazon and buy the book of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche “Awakening the sacred body” and watch the DVD. One can use this exercises exercises to warm the body up or reduce negative negative side effects. If you have problems with the spine be very careful or don’t do them all, because not all of them are ergonomic, a good physiotherapist will know. Then look at this:
Figure 1: trulkhor This are also exercises to reduce side-effects called trulkhor. With trulkhor and tsa lung and the 9 breathings of purification you would have the whole system of side effect reduce reducers. rs. The truth truth is, despite despite of all hocus-pocu hocus-pocuss they they someti sometimes mes don’t don’t work. work. I will will be posting a what to do when later. All these execises come from originally from India and so does Tummo. They are just variations. Tummo is a variation of Maha Bandha (Mula Bandha+ Uddiyana Bandha+Jalandhara Bandha).
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The exercises exercises around it, are a tibetan add-on. add-on. One can check check the web for a description description and how to do Maha Bandha. Question 1: 1: I can’t hold my breath long enough to do all those movements [Tsa Lung exercises in DVD]. Presuming I could simplify, such as doing one head rotation in each direction instead of five, until I am more practiced? Yes there is this gentle way way, and it leads to the same success. success. The head rotation: rotation: Let me just say that one should do this rotation less extreme than it is shown in the video. Circle Circle around around the half half of the diamet diameter er shown shown in the video video or less. less. And avoid avoid a bit the backw backward ard circling, circling, stay more more forward. forward. Do it slow and careful. careful. The spiritual spiritual result will will be the same or better. If one doesn’t stay healthy one will be unable to do the exercise at all. The joints of the spine in this region are pretty fragile (because it has to carry only the weight of the head at this level, not the whole upper body. body. If one joint joint is a bit blocked blocked the upper or lower has to take over and can b e overused/d overused/damage amaged, d, you then can get problems with the nerves or a certain artery that provides blood to your brain). Especially Especially the extreme backward backward circling circling is overdon overdonee in the video. If you want to do it more extreme and take the risks, wait if you have have absolutely no problems after a few weeks weeks of gentle gentle circling. circling. you have have an unusual good spine then. but I wouldn’t recommend it.
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Prac Practi tise se of of Tum Tummo mo:: Stan Standi ding ng Pha Phase se
The practise practise is done standing, do not sit down at this p oint. oint. It is important that the shaking can take take over over your whole body including including the legs. If the legs are alive and full of feelings, feelings, they can give you the grounding grounding in reality that you will need for all the upgoing upgoing energy. energy. Hav Having ing a solid grounding grounding in vibrant vibrant legs and feet is very important to not take off and get lost in all kinds of heady spiritual far from the world states of consciousness. The stronger the base and the down-flow capacity of the body the higher you can go without loosing contact with reality. the more energy you accumulate the better. if the body generates more energy than he can eventually discharge the difference in the energy budget will appear as free floating fear. So it is important that you develop enough dicharge ability via productive sexual and aggressive self expression. Tummo will generate a lot of energy. Here is the picture picture of the northern northern wall of the private private temple of the Dalai Lama. Thats the way he has learned Tummo, it is the right way: standing. Stand like the humpdidumpi [see fig. 2]. The picture shows a yogi while holding the breath (hands up) and after having exhaled (hands down). Notice the position of the feet (important to get vibrations on the inner side of the thigh to get a channel down into the ground for the sexual energy otherwise it will heat up your head :-))
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Hand Hand posit positio ions ns
Also notice the finger position. position. To fine tune your your experience experience you can press press different different points from Tibetan medicine/TCM: 1. Press Press with the index finger finger the lateral lateral place under the corner of the fingernail of the thumb (Lung 11): deepens breath, makes one feel confident and “invincible”, bring breath into its natural flow. 2. Press Press with the thumb thumb the lateral lateral place under the corner of the fingernail fingernail of the indexfinger indexfinger (Large (Large intestine intestine 1): harmonisin harmonising g energy flow in the stomach, stomach, if you have have the feeling feeling of heat in the eyes eyes use it, makes the eyes clear and increase concentration. Tell me if you need more of this ... Also notice notice that when one day you would would like to change to sitting tummo the hand position is completely different, [like the one in the Sitting Position in Figure 3]. 4
Figure 2: humpidumpi Some people do it with “vajrafists” then, others simple extend the indexfinger strongly. Strange but it helps to stand through some waves of shaking until the waters become more peaceful...
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Instru Instructi ction on - Part Part Diaphr Diaphragm agm
[These are not the instructions for Tummo, but an exercise to recognize some details that will be needed for the actual core practice.] 1. Exhale 2. Close your your nose with 2 fingers 3. Try to inhale without without opening the nose 4. Recognise your lower abdomen being pulled in direction of the spine and if you do it stronger upwards cranial 5. Do it stronger stronger to find the place where you you can “lock it in”. keep keep it. 6. Train it a while to find out how it opens the heart after releasing releasing it. Notice Notice also the joy. joy. 7. We will use this movemen movementt to transport transport “energy” “energy” from the root to the heart, cultivating cultivating the wild animal-like power Don’t Don’t do it if you have have proble problems ms with gastri gastritis tis or hernia herniass in that region region.. Cure Cure it first throug through h medical medical treatment. treatment. There There is an old saying saying in psychosom psychosomatics: atics: “behind every every neurosis neurosis there is a gastric ulcer” meaning that statistically 50% of the population have these problems and only recognise the changes in their psyche not knowing about the gastric problems as a cause (symptoms are: irascibility, constant bad mood, cynism, returning hiccup, burping, farting and bad breath :-)) also (dalai) lamas have these problems often; some say it comes from the buttertea, some say it is from repression, some from tummo, I dont know. just keep keep an eye on it, to be safe. if you become angry and high-handed high-handed-- stop.
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Figure 3: Sitting position
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Instru Instructi ction on - part part Spot of conc concen entra tratio tion n
There are different opinions about where to transform the generated energies namely bringing them into the central channel. 1. The most often heard is a spot 4 fingers fingers below the navel in front of the spine, where it feels empty empty, bottomless, clear, open. 2. I prefer the middle of the perineum, perineum, where the contraction contraction is strongest. strongest. feels very very solid there 3. Some say say more up even in the heart. Depends on the teacher. Simply concentrate on one of this points. If it helps you and you like naked red women, women, you can do the whole visualizatio visualization n described in all books. I have seen the strongest strongest result in people who simply concentrated on one spot while doing the practice.
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Tummo ummo Conc Concep epts ts
Having an orgasm, Having orgasm, dying and tummo are closely closely related processes. processes. Tibetans Tibetans tend to think in energetic energetic terminology, not so much in scientific language. funny that western science can easily explain the results also with death related processes. simplified the change of ratio O2/CO2 through the change of breathing makes the brain think it has not enough O2 (is going to die) and the body reacts with flooding it with blood supply (vasodilatation). Thats why some people can get headaches when they change their breathing patterns (or do tummo). The change of blood pressure in the brain and the reaction of the vessels result in headaches. Maybe you have also heard of DMT and its relation to spiritual perceptions and death. Question 2 Thank Thank you Loco LocoAus Austriac triaco o for very clear and interestin interestingg description descriptions! s! All this sounds very familiar from my asana and pranayama practices. I presume that Maha Bandha + sucking in the ab6
domen (like in Nauli) is done right after the exhale and held during the whole retention and then released. Do you always do the retention after exhaling, or is it also done after inhaling, like in many pranayama practices? Or do you do just one exhale + retention for the maximum duration and then rest before doing it again? Yes it’s obvious that the tibetan yogic techniques have their roots in india and are refinements and results results of the sometimes sometimes overboar overboarding ding tibetan culture with all its love for adornment. adornment. normally normally they would start as described above, then do some exercises (Tsa Lung, 9 breaths of purification (more or less pranyam pranyama) a) and then start with tummo. later you just contract contract the muscles muscles and hold the breath and should easily get the full energyboost, while sitting in the subway, watch TV etc.
The Core 1. stand like describe describe (footposition), knees lightly lightly bent 2. hands like describe at the height of you shoulders (press the thumbnail under the corner of the indexfingernail) 3. Inhale into the chest 75% (put the head a bit into the neck whil inhaling to open the chest) and hold (gently, don’t press the breath against something) 4. Pull the lower lower abdomen abdomen in and up 75% 5. Press Press the chin chin against the chest (careful), (careful), tongue against against roof of the mouth 6. contract contract the root as described 7. focus on one of the spots (I recommend recommend perineum) perineum) or visualise the central central channel channel 8. relax, relax, wait :-) 9. warmth warmth - hold - relax, keep the sternum sternum still a bit up like a “proud” “proud” prince 10. shaking shaking - hold, 1st wave, wave, stay, stay, 2nd wave, wave, stay 11. silence silence - hold as long as you can without creating creating pressure, pressure, pressure pressure is normal normal while the shaking shaking but shouldn’t come from you 12. exhale exhale (a bit stronger stronger at the end of breath breath if you like, like, called arrowbrea arrowbreath th or as it happens) happens) 13. let your body calm down, down, blood pressure/b pressure/breath reath normalise, normalise, but don’t wait too long for the next burning circle, the faster you do the next the easier/better it will be. Its ok to get shaken off at the first lets say 3 trials, but then use your willpower to dive through and get into the roam where you can feel that you have more space and the neurotic patterns are burned, where you overcome your flight instinct and get as a price freedom. We are crossing crossing a river. river. if you jump off at the first first wave wave you you will not land on the other other side of the river, river, you will land in the river. river. this is the place of unwanted unwanted side effects effects where you can get more problems than you had in the beginning (we talk about how to solve them later). I would make sure to get to the silence part after the 2nd wave, there you can rest safer an repeat the exercise. @exhale/in @exhale/inhale: hale: the version version of the “sucking “sucking in of the abdomen”/udiy abdomen”/udiyana ana bandha that is used for tummo is done after inhaling 75% into the chest, thats why it is called “vase-breathing”. (as you pointed out in the indian version or “udiyyana bandha” they pull in after exhaling completely) the breath is not like like often often thought thought kept kept down down in the belly but in the chest chest.. so one can still still pull pull the abdomen abdomen inward inward 7
upward upward (which (which looks like an upside-down upside-down-v -vase). ase). if one has used up all O2, breath breath in again - without letting go before - and get the missing 25% , so you can prolong the state, try to have both lungs filled with the same amount of air. @retentio @retention: n: the retention retention is done after inhaling. same in the tsa lung exercises exercises (inhale (inhale -retention-retentionmovement - inhale rest 25% ) Question 3: 3: How long did it take to get some results results with this practic practice? e? What kinds of results results did you get? How do you generate the warmth off the cushion? @time: @time: This This depends depends mainly mainly on how how long long one can hold his breath, breath, and this this depends depends on1 the psypsychophysiological state (tensions in the body that become turbulences when the flow gets stronger/capacity of energy) and 2 how many red blood cells your body has developed through the preparations. Some of the famous wonders that appear, when you do tummo (fast growing hair and nails, increased speed of wound healing and regeneration, high vitality) have their cause in this Hypoxy-phenomena that are also used in the training training of profession professional al athletes in environm environments ents of low O2/high O2/high altitudes. altitudes. You simply have more (rbc) O2 in your system and over the mitochondrial system more energy in a physical sense. You get the same results (vitality, regeneration) if you book 10 session in a Hypoxy-studio in your hood. You probably realize a pretty strong change after ten minutes when you have made it the first time really through the 3rd wave of shaking. To practice for one hour a day will change your life completely from the first day on. just repeat the exercise for one hour. if too strong start with 20 minutes and go up. Tibetans told me that this absolute silent void that appears after maybe maximum of 25min, where you nearly can’t move and don’t know if you are or not is the same like nirodha sampathi, I don’t know, but here probably somebody can tell me. They say after 6 weeks with 1 hour practice a day, one normally starts to kind of see the energies and can regula regulate te them. them. For me it felt felt like like there there is sudden suddenly ly a unbro unbroke ken n circui circuitt in your your trunk+ trunk+hea head, d, a constant flow without leaks, no matter what your hands and feet are doing or your head is saying, the system feels like it is hermetical hermetically ly sealed and doesn’t loose energy anymore. anymore. somehow somehow closed closed and complete und incredible strong. @off cushion: you will learn to do the exercise under all circumstances. The last karmapa was famous for suddenly getting blue in the face in the middle of a negotiation. now you know why... My experience is that the side effects vanish after some time it becomes completely effortless and gentle. everything becomes a source of lust somehow (and the girls love you, don’t know how, but they somehow feel it) Let me just add that the head should not get hot, this a typical typical beginners beginners mistake. mistake. after the training training the body is pretty warm, soft and relaxed, the head is clear and cool. It’s not the kind of practice in which you have have to ask yourself yourself “ah, maybe it was this”. this”. The results and even the practice itself should should be b e dramatic if done correctly correctly.. I have have only seen people who couldn’t handle handle it. until until now nobody nobody said I don’t don’t feel anythi anything. ng. It doesn’t doesn’t hurt hurt if you you have have what one could translate as a “hero or warrior mind”. But be careful with yourself also. There are also sects who do it very soft, even just imagining to contract the muscles and if you are very fine-tuned this could also be a 2nd best way. it didn’t work for me at all. If also this is too strong strong or violent and you get more downside downsidess than upside from it. go back to the preparation stage and train the pelvic muscles and the muscles of your abdomen (aka “core muscles”) without too much breathwork. you can get beautiful fruits from that and the time will come when you 8
want want more and are able to. in the tibetan medicine medicine there are also massages massages to cure what they call “lung” illnes illnesss (sidee (sideeffec ffects). ts). I never never tried them. them. for some also a com combin binati ation on with rolfing rolfing work worked ed out fine to remove problems before they appear. Question 4: 4: What kinds of results did you get? I could clearly feel that it is a melting of energies, up and down, together. I wouldn’t call it red and white, but the description of moonlight and sunset hits the point. It feels like the merging of warm rich erotic erotic sexual sexual arousal arousal and clean pure transparent transparent consciousnes consciousness. s. with holding the breath you bring the white energy (tigle) down and the contraction of the root the red up (or better it grows so much that it touches touches the other). other). and you hold them together. together. a kind of atomic core melting melting starts immediately immediately.. when you get to that point: no more suffering is possible. there is also left and right merging. head and butt are coming together and are reconnected in their natural way. I saw something like a very thin wire that starts to glow in bright orange in the middle of the body, not the colours described in the texts. not in the spine like like the kundalini, kundalini, clearly clearly in the middle of the b ody, ody, the absolute absolute middle of you. when energies are held into each other something funny happens. there appears a third unlimited energy but at the same time the 2 others are a kind of used up or disappear so that there is a kind of vacuum in the middle of the new. I had the typical dreams of human snakes talking to me, I saw them slipping out of their skin, they are the bouncers between the normal and the higher worlds, who decide who gets in the club. they are friendly :-)) they are the rulers of all material things and the earth, Thats how the first maybe 10 days were, were, but I can’t talk of all the later mystical mystical experiences, experiences, there was something something nearly everyday everyday... ... its all accompanied by a very grounded down to earth feeling. I’ve probably forgotten the most but what I cant never forget is this 3rd energy, this clear light that is in everything, it is amazing, far beyond my possibilities. its the reason why I am typing this. With the right amount of time for the preparation phase it is possible to get into the melting process before the discomfort can come up, in this case their is no suffering and no side effects at all. Metaphorically you then jump so dynamically into the boat that it glides over the river and you fall out at the the other side of the river and have not seen the waters of suffering at all. There is similar similar process while dying. If you see the clear light and take the chance you will not see any bardos at all. They say it’s good to train this skill during lifetime :-) (haha) Later the bodily heat will change (some weeks) into a kind of mystical warmth, which is in essence more a hmmm, yes, bodily or natural love for everything or love itself (@Cohen). but more on this and what to to do later, when one is there. Question 5: 5: I have been testing doing Tummo and have found it to be similar to many pranayama exercises that I have previously done, although it seems to generate warmth more efficiently than for example Bhastrika (bellows) paranayama and is not so tiring to practice. - Yes if one includes includes the bandhas into the pranayam pranayama a it should should feel similar. similar. I don’t know know if they keep the breath retention as long as the tibetans. (I haven’t tried Bhastrika Yoga, just googled it.) Questio Question n 6: It seems to me that doing Tummo standing makes it more effective and arcing the chest is an important feature, whether it is done standing or sitting. Why is the retention done only after inhaling? Sucking in the stomach feels a bit forced even if the breath is inhaled mostly in the chest area. - Yes standing develops the emotional vitality of the legs which are important to get a feeling to “be full of life” and vibrant connection to the ground (reality). one maybe knows this feeling from skiing or running. Yes the arcing of the chest is very essential. Inhaled: I think it is probably because one is able to hold the breath longer longer with some oxygen oxygen in the lungs. I tried both and they work both but are not the same for me, one feels more rich and one more fresh. fresh. The sucking sucking in of the stomach stomach is not done as
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strong as in udiyana bandha where you nearly touch the heart. Question 7: 7: When the retention retention is lengthene lengthened d over one minute, my stomach stomach starts contractin contracting g rhythmic rhythmically. ally. Should Should I try to control control this movement movement or let it happen? happen? It is not weakenin weakeningg the control control of the bandhas bandhas but rather strength strengthening ening them. them. How tightly should one hold moola moola bandha? bandha? Tight in a relaxed manner or super tight? - over one minute/contraction: yes that is when the real tummo starts. somebody who has as much experience with yoga as you has it probably easier to stay a bit longer because of gentler reactions. but it depends also on other factors. you just let the contractions contractions happens, happens, just let the body shake shake off and keep the bandhas. the traditional explanation is that the energy can not leave the body because of the closing closing of the “gates” and burns now its way through the cloged channels. channels. The contractions contractions are just the beginni beginning, ng, they will stop after after some some time time and open into into a void. void. The moola moola bandha bandha is super tight. tight. It helps to get through the shaking, shaking, stay with it. the rest of the b ody is allowed allowed to move move and shake like a snake, but you will notice that if you don’t let it move/control it a bit, the shaking goes more to the inside and somehow somehow targets your deepest soul. it’s less excessive excessive but very very, very very intense, personal and deeply touching the innermost parts. it just flows into everywhere, where one thought he could hide his whole life and brings all kinds of rainbow coloured blessings. Question 8: 8: I wonder if the visualization part has to do with accessing the Tummo off the cushion. If I train my mind to associate the visualization of the rising warm red energy to the actual experience of getting warm, that would train me to get the same energy moving just by using the visualization. - the traditional visualisation is quite a bit complicated. It includes a tibetan letter, a flame, falling drops and all this. do you mean this visualisation? By the way: way: if you do it while having having an orgasm orgasm a firewo firework rk of brigh brightt lightn lightning ing joy will start start off and what the boxers call the second wind will appear immediately :-)) (seems to be a kind of biological compensation for the girls, because one does not ejaculate in this case). The tibetan tradition says that the buddha gave this teaching only to his most talented students and kings. :-) they then went on to what could be translated as “(bodily) union”-exercises quickly afterwards, the fastest way to full enlightenment, not wasting any time. The beginning exercise goes like this: maybe you have seen tibetan thangkas with 2 buddhas sitting in union. thats the position, position, perceive/ perceive/visual visualise ise “her”/“him” “her”/“him” as deity/dak deity/dakini/fe ini/female male buddha or simply simply as perfect, put your your mouths on each each other like kissing and keep them sealed. when she/he exhales exhales you inhale her/his her/his breath, when you exhale she/he she/he inhales your your breath. keep keep on doing this. feels a bit like like you don’t have to breath anymore because she/he is moving your lungs, effortless, effortless, oceanic. oceanic. visualise visualise both a stream of energy when you f.e. exhale, from your lips to her lips through her spine to the pelvis to your pelvis-spine pelvis-spine to your lips. (I read in a text of the female translator translator of kalu rinpoche rinpoche that he always always tried to convince her to do this exercises with him, so it seems that motivation for practice comes by itself when one reaches the highest teachings :-))) at least for one) but we are shortcutting now the shortcut of the shortcut :-)
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Trouble rouble shootin shooting: g: 1a “Wron “Wrong” g” belly belly breath breathing ing
Keep a light tonus of 25% of the maximum contraction in the musculus transversus abdominis (lower abdomen, abdomen, betw b etween een belly button and pelvic b one, deep layer) layer) whatever whatever you do in daily life. When you stand up and put your weight forward on the toes you can feel that this muscle is activated autonomously by your body to gain stability (it feels a bit “under the belly”). this is the exact right amount of tonus to keep. keep. Should Should feel natura naturall and effortl effortless ess.. Also Also pull pull in the belly while while doing the Tumm Tummoo to avoid avoid 10
misguiding the “energy”(=awareness). If you look into human anatomy you can clearly see that there is no such thing as deep bellybreathing while you are standing or acting during everyday life. it is absolutely unphysiological. If you teach your body artificially to keep the deep bellybreathing during daily life, your abdominal muscles can not carry their part of your weight and protect your spine. this means the backmuscles have to carry all the weight and will become stiffer. they then can not elasticall elastically y support your breath movemen movementt with expansion expansion and contraction, massaging the whole system of spine, liquor, brain. because of this stiffness the breath will go even further forward (no elasticity/space in the back) into the direction of the belly (ironically one can experie experience nce this as a succes successs because because you then have have more space to breath breath again). again). with with time time back problems may appear and the inner organs have the tendency to fall more and more forward. The problem is not not only that is doesn’t look so good :-), but it costs a lot of energy, it is not healthy and a hindrance for developing the true full breath. if you are experiencing a tuff lack of energy or depression after starting spiritual practices this can be a possible cause. try if it gets better, when you restrengthen your abdominal muscles via the usual exercises and keep a tonus of 25% during activities. it should work quickly quickly within days if this was the problem. I know that for most people this wrong belly breathing breathing feels like a progress because it is more comfortable than the fast, short, flat breathing that is usual in our society. but it is not. the Indians didn’t bring up the ideology of the “always deep belly breathing”. when buddhism came to china and japan into a culture in which control and calmness was highest priority they put the emphasis on it and poisoned the spiritual traditions with it. they misused the skill to calm down the mind to suppress emotions, free self-expression and a natural sexuality. (”zen-disease”: stiff spine results in a rigid character, that then has to be calmed down constantly with forward belly breathing - vicious circle). There is a healthy way to breath freely without “forward belly breathing”: The right direction direction is more down into the pelvis. if your pelvic muscles become free and relaxed over over time, your breath breath will touch a spot at the bottom, which is very lustful when you breath breath in. of course it is a kind of sexual feeling but sexual or not, don’t get hysteric. it is a very nice and natural pleasant sensual sensual feeling at the end of every inbreath inbreath.. a part of the breath goes also into the sides (flanks) and into the back. (don’t push the breath down, it will go there by itself if you do what is necessary.) Nearly every orthopedist or physiotherapist in the world will tell you to keep a muscletonus in the abdomen and train your abdominal core. But the problem is most people have too much tensions in the pelvis (sexual fears and fears to let go) to be able to get the full capacity of breath using the room down there. The old Indians where right when they kept the tonus in the belly and waited for the release of the inner pelvic muscles through training (tummo), stretching/yoga and psychological/spiritual development. Normal Normal belly b elly breathing: breathing: In deep states of rest like when lying down or sleeping it is of course physiophysiological and healthy to breath deeply into the belly and give up all tonus, because you have no weight to carry carry and you do not need support. but when you stand up and try to rescue rescue the calmness calmness into everyda everyday y life via this wrong breathing technique all kinds of problems from depression to back pain can appear and I won’t tell you what it does to your right thalamus. It is also normal to have some belly breathing immediately after releasing the held breath (in tummo-training), cause the body will open all blockages and give up all tensions (roof of mouth, throat, chest, diaphragm, belly, back, bottom of pelvis) to get full breath-capacity and enough Oxygen for the brain. I say all this here because in some versions of tummo the vase-breathing is described as putting the air in the belly and pushing downward. This won’t work in this simpleness and from a modern perspective encourage encouragess the wrong breathing pattern after practice. practice. it will result result in various various unwant unwanted ed side effects, that a lot of people are afraid of and make them drop out before even getting a taste of the power of the practice. practice. (This minimal minimal push down down effect they are looking for is what I described described above as touching a spot of lust in the pelvis and will appear naturally and quickly if one doesn’t disturb the breath.) Question Question 9: My strongest experience with it was more than a year ago, after a meeting with Kenneth 11
at his place. Back in my hotel room in NYC, I felt a strong chakra activity and decided to integrate them in my field of awareness. awareness. I then decide decided d to unite prana prana and apana apana in the navel, holding the breath breath with mulabandh mulabandha. a. I then dropp dropped ed the heat on muladhar muladhara a chakra chakra.. With a short exhale, exhale, I then shot the energy energy along the spine above the crow chakra. What happene happened d then is the the energy energy came back back to muladhar muladhara. a. I then felt a warm liquid rising up along along the spine. spine. When When it reach reacheed the head head spac space it felt like like cosmic osmic orgasm orgasm going on an on for 15 or 20 minutes minutes.. My body body was shaking shaking like a leaf. leaf. I then then moved moved the ener energy to the heart heart and felt a sense sense of uncondi unconditiona tionall love. It then merge merged with emptiness emptiness and my body body felt transp transpar arent, ent, merging merging with the environment. The sense of self dissolved into this blissful all pervading stillness. Last night, I experienced the same results (emptiness and bliss), integrating the awakreness of all chakras into the natural state (Mahamudra). Yes, that seems to be it! In my case there is a feeling of something something going down first (coming (coming completely into reality), I don’t experience the going up as strong as it is often described, I just feel the results in the head and crown and above and then the “warm rain” coming down again from somewhere in cosmos/sky above. If you have already made the strong version of the experience, the art is now to prolong it. I don’t recommend the visualisations, because if people visualise a flame in their stomach all that happens is that the body releases acid into their stomach and creates a hot burning feeling there and that is the opposite opposite of what should should happen. But if one knows knows what is meant, meant, it sometimes sometimes works. works. Better Better iseems to me to simply prolong the exercise and use the new energy to create even more with it (like a nuclear plant :-)).
2.6
Touble ouble Shooti Shooting ng 2: Traditi raditiona onall Don’ts Don’ts
I post them here just to complete the topic. In my case most of this advices advices didn’t make a difference, difference, don’t think about them if you have no problems. Most of the people don’t. I just post them, maybe for somebody there is a hint. hint. Texts mention following following Don’ts for tummo-practice: tummo-practice: 1. Mind direct direct sun and heat, especially especially on the head, especially especially when you have have no hair 2. Don’t eat before before practice practice 3. Protein Protein rich diet, less carbohydrate carbohydrate (I read that the faces of Europeans looked looked pretty stupid, when the first “vegetarian” tibetan lamas came to Europe and conquered a chicken grill at the roadside) 4. Mind lifting heavy heavy and carrying carrying heavy weights weights 5. Mind wearing wearing hot clothes clothes 6. Mind sexual activity activity or too much much sexual sexual activity activity (I would would say hyper excessiv excessivee sexuality sexuality that you are suddenly capable of) Question 10: 10: Does anyone have suggestions of what to do with the lack of need for sleep that seems to come with these kind of practices? I would read, but I read and write intensively for work, and my eyes can’t take much more. I meditate sometimes, just to kill time. I guess I could get back into drawing/art or something else beautiful but not too brain-intensive (and quiet, given I tend to be awake for several hours in the middle of the night). My need for sleep generally drops to about 5 hours from 8 when I do this kind of practice, and often in short segments, a few hours at a time, then wakeful again. Practice Practice only in the morning morning after waking waking up. Yes it is common :-) In my case after a week or two the sleep gets much much better than it was before. before. If I practice practice in the morning I sleep perfect perfect but still shorter than before. before. It is also a usual result result of other meditations meditations to change change the sleep pattern. pattern. it just happens faster here.
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If you sleep less than 5 hours a day I would slow down the practice a bit, because it could be a sign that that you you become become a bit hypoman hypomanic ic and the change change for your system system is too fast. Keep Keep practi practicin cingg a bit shorter or even every 2nd day. Just slow down a bit. Even Even more important: important: Work with your your legs to get grounding again (running/cros (running/crosstrai strainer ner is good) in the time that you have have won. Get Grounding Grounding is the topic then. (A bit too much much energy up because the lightning rod into earth/reality has not grown with the system yet. All kind of exercises that make the legs shake, shiver and vibrate for a longer period of time and give them endurance, will help).
2.7
Sight Sightsee seeing ing on the the way: way: Mahak Mahakala ala and and the eye eye of wisdom wisdom
After a bit of time of practice it could happen that suffering completely disappears nearly as a matter of course. course. A feeling as if you are protected like like if a higher beeing or god wrapped a warm and cosy invisible invisible black black coat around you. Somebody watchi watching ng and guarding you. you. A feeling that nothing nothing can happen to you. you. Accompanie Accompanied d by a sense of determinatio determination, n, firmness, joy to act and shape the world. world. Some say it feels like one is invincibl invincible. e. Others Others say you know that you have now become the man that you always always wanted wanted to be, when you where where a little boy. boy. You know you can lead and others will follow. follow. A feeling of standing standing on your your feet. I myself myself have a quite adventur adventurous ous feeling and a perception perception of a transparen transparentt black black light or a gravity in everything I see. It is then fun to take all the beautiful characteristics that the mind shows and realise their formerly “negative” form of appearance in them and learn how they were transformed into what they are now by remembering. Question 11: 11: Was wondering, wondering, since it seems seems tummo makes you feel like a bit of a superman: superman: does does it (negatively) affect your ability to care for the feelings of others, admit mistakes, feel compassion, that sort of thing? Yes, it can. I haven’t seen it, because people normally enjoy other people so much that there is simply a lot of feelings for each other. but it can happen that someone only grows strong and misses the insight insight of his emptyness emptyness especially especially at the beginning. (thats when tibetans say, say, he develops develops into a demon :-)) missing the third eye of wisdom and the knowledge of emptyness) I would rather say he becomes Captain Jack Jack Sparrow. Sparrow. I wanted wanted to post about the aspect of emptyness emptyness anyway anyway,, so I will do it now. Thank you you for reminding me.
2.8 2.8
Wher Wh ere e come comess the the fun fun from from? ?
I saw some time ago that for some people who have no experiences with it, it can be difficult to understa derstand nd what is happening happening here. here. So I like like to write write a bit about it in a way that makes makes sense sense for the practicing at this stage and also the more theoretical interested. If it doesn’t make sense at all, I would recommend to do what you want, but do something :-)) If we take for example example the feeling feeling of invincibi invincibility lity.. Realise Realise that you feel invincible invincible now, because you are not there anymore. you probably haven’t noticed your disappearance, because you enjoyed the world and your mind was was completely completely in it. Well thats the thing here. nothing nothing can touch you because there there is nothing but life. you see through through yourself. yourself. but seeing through through something something means see nothing. nothing. there is no someth something ing.. just just what what is behind behind it, just what is there. there. namely namely the world. world. that that is the way way things happen in this practice, you are disappearing disappearing before you realise realise it. but thats possible because “you” “you” ’ve ’ve never never been there there at all. all. we are creatin creatingg so much much energy energy,, joy joy and lust for the world world that you you kind kind of jump into the world before you can realize realize it. leaving leaving “you” “you” behind. means leaving leaving nothing behind. behind. thats why you haven’t noticed it. you didn’t miss anything in this world of lust, bliss and joy, did you? because you realize that there never has been anything (but sometimes people don’t realize that this is why they are so happy now. they don’t realize because there isn’t anybody there anymore to realise it.)
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you are acting but it is not that “you” did it - it happens out of the moment and it has already happene happened d before before “you” “you” cam camee into into the gam game. e. forget forget what you heard heard about about the dying dying of the ego or killin killingg the ego and all the ******** ********.. there there is nothin nothingg to die. these these are metaphors metaphors that want want to bring some radicalit radicality y into the game to make something something clear. but of course course they are not so useful, useful, becaus b ecausee no human being wants to leave somebody dying alone behind or kill somebody (especially not if it is yourself :-). one would want to safe him and it will strengthen this way the illusion that there is somebody. No Now w try to do the follo followin wing, g, say to yours yourself elf:: “Aa “Aah, h, I am already already that far, I did a great great practice practice,, I am faster faster than the others, others, I am better. better. I will hide that I know know that I am better better and they they will not see it. so they they can not give give me problem problemss or attack attack me. but I know. know. I made mysel myselff invinc invincibl ible. e. I can do that. that. I always always knew it would would turn turn out l like like this. I was alread already y better as a child. child. I knew it before. before. I am different. I am a very talented person. I am something special.” While doing this, you will feel that it is someho somehow w painfu painful, l, it puts a kind kind of burden burden on you. you you now now have have to carry carry somethin something. g. it changes changes your your naturally naturally appearing feeling of invincibi invincibility lity into something something personal, personal, something something you did. you put something something in betw b etween een you and the world world that you can’t get rid off easily easily. there is something something you have to walk around now, now, to get contact contact to other people. people. notice that this is suffering. a human needs direct contact to others, he needs to be touched by people and by the world directly. this great looking “I” is a kind of fat heavy chicken, an old chewing gum, a cake of pure sugar, a plug for everything flowing, a terrible weight to carry. that’s why it has to do so much advertising. So simply go back to the joy of the world. The ego is not a thing, it is a doing. so if you stop, it disappears. Your invincibility was true and honest (what they call divine pride) before we made the experiment and let the ego abuse it, reshape it and put it as plug into the sink. from now on the water would rise and suffering in all forms appear. pull the plug, and you will not need the plumber. or a new house. Notice Notice also that you can easily switch on the level of energy energy you have have achieved. achieved. by simply forgetting forgetting what you read and look back back into the world. world. forget forget it and see around you, feel the pleasure of your body again. again. come back into into reality, reality, which is always there there for you. will always always be there for you. waiting waiting for you to come home and reunite. All the things Loco is writing are as wrong as they are right. They mean nothing compared to your experience.
2.9
Trouble roubleshoot shooting ing 3: Equalisi Equalising ng
If you get into all kinds of strange states and can not hold the breath long, there is often an easy solution called called “Equalising”. “Equalising”. It means that both sides of the lung should be filled with the absolute absolute same amount of air. After you breath in and hold, check if both sides of the lung really feel the same. humans have a quite precise feeling for this. Fill the side of the lung that has less volume by closing the opposite nostril (with a finger) and bend the thorax thorax a bit to the opposite opposite side while while inhali inhaling ng into the less filled side of the lung. lung. Check Check again. again. After a short time you maybe learn to control with your mind which side of the lung you want to activate when you inhale. inhale. you can also close the opposite nostril just 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 and regulate regulate the in-flow in-flow in this way (I do this). If the lungs are filled with the same amount of air, hold the breath and continue with the exercise. Once sensitised for this you will see that unpleasant states in daily life are also correlating with asymmetric filled lungs. After progress in tummo you will feel that your body always fills both sides of the lung absolutely symmetrical without your assistance. Within short time your maximum lung expansion will increase (which is healthy for nearly everything).
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(The traditional way to solve the problem is to inhale first 75%, check and wait a bit, then inhale the rest of the 25% with short breaths. Sometimes works, sometimes not. The ancient explanation says the “energy” enters the “psychic nerves” or channels instead of flowing into the system causing troubles, if the lungs are symmetrically filled.)
2.10
Troubleshootin roubleshooting g 4: Half-hear Half-hearted ted practis practise, e, headac headaches, hes, hot hot head head
You maybe remember remember that the processes processes of dying, sex and tummo are related. related. In the process process of dying there is a time when the wrathful deities appear. This is in Tummo when the pain/shaking appears and heat burns through through the channels. channels. (That’s (That’s why Tummo-ma Tummo-masters sters sometimes sometimes don’t take other practices practices so serious, because it shows that masters of other traditions can not stand even the wrathful deities when the mind is still connected to the body. this in their tibetan concept of course means, that when you die you will be taken away by them easily (no body no safetynet) the amount of energy with that one will be confronted after death is simply underestimated they say. good motivation he? ;-)). But we still have a body :-)), if “wrathful deities” appear and we give up (stop too early) and let us take away with them there can only appear some unpleasant sideeffects/states. Here is what to do then. The first inbreath after the exercise is often not deep and complete then. people have a tendency to take fresh fresh air in short breaths as soon as the exhalation exhalation is completed. completed. This is known as “The rebounding rebounding of the air”. “The process here indicated indicated consists consists of expelling expelling the air of the exhalation exhalation forcibly forcibly,, so that the lungs are completely emptied to the very bottom, and then refilling the lungs completely to the very bottom by slowly drawing in the inspiration.” If you got somehow a kind of headache put your palms on the head, above the ears, on the temporal bones on the left and right side and press both together to the middle nearly as strong as you can (!), do the same with front/bac front/back/sid k/sides. es. experiment. experiment. find the spot where the pain stops and keep keep the pressure pressure then. often its gone afterwards. helps against most (bloodpressure/vesselcontractioninduced) headaches of everyday life too. If you got a staying “red or hot head”, sometimes combined with a feverlike weakness and maybe angry/grum angry/grumpy py mood, take an icecold icecold shower. shower. let the water run over the skull and the back along the spine downw downwards, ards, until its better. This is not a sign of success like you can often read in internet internet forums. forums. It means that you transformed energy only into bodily heat instead of transcendental heat, have not gotten the ability to regulate it. Once the connection between head and butt is established and “burned through” or clean all this can not happen anymore. anymore. “The head stays then where the butt is” tibetans say, meaning you stay in the moment effortlessly. the head (intellect) is connected to the pelvis (instincts/feelings) and they are not wanting different things at the same time anymore. anymore. they now know about each/are each/are the same because they are closely and seamlessly connected (I think in a probably neurological way, feels very physical).
2.11
Troubleshootin roubleshooting: g: Unfree Unfree Breath Breath [from [from Sneez Sneezes es and Breezes Breezes post]
There is also an exercise where you sit down in meditation posture, one crosses his left and right index finfinger with extended arms over the head and moves the arms quickly (like chopping) down and to the respective side of the body (left to left/right to right) while shouting out HA! (very strong and with a deep voice) voice) and breathin breathing g out throug through h the nose nose at the same time. time. (LOL, (LOL, but works works... ...)) for those those inter interest ested: ed: helps helps also also in tummo tummo if the breath breath feels feels unfree unfree someho somehow w or when when you you get stuck stuck in a black black objectless space that is not emptiness (”not-hot-not-cold-hell”) and is somehow related to deep sleep and you can not really move. it catapults you out immediately into a very serious but clean mood.
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2.12 2.12
Books Books:: Near Nearly ly all all the the det detai ails ls
Luckily I found the the best version of “Tibetan Yogas and the secret doctrines” on the net. It includes nearly all details. Together with the videos and the thread you have much more information than most lamas ;-) and it should be useable (and I don’t need to type it all). Here is the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/35504018/Tibetan-Yoga-and-Secret-Doctrines Question 12 1/7: 1/7: about about the lower abdome abdomen n you say “6. Train rain it a while to find out how it opens opens the heart after releasing it. Notice also the joy.” - Is the heart component important? All energy systems have two two components: components: producing producing energy and distributing distributing it to the right place. the contraction at the root is producing energy while the diaphragm distributes it upward. both factors are important to avoid unnecessary problems, but if you are tough enough you could also simply flood the system with energy and wait, like some other spiritual systems do. the heart component brings in a very personal, loving, light, open, fresh quality and balances the predator/animal like power that appears. Question 12/7: 12/7: The breath is hold inside the thorax/rib cage with the diaphragm pressing it up and the chin look holding it down, right? Is there any pressure towards the navel? Yes, a little inward inward upward upward under the navel navel resulting from the diaphragm diaphragm “flying high”. rather rather effortless like when a young boy sees a beautiful women and naturally draws himself to his full height. And: If you find the place to lock in the diaphragm diaphragm it rests there naturally naturally and it doesn’t feel so much like pressing it up. Question 12 3/7: 3/7: When you say hold the breath for about one and a half minute, is that after you have inhaled? Yes Question 12 4/7: 4/7: Do you inhale slowly or rapidly? Normal-slowly Question 12 5/7: 5/7: The shakings/ wave number 1,2,3, are they all occurring within one holding of breath? Yes. They will get softer after some progress, but first one has to survive them :-) Question 12 6/7: 6/7: Was there anything permanent left after you stopped doing the practice or was all the progress, all effects lost? Concerning the bodily effects, I would say its lost Yes. f.e. I still wear only t-shirts in winter in NY but it gets sometimes cold, wounds do not heal within a day anymore and and after love I am sleepy, etc, etc. The mental aspect of the experience has burned itself into my brain and I will never be able to forget it. Some days my body is seeking the old energylevel does the exercise by itself The mental aspect of the experience has still an impact on my life, probably because I know I can go every time I want into a state that knows neither harm nor fear and get from the world what I want ;-). (became wealthy from the readiness to play the game of life to the fullest, a sometimes seen result of that development. when object, subject and action are one, you know what to do and do it in the right moment, you don’t ask anymore) on that background phenomenons like fear, pain and suffering do not appear dangerous or unpleasant to me but are a deepening part of life and make the whole thing round. I like them somehow, especially when they get strong. Question 12 7/7: 7/7: Has this helped you with your other practices? I still have an rather easy access to mahamudra and it actualises quickly when I meet somebody who has it or somebody I love. love. the joy of beeing together then is not describable. describable. I have access access to one
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or two states that would probably probably be called called jhanas here but I haven’t haven’t seen them described. described. I probably don’t take practices that don’t know mahamudra so seriously anymore, but I am still experimenting and still open. And curious. curious. The problem problem with mahamudra mahamudra seems to be (in my case) that once you’ve you’ve experienced it, you don’t need to manifest it or anything anymore, because you now know that it is there and always will be there no matter what you think you have attained or not attained. there is no better and no worse and we were all safe and secure from the beginning.
2.13
Backgrou Background nd expansion expansion and contrac contraction tion
Energies: If one describes phenomena as energy movements one normally refers to sensations like streaming, flowing, tingling, tingling, pulsing, pulsing, warmth, warmth, musclecon musclecontracti tractions ons etc. These phenomena phenomena can be described described in a 3rd person person or scient scientific ific perspecti perspective ve also. also. it is useful useful to do this in cases cases where we want want to find what what precisely is happening and not so much how it feels for the person who experiences the phenomenon. The body can be seen as a skin-balloon filled with liquids namely blood and lymph (around 70% of you is pure water). If we look closer, closer, we see that on a cellular/m cellular/micros icroscopic copic level level the cells are bathing bathing in these liquids like in an ocean and that blood/lymph vessels on this level are pipes/tubes with an open end, so that all the stuff is more or less swimming swimming and floating in the soup. what floats where, where, is regulated by muscles around the vessels that can contract or relax, making the tubes narrow or wide. if we have a picture of ourselves in mind as an walking ocean we are not wrong. If we look now what these liquids liquids in different different states of mind do, we can see the following: following: in states that are positive and beneficial, the pipes are opened and blood flows from core to the surface, the skin. we experience this as expansion, and the receptors in the skin feel warmth because the blood from the core of the body is warmer warmer than the one from the surface. surface. perhaps you you have realised realised that in the heat of pleasure your your partner has red cheeks, cheeks, thick lips, huge pupils, warm warm skin etc. this is becau b ecause se blood is sent to the surface to increase the ability to feel there, vessels are relaxing what feels like inner pressure falls off. women women simulate simulate the state by putting color on their cheeks and lips and darken their eyes to look inviting inviting and use all kinds of lotion to get soft skin. if the environment environment is warm the same thing is happening, because the body doesn’t need to take care of getting cooled out and sends the blood to the surface to rather cool itself down. On the other hand if it is cold, blood flows from the surface to the center (better isolated rooms) to keep keep the temperature, one gets pale and blue thin lips, it feels like like a contracti contraction. on. the same happens in states of fear, hostile environment or danger because when you are wounded in a fight the loss of blood through wounds in the limbs can be dangerous. the blood is kept to the middle, one gets cold hands and legs, feels tension tension and starts to shiver like like it would would be cold. the inner organs necessary necessary for survival survival are served first. if we speak of a cold person we mean somebody who is not contributing to our pleasure. So these are the two important important directions directions liquids can flow in the b ody: to the surface or to the center. center. one is expansion, the other is contraction. Tummo now brings the body in a state of constant expansion. which feels good of course and warm. if you go out into a very very cold environmen environment, t, your body will react with contracting contracting to keep warm. warm. even even the muscles of your skinhair will contract (what we call goose bumps.) Through your practice you experienced resistance and friction, the plugged and unclean channels one can clearly feel (which are the psychoactive micromuscletubes around the blood vessels, here described as nadis or energy channels). you got rid of their subtile tensions through tummo practice, kind of burned them away and opened the whole system. If you go into the cold they will reappear, because contraction and tension in these subtle structures reappear (a body reflex).
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It’s a way way to test the abilit ability y to bring the body back back into into a state state of expans expansion ion and pleasure pleasure.. By doing this, one is showing that one is able to do the same, one learned to do with contractions that were caused caused by states of fear and psychic psychic tension. Burn them away away and lead the organism back back into a state of expansion expansion and pleasure. pleasure. (The cooled out blood from the surface surface will circle back back and give give your body (Thalamus) the information to keep the heating system on) It shows for the Tibetans one has mastered fear and contraction. And the ego altogether of course is seen as a (subtle but deep form of) contraction.
2.14 2.14
Locatin Locating g Yoursel ourself f
It mig might ht be helpfu helpfull to locate oneself oneself from time to time time on the map. map. If you you [chec [check] k] Tibetan Tibetan Yoga and Secret Secret Doctrines ... Look around page page 198. There are are some stages of progress progress described. described. You can see there also how you will experience the elements transform into each other. There is also another possibility transmitted from mouth to ear for the earlier stages: Breath in. Point with the right finger at the place in front of your nose from where you feel you took the breath in. Measure Measure with the other hand how many fingers fingers away away this place is from the tip of the nose.
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16 fingers: the element of space is taken up
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12 fingers: the element of air is taken up
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8 fingers: the element of heat is taken up
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4 fingers: the element of liquidity is taken up
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At the nostrils: The solid element is taken up
I recommend to take the breath from 16 fingers, but it will happen naturally anyway with progress (it’s is always difficult to manipulate the breath without getting counter reactions). Question 13: 13: Ive had a interest in tummo for a while and I’m enjoying practicing the preliminaries. I wonder if its best to keep the breath retention to 1.30min when practicing actual tummo. I imagine the breath bre ath retention may naturally naturally become become longer. Any comment much appreciated. appreciated. Usually Usually it is said that the more energy the body can store, the longer longer one can hold the breath. breath. the times given are 30sec for a normal person, 60 secs for a healthy person (athlete) and from 90 secs up for a yogi (this is when effects are likely to start in a way that they change the real biochemistry). My experience is that both is true the breath retention may become longer naturally, but it is also necessary to put some effort in it to get a kind of quantum leap. there is an analogy I read of somebody who hits 2 firestones against each other only one time. one can do this ones whole life without getting fire. for me it was always easier to get the suffering intense and short, kind of dive through, than having it long and moderat moderate. e. but there there are schools schools who do tummo tummo softer, softer, it feels feels a bit more gentle gentle than and the result is more like what Kenneth induces with his MM-techniques, it has a more mental and bright qualitiy than this radical physical transforming. I don’t know if you can melt snow with the soft approach (I didn’t try it), but it might not be the most important aspect in times of snowblowers.
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Question 14: 14: Do you need to be able to hold the breath for two minutes for any effects to occur? If I aim for doing one hour sessions with one minute retentions, will this amount to nothing? Around 2 minutes something different usually happens, one can get results at 70-90 secs and stay there a bit to acclimatise first and harvest all the fruits. 1 minute is a bit short honestly.
2.15 2.15
Alte Altern rnat ativ ive e to Tsa Tsa Lung Lung
[I’ve heard from several sources that it is a very good safeguard to already have cleaned the channels somewhat before getting involved in forceful techniques with chakras, vase-breath etc.] What is normally meant by cleaning the energy system is to remove tensions. There is no tension in the body, that is not muscular (including deep muscular fibers around guts (peristaltic), organs, vessels). there is no muscle muscle that contracts contracts without without a nerval nerval impulse to contract. contract. there is no nerval nerval impulse that doesn’t originally originally come from the brain and the psyche. psyche. thats the way it works. and thats why awarene awareness ss is the golden key to everything. I don’t recommend to loose too much time with preliminaries or other kinds of watering-can-principleexercises exercises (i will post why later). later). A tibetologist tibetologist told me that 90% of the monks in tibetan monasterie monasteriess don’t finish their ngondro (in their whole live). If you don’t like the Tsa Lung, Lung, try the followin followingg exerci exercise. se. It is strong strong,, I have have seen it in differen differentt cultures, from monasteries to therapeutic practices: Make a tight roll out of a blanket with a diameter of minimum of the length of your hand or bigger (with (with a second second blanke blanket). t). bind bind it togeth together er so that your body can roll on it. Put it on the ground ground.. La Lay y down down above it, so that it is below your your pelvis. your your legs are ”standing” ”standing” having having a 90 degree angle, angle, feet are on the ground. If you let your feet walk now the blanket roll can slowly role under your body to the direction of the head, doesn’t it? Ok. 1. Put your arms behind your head, let your head fall back as if in surrender. See the position in the picture.
Figure 4: position with blanket roll for the alternative to Tsa Lung
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2. Open your mouth and start breathing breathing through it. Full capacity capacity, easy, easy, powerful powerful,, sensual, sensual, gentle taking care of you, we are in tantric practice. Feel. 2a. Make sure your mother in law is not in the room next to you. 3. Make a sound Aaaah like a sigh with every beginning outbreath. (use ”kaaah” if you like it tibetan :-), aaah is more natural). natural). Prolong Prolong it over the the full length. length. Normally Normally you will feel an inhibition inhibition to makee that sound and let yourself mak yourself go (thats how you keep keep up the tension) tension) Let your your inhibition inhibition go. Let yourself go. Keep breathing fully during the exercise. 3. Start with the role under your gluteus maximus (buttock) massaging the muscle and let it move up slowly slowly,, vertebra vertebra after vertebra. vertebra. Feel. Find the places with tension along the spine, spine, stay there a bit and breath into the tension until you can let go of it, simply feel the tension, move up and down a bit with the role, massaging it. Remember to breath and make the sound, relax into it. It’s not about control or doing it right. Do what feels good. 4. You can address tensions tensions in the throat by letting the head fall back and pulling pulling the chin in the opposite direction direction of the chest, chest, so that the muscles muscles that go from chin to chest are stretche stretched. d. (Your (Your voice will sound deeper and relaxed) 5. After finishing, stay on the ground a bit, relax. then turn to the side first and get up from there. Because your muscles are relaxed first, they can not support you in the first moments afterwards. A bit of a soar might appear later. With this exercise you can work all the nerval plexi through and clean up all the places along the spine from the pelvis to the head (what is called chakras in sanskrit). It helps to relax the deep muscles along the spine without wearing the more superficial ones out (like some yogic systems do) and makes the liquor move. move. It is triggering triggering the physiolog physiological ical components components of enlighten enlightenment ment.. The head falls back back to straighten the pharynx and to use the full lung capacity (like done in first aid). You can influence a bit the effects by the diameter of the role. If feelings come up, keep breathing. Everything is ok. With tensions removed, try tummo again afterwards or after a few days of doing this practice (some people feel so well or enlighten enlightened, ed, that they don’t like to do any other exercises exercises afterwards. afterwards. That’s ok too. Try it later) Question 15: 15: This morning morning I did 25 minutes minutes of Tummo starting starting from 80 sec second retention retentionss and workin workingg my way up to 100 second seconds. s. I did the last last round ound for 120 sec seconds onds without without much straini straining ng and something something new took took place during the last ten seco seconds. nds. My whole body body started to dissolve dissolve and the ground ground beneath me felt soft. I am sure that I was not losing my consciousness at that point yet. Some side effect perhaps? Antero It seems to me that you could be at a crossing. crossing. If you like change change to the following following exercise exercise (at this level no tsa lung or anything else is necessary): 1. Do the tummo like you used to, but visualise with the in breath a white light in the lowest chakra. Experience Experience 2 qualities of the light: light: bliss and void. 10 long breaths (as you are used to), like charging charging the energy energy up in that chakra. Resting Resting always always a bit in the void and expand after one retention. retention. The feeling feeling of expansion balances a bit the contractions and leads the mind to what is called the white light (which also normal people can experience when they die) 2. Then take the next higher higher chakra until until you end at the crown. crown. Always Always 10 breath retentio retentions ns long for one chakra. Take specially care for the throat and the one 4 fingers below the navel.
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3. If you are up at the crown crown you can go down again again chakr chakraa per chakra, chakra, having having the feelin feelingg of an overflowing waterfall, cascade or melting fluid dropping down in the next light, flowing down from chakra to chakra. This is to change a bit the quality from cleaning/catharsis to overflow and enlightenment and create surplus. surplus. If you go simply simply in the direction direction of prolonging prolonging the breath retention retention you come more into the “magical” fields hinted to in the former posts. This exercise is pretty close to the snow melting thing you asked for. Question 16, 16, (regarding the last 3rd point): At what point is this visualization of a waterfall done? Does the basic visualization technique described in No. 1 change when coming down? Yes, in the sense that all chakras are already fully filled when you arrive at the top. you see then the whole system shining and stable. then you visualise the highest chakra melting and let light drop down along a very thin fiber (like a spiders) into the next lowest (to create a feeling for slow downward flowing energy). energy). now this one overflo overflows ws (waterfall) (waterfall) over over into the next lowest. lowest. don’t forget forget to fill the feet at the beginning and the end if you are sitting. The name [of the technique] is Nam-mkhai-ba which ’means cow of heavens’ and points to the hindu technique ’ gradually milking the nektar amrita from the cow of the heavens’. It is used to create what is called secret psychic heat (other than f.e. transcendental heat)
2.16 2.16
Enter En tering ing the next next lev level el
You probably made it faster than in the traditional traditional mentioned mentioned 6 weeks. Nobody knows why, why, but westerners erners are extremely extremely talented talented for this practice. some say because because desire is the main ingredien ingredientt of our mind, thats why we were born here. Others Others say that our mind is so trained in processing informations informations and concentra concentration tion (education systems) that it does everythi everything ng faster, faster, even even dying. The mind’s two deepest forces are sexuality and aggression. You can label it as the drive of replication and survival (biological), eros and thanatos (psychological) or clinging and rejection (Buddhists). It alway alwayss com comes es down to this this two. two. They They are also correla correlatin tingg to the both channe channels ls left and right right to the central central channel. channel. Notice Notice that one (sexualit (sexuality/ero y/eros/cli s/clinging) nging) has the tendency tendency to put things together into one, unite, while the other has a tendency to break something something apart, into pieces. pieces. So they are the elemen elementar tary y forces forces in nature nature also. also. Of course course the world world is held held togeth together er by love love but there there would would be no dynamic or movements possible if there was not aggression. Anyway we kind of utilised these two forces by using/contracting the areas of the body associated with them. So nobody can tell you where on the other side of the river river you landed. tummo brought brought you here. where you landed depends on how you were composed of this two forces. If you had more sexuality/clinging and uniting forces in you, your experience will be dominated by bliss, pleasure, joy, touchiness, togetherness, we, and if you had more aggression/selfpreservation it will be dominated by calmness, emptiness, clearness, void, silence, centeredness. But the state you are in somehow combines this two ingredients in a very mystical way that can not be well describes, only experienced. So one of the next things that will happen is that suddenly you might have a kind of development you didn’t expect. It can happen that you are entering entering fields of experience, experience, which which show themselves themselves to you. you. These are the roams of being or 6 lokas. lokas. Sometimes Sometimes before it starts starts the following following happens: You have the feeling feeling you don’t have have to breath anymore, anymore, you feel comfortable comfortable without breathing. breathing. If that happens have have an eye on the watch. stick around in the 2 minutes area. 1. (sexuality/clinging-types) You have probably heard of practices in the SM-scene where people used breath breath restriction restriction to increase increase their ecstasy and and end up choked. choked. Also you might have have heard of the 21
macabre macabre sounding cases cases that people who die or were were hung get an erection erection in the moment moment of death. death. All this is pointing pointing to one phenomenon. phenomenon. After all the fireworks fireworks and the final calmness calmness you have have experienced, experienced, there will come another last ecstasy. It can feel like the last overwh overwhelming elming huge huge army of warm warm expanding autumn light is marching. marching. the mother mother of all sunsets sunsets.. Enjoy Enjoy,, but don’t get drunk, drunk, if you have have experien experience ce with it do emptiness emptiness :-), disidentify. What comes is much better, clean and pure. It will show itself, don’t try to trigger it. Enjoy the friendly warmth but don’t cling to it, like someone who lives in a hotel enjoys everything, but doesn’t think it’s his. Don’t fall completel completely y into it, because you can get unconscio unconscious. us. Balance Balance it. Not in, not out. 2. Some people have a more unspectacular version and open the gates to death directly and radical (the aggression-types). Question 17: 17: Ha! That sounds interesting [point 2]. And what’s up with the body dissolving – floor melting thingy Antero mentioned up thread? Yeah, lets talk about Antero in the 3rd person :-)). (In the brackets how much I bet on it, remember they are not official text citations, just descriptions of me). It’s very interesting to me because he has a lot of experience with other techniques and I am curious if he finds something similar in tummo. could be that its simply a new technique and everybody has to start from the beginning, could be that he is jumping. The thing with him is that he is describing in his journal a state well known in psychology (first described by Wilhelm Reich) which has the funny side effects of something named orgasm-reflex, means if the organism is free of any tension a wave of sensation from time to time wanders up from the pelvis to the head. psychic psychic tension is freely floating through through the organism and unloads in microbursts microbursts or microshiverings in mimics or muscles. one can see that when one watches a baby sleeping in its face. I hesitate to interpret the experience cause the only objective information I have is the time of breath retention and I don’t want to influence the process, because there is nothing more disturbing when you enter a new level and it is interpreted in an older context. I would need to get into the practice and meet to tune in but I am just describing from my memories (I will maybe do tummo/snow melting around february with a dutch friend in Soho/NY, depends on private factors) So now, this is the entertainment section: it could be the transforming transforming of the solid element element into water. it would have have been preceded preceded then by very powerful feelings like a mixture between rockstar and the calmness of a predator, tiger etc. (mastery of the earth element) and being followed by a very gentle open perception of the world, easy, sensual, flowing, feeling like a child, sensitive, innocent, loving to touch solid things like the earth (kids playing in the sand), walls and recognizing how they protect and support you, how the world and the ground carry you walking walking through them full of wonders wonders in an uncomplica uncomplicated, ted, friendly and natural way. way. the liquid aspect of the world loves the solid because it gives hold and direction and lets it flow and snuggle into the flow. You will know from where the metaphor of jesus walking on water comes. (2 beers) it could be what is called called all-voidnes all-voidness, s, meaning internal internal and external external void at the same time. internal internal void could maybe be related to arhatship in mctb/small vehicle where one experiences completely that the ego is not existing. therefore reality gets very important and people get realistic and down to earth and turn to their senses and sense perceptions. they are literally coming to their senses. (its what freud described as the person becoming an object of nature and an subject of its own history) the result is liberation from suffering. the experience that the real environment is also empty is called external void, this is experienced not in an “as if” way but very factual und more difficult to achieve. the environment is included here into enlightenment and the experience of emptiness. the result is achieving the 6 liberating actions actions and freedom freedom from suffering. suffering. to manifest external external and internal void void both at the same time is a high attainment. (1 beer) it could also be his body is opening in direction of the 6 lokas. it disapears to get receptive to other 22
fields of being. this feels like if one is entering a different country, or in diving when one enters a different temperature zone, a welcoming feeling and the a kind of direct transference of knowledge without thinking that everything in the world is alive and intelligent (also things) and then a change of viewpoint. in my case the first that appear was the animal kingdom, then the worlds of gods, then one of the not cold/not cold/not hot hells. animal kingdom kingdom first is often (could be brain chemistry), chemistry), the rest I don’t know. know. (1 box of beer) It could be also the better known changes changes of body or the transferen transference ce of consciousne consciousness ss into somebody else. I don’t know anybody who has experience with this, works like this: if you let yourself fall into clear light totally and get unconscious kind of a sec before you wake up you can concentrate on somebody or a certain landscape to direct consciousness. you will only know that you’ve been disappeared/unconscious from reconstructi reconstructing ng time afterwards, afterwards, consciousnes consciousnesss is switched switched off. you will have somebody elses life experience then, don’t make me responsible for that one, I don’t believe in rebirth at all ( btw this is not normal phowa). and I don’t know how to get out :-) (1 banana) Question 18: 18: I’m now practicing about 25min of tummo and finding pleasant warmth noticable especially pecially around around the root root chakra chakra and througho throughout ut the body. body. I also find I feel feel energise energised d by the practice practice and it really really stills the mind so its good good do do befor beforee my regular regular meditatio meditation. n. I wonder wonder if its possible possible to reach reach the higher stages without doing visualisations. There are 2 bodily signs that indicate the 1st step in progress (= energies entering the central channel): 1. The amount amount of air that goes through the left and the right right nostrils is exactly exactly the same 2. The pressu pressure re of inbre inbreath ath and outbreath outbreath is the same. same. Normal Normal people people feel feel a kind kind of resistan resistance ce (higher pressure) when they breath in and a lower pressure when they breath out (I think so, I don’t remember it anymore ;-)). 3. 1stperson: 1stperson: Things Things have a kind of enjoyab enjoyable le cleanness. cleanness. There were all kinds of variations of the practice invented which has to do with tibetan monastery politics and political political power (the others others are always always making it wrong). if you got the signs 1 and 2 try it both with or without visualisation and report back what you think if you like. (normally if the energies enter the central channel they have no other way to go than up and afterwards wards down, down, thats thats kind of the cool thing thing in this practice practice.. this this is why some people call it a techni technique que with autopilot. it will show the way.)
2.17
Visualisatio Visualisation/Con n/Concen centrati tration on and entry entry points into into the central central chann channel el
For those who like to practice the soft-core-version of tummo I called a friend yesterday who told me about a newer book with good description around the peaceful version: Clear Light of Bliss , by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. It also has some (uncensored) infos about which entry point into the central channel leads to which results results on page 32. Some systems systems leave leave some points out to not include sexual sexual developmen development. t. The entry entry points can be visualised as very small vacuoles in the middle of the lights (but remember mahamudra is a objectless state, so visualisations can eventually lead away from it, if not done very subtle and in combination with void/emptiness. so what ever might speak for them, to simply concentrate on a point could be nearer to the goal. in the end it depends on how empty one can visualise something :-)) Also the descriptions of stages later in the book seem to be the first ok version on the market and explain correctly how the sequence turns around after the clear light, rare.
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2.18 2.18
The Th e Tub ube e
If the winds which carry the consciousness enter the central channel: where is your consciousness now? exactly exactly.. inside inside the central central channel. channel. that means you are experiencing experiencing to be inside a channel channel or a tube. look up now there is an opening above you. the feeling that you get is one of tremendous joy. something like winds winds or turbulence turbulencess are carrying carrying you up there if you let go of your your convictions convictions or move by will. you are moving toward a brightness or deep deep release and a miraculous feeling of overwhelming wonder. there is an exciting exciting acceleration accelerationss feelable. feelable. you will be catapulted catapulted out into pure space and understand what a wonder it all is. there is so much out there and it has been there for so long. you are like a clown levitating in the universe speechless, unwanting to move and overwhelmed by the uncountable stars all around around him, each of them a com comple plete te and new world. world. it is so much much more more playfu playfull and free than you allowed yourself to hope (we are leaving tummo and entering phowa territory here, I stop here) take a holiday if you come back at the heart area if it fits for you, to experience completely how precious it is to be born as a human. not because of what you are in everydayconsciousness but because of your immense potential to be everything. the human in humans is a treasurechest. the channel channel is the same that normal people experience experience when they die. it can happen early in practice practice that’s why I mention it here, some people get it already during tsa lung, when they feel a vibration or light tube around them. you will understand then that this is not some exotic meditation technique but the most intimate and personal experience of yourself. you will remember that you already know it and it happened happened to you you a thousa thousand nd times or better better you did it a thousa thousand nd times before. before. the wonder wonder of the incarnation of devine energy. it is so natural this coming and going and such a wonder at the same time.
2.19 2.19
Rebi Rebirt rth h
There is no such thing as being reborn without wanting it.
2.20 2.20
Hin Hints
If tuned into tummo-mode and you breath, breath breath in and out through your ears. (let go of the visual. it has the ability to focus/stop things. the ears can’t stop, they take what is there). There is mahamudra directly after sneezing. Those of you with a love love for extremespor extremesports: ts: there is One Taste the millisecond millisecond before b efore the extreme, when it glides into the extreme (or extreme situation)
2.21 2.21
Gentle Gentlemen men’s ’s Sectio Section n
There is a chakra at the top of the male organ which can be used as an entrypoint of the energies to create deep sleep and a prolonged clear clear light of sleep. some people put instinctivel instinctively y their hand there before they fall asleep.You might have experienced it after good sex. the sleep is deep and light at the same time. It is important important because it is used in the union-exercise union-exercisess with a companion. companion. If you are in union find the spot where the vagina/uterus is most sensitive. if you look down :-)) you can see that you are / this system (vagina/uterus) is pretty exactly 4 fingers below the navel of her. this is no coincidence. 4 fingers fingers below is the same chakra chakra that is used to create create heat in tummo. tummo. the man here is kind of connected connected into the circuit circuit of the woman. woman. there are indications indications in the texts that a man can enlighten enlighten a woman this way, even if I have to admit that my experience is normally the other way round :-) If you concentrate on this spot you might feel, that it is possible that the energies enter her central channel, means that the direction of your energies can turn around (if this happens the coordination
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between in/out-breath, in/out-movement of pelvis and head-movement might turn around also, because it is in westerners normally paradox. That’s why we feel sleepy instead of refreshed afterwards. You can also do it simply other than you would normally do it, to get it (more easy than to precisely describe it for me)) This is the same process we induce induce with the tummo exercise, exercise, when we are alone. energies energies are turning their direction because the usual doors are closed. the texts say that you become younger from there on :-) if you want to do tummo only for health reasons, you just have to do the exercise to the point it creates this turning of energies (usually after the first or second wave of shaking) and the thing is done for the day.
2.22
Troubleshootin roubleshooting: g: Emotions and Traumas raumas
I got the impression that there is still an interest in how to handle side effects or unwanted emotions, that’s why I uploaded some instructional videos to vimeo. They are about a technique that can be used easily easily by everybody everybody to get rid of unwante unwanted d emotions or to help others to do so. It’s well combinable combinable with a spiritual life, so it won’t interfere with your practice. Don’t be alienated by the 90s style of the video. It’s a must to know this technique. Here is the link where you can begin: http://vim http://vimeo.co eo.com/312 m/31293108 93108 Question 19: 19: What do you do if you get cloudy in the head, head, a bit spac spaced ed out and stupid? stupid? (This is how I feel, not perhaps other’s impressions)
PS. Did someth something ing similar similar when when i was sleepin sleepingg a couple ouple of weeks weeks ago. Was freezi freezing ng to death death,, got an ere erection ction and the ener energy gave gave me an orgas orgasm. m. Sudden Suddenly ly I felt somethin somethingg flex in my pelvis, elvis, withou without t me flexing the muscles in the perineum perineum/anus /anus at all. A ball ball of energy energy travelled travelled through through my body body which immediately became hot. Diagnosis: uprising energy but only a part in the central channel. Points to a problem for the organism letting energies flow down outside the channel over the front side. very common for beginners. Explanation: Explanation: If energy rises up inside the central central channel it creates cleanness, cleanness, and when coming coming down bliss (or what in the tibetan system is called 4 blisses). If it rises up outside the channel it creates feelings and normal emotions (associated in our culture with male qualities) qualities) like like f.e. activity activity,, aggression, aggression, taking control control of something. something. etc. (notice (notice how your back muscles get activated, when someone attacks and you make yourself big and start to walk like a gorilla, the body activates them to get ready to do or fight something, if you have a good self perception you can also feel the energy go from the back to the muscles in your shoulders and arms ready to hit somebody, you can feel it in the hands fingertips (associated with doing) when adrenalin rushes in. (Insertion: Forearms: If you have itching in the forearms after doing tummo - a very common problem - it could be a probably longer suppressed aggressions which ended in anesthesia/lameness of the muscles. muscles. making making a fist, when you get aggressiv aggressivee is a transcultural transcultural unconscious unconscious reflex that can be seen even in youngest children, it’s not really psychological. these muscles have the function to ”make fists or do something about it”, they are located in the forearms and not so much in the hands and have been numbed to not feel the chronic tensions and conflict and keep the rest of the system functioning. you feel that live is coming back into them through tummo. if strong it can drive you crazy because the conflict of ”want to do/but don’t allow yourself” becomes conscious again. it usually disappears with time. you can also use catharsis to get rid of it.) if the energy goes down outside the central channel it takes the front side of the body and creates love, love, surrender, surrender, giving up, giving in, letting letting go. you might might have experienced experienced when everything everything gets too much the body starts to cry (shaking of the chest, diaphragm and belly) to get rid of held back energy on the front side and create a flow down to the ground (grounding, getting in contact with reality again, 25
standing standing on your own own feet). same movemen movements ts when you start to laugh. feel the release of tension in it. realize also the bliss after crying or laughing long and fully. it’s related to state we are looking for. All this has to do with the times when we were standing on 4 feet and exposed the back to the environment and the sensitive belly to the ground to hide it from aggressors (easy to get to the organs there, predators like to attack there). when we got on 2 feet we had to expose our vulnerable front also and became human meaning to be vulnerable and sensitive without having to hide it. we still show love by letting our front sides and hearts touch when we embrace somebody. there is balance in the organism if the same amount of energy can flow up as can flow down, if the ability ability to charge charge up is the same as to discharge discharge.. Lets say 10 units rising up, 3 in the central channel, channel, means 7 left. if one can discharge only 4 units through the ability to let go/give in to the process, there are 3 units left to create create all kinds of psychosomatic psychosomatic symptoms. symptoms. they remain in muscles and vesselconvesselcontractions, discharge through nerves tingling, or produce other symptoms and whatever normally happens when feelings are not allowed to be expressed (discharged) or perceived.
2.23 2.23
Ther Th erap apy y
Try to get a session session with Kenneth to get a feeling for mahamudra mahamudra or practice his methods first. other than this, his way is rather free from sideffects. sideffects. it is very very useful to have have the neurons neurons connected connected in the right pattern before you make an energy highway out of the thin paths. if you want to do it the energetic way only because of the nice snow melting etc. and problems appear, use these methods to solve problems: All generally speaking not to somebody specific: 1. techni technical cal:: have have you pressed pressed the chin against against the chest chest during during tummo? tummo? there there is a system system that regulates the blood pressure at the sides of the throat. it is stimulated by this bandha and should help to reduce blood pressure and dizziness. 2. technical: don’t press against the pressure you feel, relax into it. a lighter dizziness is normal and will disappear after a week or shorter, but it shouldn’t be disorienting or painful. 3. reduce the amount of energy rising: just hold the breath without contractions and concentrate. the moment you feel a bit uncomfortable, let go. see if you can get a stable cleanness. once the energies enter the central channel you can increase the amount of energy you send up (prolong the time or contract a bit). be sensitive sensitive when you feel that something something goes up outside outside of the channel, channel, because your ability ability to discharge the energy via feelings and self-expression like constructive aggression (making things clear, give direction to things, stop abusive behavior, etc.) must have time to grow with the amount of energy. 4. increase increase the ability to discharge: discharge: don’t be afraid to b e weak, be open to discharging discharging feelings feelings like honesty honesty,, sadness, crying, crying, laughing etc. giving giving in to the process will provide a symptom free path. Let go of controlli controlling ng or patterns patterns “being always always stronger”. stronger”. power, power, activity and control are not everythi everything. ng. I know everybody is talking about how to rise kundalini, but its useless if one can not utilise it and develop wisdom. it’s just another drug then. 5. biological discharge: 5.a. if energy rises up too fast there is another possibility to discharge for the organism than to fight which is: flight, 45min on the running machine/crosstrainer and the thing is done. natural grounding of energy through the leg and stimulation of the feet through ground contact. natural 5.b catharsis: this one is funny! find another expression for the feeling than the symptom. try to discharge charge the muscles, exhaust exhaust them until until it is gone f.e. in the forearms forearms via wringing out a towel, towel, shouting, shouting, hitting a mattress with a racket, act crazy (when you are unobserved) there is a “crazy man yoga”
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5.c (congrat (congratula ulatio tion n for the erecti erection on btw). btw). the organism organism can often often uses uses anothe anotherr exit exit to disch discharg argee energy which is masturbation. the problem is, if done without emotional commitment, it might end up in discharging the central channel while leaving the rest as messed up as it is, then you are literally f***** f******-u *-up p and feel like your your arm when your your girlfr girlfrien iend d slept slept the whole whole night night on it. texts texts say say to not engage into sexuality when beginning tummo. try it out. and also the opposite. 6. treat it as a symptom: first massage this point circular (KI9 Zhubin) for 3 minutes with medium pressure to come down in a soft way. [The point is] 4 fingers+2thumbs up from the medial and 1 thumb behind the shinbone, it’s pretty antipsychotic and very pleasant. Then use this one: LI 11 to get clarity in your mind. 7. use the exercise in [section 2.14] to correct the flow of up- and down going energies. 8. use the EFT - method of [section 2.21] to get rid of uncovered neurotic or traumatic material. Question 20: 20: Will the practic practicee of Tummo by itself lead to enlightenment? enlightenment? Or is it best done as a supportive practice to other techniques: noting, self-enquiry, etc.? Tummo is part of what is called “the path of tools” which leads to enlightenment (whatever that means).. it is the basic exerci means) exercise se of the 6 yogas yogas of Naropa Naropa.. a lot of people people do only this all their their life. life. if you have mastered it, you can go to the other 5 yogas, if you are heading for enlightenment you would choose “illusory body” next, if you need to kill 1000 brahmans first, you would choose “phowa” ;-), etc, etc. for the “path of tools” it is important that enlightenment is the NATURAL state of mind, attained from a place which is called “Non-meditation” means “not poisoned by the efforts of meditation” (3rd Karmap Karmapa). a). So the “tools” “tools” let the needed needed qualiti qualities es arise spontan spontaneou eously sly (!) in the mind, mind, for example example:: calmness calmness without shamata practice, practice, cleanness cleanness without etc., etc. To use the tools for other meditation meditation will work, work, but is in a sense paradox. paradox. (by the way, way, Kenneth’s Kenneth’s practices practices include some of the important important mechanisms of these tools, self inquire seems to be a very, very combination with tummo for me, it is related to illusory body).
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3
Che Checklis klistt
1st week: week: Lying, start with the pelvic muscles pulsing easy, slightly, quickly, 1 set is 50-200 repetition, also during the day whenever possible, let the breath be as it is, relax 2st week: week: Time In the morning? Not eaten yet? (start 9 breaths of purification easy and gentle) start Tsa lung easy and gentle as seen in the video (I decided to take [practicing to hold your breath 90 seconds] out and added the 9 breaths of purification instea instead. d. it is gentle gentlerr now. it will help to eliminate eliminate sideeff sideeffect ectss this way. way. the truth truth is that that one can not completely completely objectify the time, cause some people have have f.e. smaller smaller lungs in relation to their weight. weight. it depends on age, female/male, training, altitude you life in (tibet is 6000m), genetics.) 3rd week: week: (9 breaths of purification) Tsa lung Train the breath, hold it longer during Tsa Lung Add Tummo: - Time In the morning? Not eaten yet? - Position standing Toes a bit to the outside? Knees slightly bent? Thumbna Thumbnail il pressed pressed indexfinger indexfingernail? nail? rest of the fingers extend? extend? thoracic spine straight? - Position sitting A bit weight on the bent wrists on the thighs, because of this thoracic spine straight? fists included the thumb but index finger extend? 1. Inhale : 75% Same amount of air in both lungs? sternum sternum a bit up/proud/forw up/proud/forward? ard? also means thoracic thoracic spine straight? straight? vertebra vertebraee like if you put coins over each other? Pulled Pulled lowerbell lowerbelly y in? diaphragm diaphragm a bit pulled pulled upwards? upwards? 1b Chin against the chest? Contraction pelvic muscles backwards? frontside? symmetrically contracted? stronger possible? 2. Hold not pressuring? pressuring? let it happen, relax but keep an eye on the posture and pelvic contractions contractions.. concentr concentrate ate on one of the spots
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3. Refill completely and correct lung volumina spotconcentration? (Clarification: hold the 75% and then fill up to 100%. Don’t exhale the 75%. Keep them in and add the missin missingg 25% 25%.. Some Some people people will find that that they they are able able to add anothe anotherr and another another step with some some % because their lungs got elastic. You can do that too if it feels natural to you. The sense is 1. to prolong the exercis exercisee and 2. not to start start with 100% because because it can create create a tenden tendency cy in some some people people to press press against the inner pressure of the full lungs which raises bloodpressure (like trumpetplayers) and is not needed nor useful.) 4 Exhale arrow breathing: exhaled stronger at the end (like in Tsa lung video)? through the nose? not collapsed the upper part of the body? elongated it completely emptied the lungs? 5. Inhale took a full (!) inbreath in the first inhaling after releasing? 4th week: week: Additional Additional exercises exercises (Tsa Lung, 9 breaths) breaths) if you like like them, also possible to do only Tummo. Tummo. Do the circle 1-5 above for one hour, lets say 70-90 seconds retention would be approximately 30 repetitions, pauses included There will quickly quickly come a time when your “central “central channel” channel” is free. Forget about the rules then. You can do Tummo while shopping with your girlfriend, serving 8 Caipirinhas, drinking 8 Caipirinhas, massaging an euphoric elephant, talking in front of islamistic parties, sitting, lying, standing, walking (I haven’t tried running, but should work). You will feel addicted to it. You have then finished the basic stage.
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