THE SNOW LION NEWSLETTER
Spinning the Magical Wheel by Alejandro Chaoul-Reich Photos by Michael Sexton
Introduction- Tibetan Yogas There is a growing interest
in Tibetan physical yogas in the West. Yoga Journal has published two articles on
Tibetan yoga in the last year alone; one on the types of Tibetan yogas that have come to the
United States, and another on a book, The Dalai Lama's Secret Temple, which describes
the paintings of the secret temple of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa, behind the famous Potala
Palace. Many of these paintings are poses of Tibetan physical yogas, or trul khor,
which translates as "magical wheel." |
The dromo [female yak] butting
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Until recently, Westerners were much more focused on receiving Tibetan
teachings that developed the mind, and most of the physical yogas that were taught in the
West came from the Hindu traditions. I believe that this bias stemmed from the belief of
Western practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism (including Bon) that the mind practices were more
important. Thus, if a lama came s/he was asked for mind-related teachings. |
Spinning the four centers [to overcome]
pride
| Many of
the Tibetan lamas supported this view and were either not trained in trul
khor or felt that it could lead to problems for the practitioners if not
well supervised. This resulted in a lack of information about trul khor,
combined with an air of secrecy and mysticism around it, as the Yoga
Journal article (May/June 2000) reflected in its title, "Into the Mystic."
Whatever the case may be, trul khor practices are now being
taught in the West, and in addition, different training courses are being
offered, and translations of the original texts will be available in the near
future.
The three doors: body, speech, and mind "All experience, waking and dreaming, has an
energetic basis. This vital energy is called lung in Tibetan, but is
better known in the West by its Sanskrit name prana. The underlying structure of any
experience is a precise combination of various conditions and causes. If we are
able to recognize its mental, physical, and energetic dynamics, then we can
reproduce those experiences or alter them. This allows us to generate
experiences that support spiritual practice and avoid those that are
detrimental."1
Our physical body, speech or energy, and mind
are said to be the three doors through which one can practice and eventually
realize enlightenment. The energetic body, represented by the prana or
vital breath, can be said to be the link between the mind and physical body.
Trul khor involves a coordination of physical movement that guides the
vital breath, which in turn carries the mind. The Sanskrit word for trul
khor is yantra yoga, which is also the name by which the trul
khor that comes from the famous eighth century scholar and translator,
Vairochana, and taught by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in the West, is known. Both
terms, trul khor and yantra, have the meanings of 'magical,'
'machine,' and 'movement'; while yoga (or neljor in Tibetan) can
mean 'union,' 'practice' or, in its deepest sense, 'primordial knowledge' or
'understanding,' According to Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, "nal means
'original' or 'authentic,' 'never changing or modified,' 'the original
condition' [and] jor means 'having' or 'discovering this knowledge' or
'understanding.' So the real meaning of yoga is that we discover our real
condition."2 In this way, the body is like a machine or a tool that is available
for the practitioner in order to understand one's true nature or real condition.
Trul khor practices overtly utilize body, speech and mind in an
interrelation that is similar to what is known in the West as mind-body
practice. The vital breath is the aspect of speech or energy and it is the basis
for trul khor, as the pranayama is crucial for the practice of the
different kinds of hatha yoga. In fact, the trul khor practices
assume, explicitly or implicitly (depending on the text), that the practitioner
is familiar with tsa lung practices. Tsa refers to 'subtle
channels' and lung to the vital breath or prana. In other words,
tsa lung is crucial in the training and harmonizing of the vital breath,
which is the basis of trul khor.
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche has based much of the
tsa lung practices he teaches on the ancient Bon text of the Mother
Tantra or ma gyu. The five essential tsa lung exercises come from
the chapter "The Sphere of Elements" (jung we tigle) of the Mother
Tantra, and familiarize the practitioner with the five kinds of breath. Through
simple body movements, the vital breath guides the mind into particular
locations, or chakras, opening and harmonizing those
locations to experiences that can support one's meditative practice. These
locations and experiences also correlate to the five elements and the qualities
related to them.
The Mother Tantra uses the metaphor of a wild
horse for the vital breath and a rider for the mind. The wild horse is blind so
it needs a guide, and the rider is lame so s/he needs help to be carried. They
need each other in order to flow together through the paths of the subtle
channels. The tsa lung practices help to
maintain the mind on the breath which guides it through the different channels
so that the practitioner can open and develop the qualities that are beneficial
and support his or her practice.
In the Vairochana system that Namkhai Norbu
Rinpoche teaches, there are eight movements that purify one's breath (lung
sang). These are considered to be very important preparatory movements for
yantra yoga.
Trul khor Having trained the vital breath and subtle channels, the trul khor movements indicate various postures that both alter the flow of the vital breath by manipulating the subtle channels and stabilize the mind together with the vital breath in the central channel. When this occurs, one's awareness of the natural state of mind is awakened.
There are many kinds of trul khorpractices in the different Tibetan traditions, and they are slowly being
divulged in the West. The yantra yoga that is taught in Namkhai Norbu
Rinpoche's Dzogchen Community is based on a text called the "Magical Wheel of
the Union of Sun and Moon" (trul khor nyida kha jor). The trul khor that
is taught in Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Ligmincha Institute comes from the
"Quintessential Instructions of the Oral Wisdom of the Magical Wheel from the
Great Perfection Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung" (dzogpa chenpo zhang zhung
nyen gyu le trul khor shel zhe men ngag), and its commentary by the famous
meditator and scholar Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-rainbow body 1934), who also
composed Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, among many other texts. Shardza
Rinpoche's commentary is called "Magical Wheel, Channels and Vital Breath of the
Oral Tradition of Zhang Zhung" (nyen gyu tsa lung trul khor) and is
included within his collection of the "Great Treasury of Vast Profound Sky"
(yang zab namkha dzod chen). The trul khor description that follows
will be mostly based on the latter. At the end, details on how to get more
information on both traditions will also be included.
Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu The trul khor of the Oral Transmission of
Zhang Zhung contains seven cycles, each containing five to six exercises. Each
cycle is ascribed to different teachers of the Zhang Zhung lineage. These
masters used the trul khor to stabilize their meditative practice and to
remove obstacles that disturbed the practitioner's abiding in the natural state
of mind. These movements are also said to strengthen one's physical health and
emotional stability. However, trul khor is primarily done to develop
one's meditation practice. This is palpable in the opening homage to Kuntu
Zangpo or Samantabhadra, "who clears the outer and inner obstacles."
The trul khor movements that guide the vital breath to root out poisons
and let one's primordial wisdom shine through were designed by six different
masters, each one designing one (and in one case two) of the seven cycles. These
are classified into preliminary (ngondro), root (tsawa), branch
(yenla), and special (chedrag ) cycles.
Before starting the exercises, one trains the
vital breath, plying the subtle channels- particularly to be able to hold
naturally and relaxed in the central channel with a breath that pervades the
whole body. In all the exercises, one is advised to hold the breath in that
natural manner and then exhale with some force at the end, reinforced by the
sounds of Ha and Phat.
This helps to remove all obstacles so that one and all sentient beings can be
induced to, and remain in, a pure meditative state; the state of
buddhahood.
The preliminary cycle starts by applying the
training of the breath through exercises that warm up and slightly massage each
part of the body. Through these exercises the vital breath is balanced and the
subtle channels are cleansed. The root cycles are the main cycles that are
practiced to maintain the natural state of mind, also sometimes called exercises
that enhance one's meditative practice (bog don). These crucial exercises
relate to the five elements, and are said to close the doorway that is the
channel to the five poisons and open the channel that is the doorway of
primordial wisdom. Thus, the obscurations to the natural state are cleared
(geg sel) together with the drowsiness and
agitation, which are the main obstacles to remaining in that meditative state.
In this way, the mind and vital breath enter the central channel and conceptual
formations are liberated. The text states that these exercises also help get rid
of different diseases, balance the elements, bring warmth into one's body and
even have the power of reversing one's aging process. Other yogic feats are also
mentioned.
The exercises of the branch cycles continue
the process of eliminating internal and external hindrances and maintaining the
unified vital breath in the central channel. The exercises of the special cycles
are externally like a deeper focus on each part of the body, internally cutting
off dis-ease, allowing clear awareness to arise naturally and immovable wisdom
to dawn.
It is said that practicing these trul
khor exercises strongly nourishes one's receptivity to moments of
non-conceptual awareness and spontaneous self-liberation, which can then be
taken into everyday life. In other words, one is to use them when the meditation
in the natural state of mind is unclear, unstable or weakened in some way. They
are sometimes prescribed as an aid for the Dzogchen practitioner to 'get back',
stabilize, or clarify his/her meditation in the natural state of mind. In this
way, one follows the body instructions of the exercise, and while the breath is
naturally held, the mind is held in its state of meditation together with the
breath. Then, with the exhalation and the sounds of Ha and Phat, one can break through any concepts and obstacles
that persist and can remain steadily in the natural state of mind.
My involvement I first became acquainted with trul khor
almost ten years ago in Tritan Norbutse monastery in Kathmandu, under the
supervision of Nyima Wangyal (then khenpo or Abbot of the monastery). At
that time, during the morning and evening meditation sessions, the monks would
practice the Dzogchen "breakthrough" or trekchod meditation.
Approximately halfway through the session, the leader of the practice would
stand up and guide one cycle of this trul khor, and then return to the
sitting posture to continue with trekchod until the conclusion with
dedication. They would rotate the cycles in each session; i.e., in the morning,
the preliminary cycle, at night, one root cycle, next morning, the other root
cycle, and so forth. Once a year some would practice trul khor in
a 100-day retreat, as prescribed by Shardza Rinpoche, which is now part of their
curriculum.
Throughout the years I was able to receive more
instructions from Lopon Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche on how trul
khor is used as an aid to Dzogchen practice, as well as going over details
of the exercises with them, and also with HH Lungtok Tenpa'i Nyima,
Lopon Tenpa'i Yungdrung, Geshe Yungdrung Gyaltsen and Ponlop Thinley Nyima.
Words cannot express how thankful I am to all of them, for their time, patience,
and constant support in helping me share trul khor with others as well.
Ligmincha trul khor
training course Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is quite aware of the
problem of lack of context and continuity that Westerners sometimes undergo when
learning meditative practices, in addition to our unwillingness to get involved
in foundational practices and instead looking for "higher" practices. Thus, at
Ligmincha Institute, Rinpoche is designing ways to transmit his tradition to the
Western practitioners, taking into account our conditions of body, speech and
mind, and creating training courses accordingly.
Last November, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche opened a
formal trul khor training course at Ligmincha's main site, Serenity
Ridge, near Charlottesville, Virginia. I have the honor of leading this course,
composed of four five-day retreats spread out over a year and a half, under
Rinpoche's close supervision. The primary purpose of this course is to offer an
opportunity to those who are seriously interested in beginning or deepening
their understanding of trul khor to have access to a training program of
learning and practice. The time between retreats will allow the participants to
practice and study what was learned and then apply it to the next level. A
secondary purpose is to train future instructors who will be able to share the
benefits of this practice with others, and this training is one of the
prerequisites be a trul khor instructor in this tradition.
In the words of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche,
"Trul khor is a wonderful daily practice, especially
to control and handle the stress of our modern life in society. It has the power
to balance the energies of mind and body and it also helps enormously to support
one's meditation practices. I strongly encourage and recommend everyone to come
to these retreats, either to learn for yourself or to become
instructors."
The second "installment" of the retreat is
scheduled for May 9-13, 2001, and will be open to everyone interested.
Accommodations will be made to ensure that the material of the introductory
level is mastered. However, as we progress, we will need to limit the
participation to those who have attended the previous retreat(s). In this way,
those who are seriously interested will have the opportunity to learn and
practice, and among them, those who have a mastered a certain level eventually
will be able to share it with others.
In each of the retreats, additional cycles of
trul khor will be taught and we will deepen the understanding and
practice of those previously taught. We will also have time to share experiences
of our own practice and discuss skillful ways of learning and instructing.
The third retreat will be October
31-November 4, 2001, and at the fourth retreat (beginning of ) Tenzin
Wangyal Rinpoche will certify those who are ready to teach the entire series.
Rinpoche will also give the transmission of the text to the students and will
impart teaching and guidance on how to instruct others.
I hope that this will benefit others as it
is expressed in the dedication of the practice:
All pure virtue done through the three doors, I dedicate to the welfare of
all sentient beings of the three realms After having purified from obstacles
and obscurations all the three times May we swiftly
achieve complete Buddhahood of the three dimensions.
For more information:
Ligmincha Institute P.O.Box 1892 Charlottesville, VA 22903 Tel.: (804) 977-6161 Fax: (804) 977-7020 Ligmincha@aol.com http://www.Ligmincha.org
or
Dzogchen Community P.O. Box 277 (Tsegyal gar) Conway, MA 01341 Tel: (413) 369-4153 Fax: (413) 369-4165
Footnotes
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, Snow Lion Publications, 1998, p. 42)
- Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, The Eight Movements of Yantra Yoga, Snow Lion Publications, 1999, Shang Shung Edizioni, p. 4]
Snow Lion has produced a video entitled the Eight Movements of Yantra Yoga
taught by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, which is accompanied by a booklet describing
the movements that are explained by Fabio Andrico- a senior student of Namkhai
Norbu Rinpoche - in the video. Also, the whole yantra yoga text of the "Union of
Sun and Moon" will soon be available in English, translated by Adriano Clemente,
a senior student of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and published by Snow
Lion.
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