Tibetan Tsa-lung Yoga Exercise for a Healthly Mind and Body

Awakening the Sacred Body
by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Berkeley, San Francisco
 

 

In the second session of Rinpoche's teaching on Five Tsa-lung exercise on October 29, Rinpoche  introduced the first two tsa-lung practices. The practice is important to keep the five sacred chakras in our body clear and healthy in order to have the wind [prana] flow unobstructed. The five chakras are: crown, throat, heart, navel and secret chakra. The first Tsa-lung exercise is “Upward moving wind”; connecting the throat chakra with the crown chakra, i.e. throat to brain. The exercise is good to develop clarity and to enhance memory. Sit in a meditation posture, breath in and store it at the throat; turn or rotate your head right to left five times and left to right five times, coming back to the original position, breath out instantly from nostril. Mental aspect of this exercise is clearing the pain-speech. Here the visualization could be done on pain-speech. The concept of pain-speech is the negative stains due to bad speech: complaining, back biting, abusive speech, lying etc. Be aware or conscious of any pain-speech and do the exercise; when let out the breath from the nostril at the end, imagine all the negativities of the paid speech clearing out from the crown like a chimney smoking out.

Note the five chakras

The next Tsa-lung exercise is Inner tsa-lung. This activates and keeps the life force wind healthy and vibrant. Life force wind in Tibetan is sog-lung. It holds the life-force, and empowers our mind. Sitting a meditational posture with your hands on the hip, and breath in deeply and store it at the heart. Holding the breath raise your right hand and circle it over your head five times, and do it same by the left hand. Coming back to the same position, twist your right shoulder five times and your left shoulder five times; then breath out in one go from your nostril imagining all the obstacles and obscuration smoke out from the crown. [See the video]. Mental aspect of this exercise is clearing the pain-mind. All kind of crazy thought you have gets cleared. Positive result of this exercise is physically it keeps our heart healthy. Mentally, it enhances our confidence, mindfulness and energy. If the life-force is weak or gone, we become sick and we die. Drawing clear open attention to our heart is important. The exercise connects our heart chakra with the crown chakra; connecting heart and mind.

In the next two sessions in the month of November and December, Rinpoche will teach on the three Tsa-lung to awaken our mind and body.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Geshe Dangsong teaching tsa-lung practice

Note: this is a student’s note. Error and omission cannot be ruled out. Serious students are advised to study the book “Awakening the Sacred Body” by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche    

 

Tibetan Healing Yoga Exercises

Awakening the Sacred Body
By Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

Sacred Stream, a spiritual community has organized a series of teaching based on the Rinpoche’s book “Awakening the Sacred Body” in Berkeley, San Francisco. The scheduled teachings are on: September 26, October 29, November 13 and December 11. It is a Tibetan Bon teaching of meditational yoga exercise to awaken and heal our body and mind through the practice of tsa-lung, [channel and wind] and breathing exercise. The teaching is a part of Magyu, Mother Tantra of Tibetan Bonpo spiritual tradition.  

In the first session: September 26, Rinpoche taught on the nine purification breathing exercises to clear and purify the three scared channels within our body: the central blue channel, right white channel and left red channel. This yoga exercise is to clear our confused state of mind and create a sacred positive space within through the practice of tsa-lung. Sitting in a five-point meditational posture, visualize three channels in the center of our body from the crown to the four finger width point below the navel. In the center is the blue channel opening up at the crown, on the right is a thin white channel starting from the right nostril, and a similar red channel from the left nostril. These three channels meet at the point below the navel. [See illustration]

The breathing exercise is to clear and purify our mind of the all the negative stains of the three basic mental afflictions of attachment, anger and ignorance. Sitting in a meditational posture, raise your right hand and close the right nostril with the ring finger of the right hand; breath in slowly and deeply from the left nostril visualizing green light filling the red channel and let it go to the bottom of the  point below the navel. Now, release the right nostril and close the left nostril and let the green light in the red channel pass out through the right white channel in form of a light blue light. While breathing in, be conscious of your anger; while breathing out visualize that the anger is purified and passed out from the left nostril. Do this exercise for three times.

 

Repeat this exercise starting from the left hand and closing the left nostril with the ring finger of the left hand. Here while breathing in and breathing out, be conscious or be aware of your attachment and let it pass out through the left nostril in the form of light blue light. Do this three times.

Next, be conscious or aware of your ignorance or doubt about something. Breath in slowly and deeply from both the nostril visualizing pure green light entering the red and white channels; then breath out from the nostrils visualizing all the negativities and obstacles gushing out from the crown through the central blue channel. Repeat this three times.

These nine purification breathing yoga exercises help clear our mind and create positive space and attitude within us. Position is very important. Wind has role to play. The way the wind flows affects the movement of our consciousness. By sitting is the right position, wind can flow in the right direction, and our mind in pure awareness. Breath controls the mind more easily than mind controlling the mind. When we gaze or look at something, our energy also move there. Feel the breath, the wind, the prana. When you are feeling it, you become aware that it is more than a breath, air or wind; it is energy. After practicing this nine purification yogic exercise, you will feel that you have more space within you for positive things. This exercise is also a part of Tummo, inner fire practice.

In a nutshell, the exercise is about opening the central channel. The practice is trying to find a sacred space in us. Negative emotion blocks space and with this nine breathing exercise, we are clearing the blockage and creating space within us through tsa-lung. The wind cleans the channel, it acts like a vacuum cleaner and keep the channel clean to let the positive energy in. In the next session, Rinpoche will teach on five major tsa-lung exercises.

Note: this is a student’s note. Error and omission cannot be ruled out. Serious students are advised to study the book “Awakening the Sacred Body” by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche    

In the second session: October 29, Rinpoche began the teaching on five tsa-lung teaching, and introduced the first two tsa-lung practices.

NB: This article is revised on 8/04/2021.