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Greetings everyone, In honor of Chogyal Namkhai Norbu's upcoming retreat on the pranayamas of Yantra Yoga, I want to say something about this marvelous system, which has benefited me a great deal. In contrast to Indian Yoga, where there is an abundance of information on postures and pranayama exercises available, Tibetan pranayama exercises are not given out to the general public, and to a large extent even the systems of systems of yoga postures are secret. One of the exceptions to this secrecy is Yantra Yoga taught by Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. Yantra Yoga is a Sanskritization of Trul Khor, a "yantra" being a series of movements linked with breathing. In the practice, movement is done on inhales and exhales, and breath retention is done holding a posture. Those who have researched Tibetan breathing practices such as tummo have probably seen that they use a type of breath retention called vase breath. But what exactly is vase breath - how does one do it? Getting clarity on this is not easy. This is where Yantra Yoga comes in: in Yantra a proper vase breath is divided into four steps: open hold, directed hold, closed hold, and contracted hold, which in turn are done on the basis of correct inhalation and exhalation. The mechanics of the movements and poses make your body do these elements correctly (provided you are doing practice with awareness). So you get a very precise felt sensation of what a proper quick inhale, slow inhale, quick exhale, slow exhale, open hold, directed hold, closed hold, contracted hold, and empty hold feel like. You then take this knowledge and apply it to your pranayama practice, so there is no doubt that you are doing it correctly. Brilliant! Different holds are trained by different yoga postures. Backbends such as cobra, locust and bow train open hold; twists train directed hold; inversions such as sholderstand and headstand are poses that train closed hold; and downward dog, fish, and frog are poses that train contracted hold (I am using the standard Hatha Yoga names for the poses here, although they are often similar or the same in the Tibetan system). There is more to the system than that such as various preliminary and closing exercises, but training the different holds using postures is the gist of it. There are many books and DVDs available to learn the system. In my case, I went to yoga classes in my area with good lineage (Iyengar and Ashtanga) in order to learn the poses correctly, and then learned the Yantra Yoga way of linking the poses together with breath from the books and DVDs. So that is the physical aspect of the system. It is very good even if you are just interested in Hatha Yoga because you understand what correct breathing is like, rather than just correct physical alignment, and this plus the dynamics of the different holds opens up a deeper understanding of subtle inner alignments. A lot of things about yoga postures make a lot more sense to me having studied this. Now, about pranayama. There are two preliminary pranayamas which are forms of alternate nostril breathing, and then five main pranayamas of which use vase breath in a major way. The first two of these are more physical and the last three incorporate visualizations of channels and chakras. Chogyal Namkhai Norbu is going to be teaching these pranayamas in his next retreat which will be webcasted (!) for free (!!). He typically spends one or two session of every retreat teaching about Dzogchen generally, and then teaches the practices specific to that retreat, with one session at some point explaining and then giving direct introduction (!!!). These pranayamas are not associated with the cycle of a deity like other Tibetan tsa lung systems, but are directly related with Dzogchen. So if you get the direct introduction and oral explanation, you have permission to practice. And he doesn't teach these particular practices very often. What's more, the books that serve as references for the practices he teaches are only available to members of his organization, the one exception being the book on the complete system of Yantra Yoga, which is publicly available. http://www.amazon.com/Yantra-Yoga-Tibetan-Movement/dp/1559393084/ In other words, this retreat, in addition to the publicly available book, is giving unprecedented access to authentic Tibetan pranayamas connected with Dzogchen. The retreat will be June 3-7, from Tenerife, Spain. The official schedule is not up yet, but typically the session are two hours each, with a 10 am morning session and an afternoon session starting a 3 or 4 pm. http://melong.com/events_listing/spain-tenerife-dzamling-gar-june-3-7-2016/ http://webcast.dzogchen.net/

Hi, Well, I have to write again.. I have been doing breath meditations regularily, for 2 or 3 hours per day, every day for months now. The breath meditations progressed until, a few days ago during one meditation, I dissolved the body and found that there was a sphere of awareness, much the same 'feeling' as the substance that emerges during my satori moments, which inhabits the body. It is like the inner layer of the body is a field of clear aware light that is aware, not in a point or center, but as a whole. The whole field is aware, each of its own things, and as one thing (if that makes sense). It reminds me of Nisargadatta's "focus on the I AM". On the day following that meditation, the aware field did not come back.. I was kind of sad. Over the weekend, I listened to Alan Wallace's Dzogchen broadcast, #29 over again. I have been listening and performing the meditations in his 30 podcast Dzogchen retreat for the second time. In #29, he reveals the higher practice of shifting one's attention without object, directly above the head, then to the right, then, to the left and finally he says to visualize that your centre of attention in the head takes an imaginary elevator downwards to the heart and remains there! I was flabergasted that this is actually one of the highest Dzogchen practices, as taught by Padmasambhava in his book called "Natural Libertaion". I haven't verified that yet, but the whole idea that one finally ends up in the heart was amazing to me. The heart is magical. It really is. Today, during my breaks at work, I spent some time doing sambhavi, and really sucking in from the forehead, simulating sleep. I had to reassure myself that I hadn't lost the kundalini effects this practice produce. Yup.. still there.. Within a few seconds, I saw the layers of consciousness pass by, lights, visions etc as one would while falling asleep, and the root started acting up again with ecstatic bliss.. Same old, same old.. When I came home from work, I noticed that I had an intuition that a book had arrived. I was looking forward to receiving the book about the Third Eye from Del Pe, which is being delivered from India so I thought that that was that book. When I got to the mail box, there was a very small parcel.. Hmmm.. The Del Pe book was 475 pages so it couldn't be that one. When I got inside the house and cut the parcel open, it revealed that the book was "The Mirror" by Namkhai Norbu! I had ordered it a while back. Now, I really like Namkhai Norbu. When I first learned of him he visited me astrally and gave me some kind of transmission. The effect from that experience was that this golden aware light in head, close to the "I" grew over the span of a couple days. Lack of sleep and the feeling of pure awareness expanding were the characteristics.. N Norbu has 'visited' a couple times since then. Every now and then I will see him, smiling at me (well not quite smiling, more like 'wising' at me) in the astral. He is quite adept to be visiting me so much. I am grateful. Anyway, It was just before my 'home-from-work' meditation and I decided to read just a bit of "The Mirror". It was a very small book and it looked interesting. The gist of the book is that one must remain in presence and awareness, not just during meditation, but 24 hours a day. One must make an effort, once a meditator learns how to access the 'presence and awareness' to remain in there during all the activities of the day: walking, eating, working.. etc.. It seemed like very good advice to me. To remain in presence and awareness. I had read for about 40 minutes and finished the main part of the book. I was a little late for my pre-supper meditation.. No big deal. I sat in my meditation area and set my timer for 45 minutes instead of 1 hour because I was a little off schedule. I wondered what it meant to sit in 'presence and awareness'. So, I closed my eyes and looked straight ahead. Hands on thighs, open and palms up. Lower back resting on the wall. No kechari or anything fancy. I first focused on 'presence' which immediately brought my attention downwards towards the energetic sphere of the body. Then I focused on 'awareness' and tried to be aware of everything at the same time, mostly with the eyes. Vivid awareness. I tried to hold the combination of presence (which morphed into a feeling of being centered in the heart) and awareness. As instructed in the book, if thoughts were to come up, you simply ignore them or dissolve them away. Thoughts came up, and I noticed that they dissolved away very quickly. I maintained my focus of the combination of presence and awareness. Images came up, the pulsing of the etheric body matching the breath, visions, thoughts etc and I maintained my focus through the rough stuff. It was almost easy. I just kept turning my attention downwards towards the body and cranked up the attention, interest, awareness of all senses in order to catch every detail, every sound, every thump and bump that living in a shared residence produces. Gradually, after most of the winds settled down, I discovered that I was no longer a point of consciousness or center of attention in the head. I had become a sort of bubble or round sphere of awareness, with the center in the general area of where the heart should have been. Not a point, but a sphere of awareness.. Then, the magic started happening. I would see a scene, but it was no longer a scene like looking through the third eye. The scene was on the outside of bubble, surrounding the whole bubble. It was like I had travelled to and had become immersed in another land, one with green leafy vegetation and strange looking plants. Again, I focused on presence and awareness because I thought it was just a more elaborate vision, and again I was immersed in another landscape. It was like I was in a bubble and was travelling to other planes, or dimensions or planets. It was amazing! I noticed that while this was going on, my mind was relaying thoughts and at first I ignored them and dissolved them.. They would disappear into a fine mist. Then, I realized that I could actually think and still be in the bubble and be immersed in a landscape, all at the same time. But, for fear of losing the experience, I maintained a focus on the presence and the awareness as the primary interest. I experienced about 10 or 12 immersions into places I had never seen before.. Next I also noticed that I could see the physical world even though my eyes were closed, the room where I was meditating in, the whole house, like it was transparent, as a sort of background to the landscapes I was seeing. I was seeing everything at once, like layers of visible transparency.. Then I noticed that I felt like I could just float off in the bubble, and float around the room if I wanted to. I didn't do it because I thought that that was enough. Then my mind started getting afraid and wishing the whole experience was over because it was an experience that it was not used to, had never experienced before and wanted time to analyze and digest this new phenomenon. I kept at it, hoping to hear the 45 minute bells from my "Insight Timer". I noticed that there was no body sensation, that I was a very light sphere of aware luminescence. It felt superb. I was a ball of presence and awareness! I wondered if I could somehow transport myself, body included, to other locations in the world. The thought of the merkaba came to mind. I wondered if this was all the magic of the heart, where the real power lies. Then the timer bells went off. YAY!!! Post meditative digestion by the conceptual mind. One of my favorites activities.. I've been so happy since that meditation. I'm bouncing around as I walk, with a big smile on my face. I feel like I've discovered a key, a hidden secret. The key is presence, just like Eckhart Tolle talks about, and awareness. Not pointed awareness like a concentrative laser, but relaxed mind awareness with peripheral attention, not focusing on any point except downwards towards the body for the presence part. And, being aware of 360 degrees around with high attention and interest at the same time. Presence and awareness.. Space and Light. Hmmm.. Presence.. perhaps it is the dharmakaya. Or primordial consciousness? Awareness? The luminescence of awareness? The Sambhogakaya? The Heart? WOW! Magical. TI