Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche - Awakening the Sacred Body: Tibetan Yogas of Breath and Movement

Tenzin Rinpoche has written an eminently practical, lucid, and inspiring guide to traditional Tibetan body-based meditation practices. These practices are designed to help us let go of the habits of mind that obscure our experience of the spacious awareness and wisdom that is our true nature. Awakening the Sacred Body is an excellent resource for new and experienced practitioners alike.

Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Faith

I feel as if Tenzin Wangyal read my mind and body and then, in his kindness and wisdom, gave me clear, inspiring, accessible methods for integrating them. The insights, inspiration, and practices from this book offer so much support. This should be required reading for all those with an interest in yoga and meditation.

Cyndi Lee, founder of Om Yoga and author of Yoga Body, Buddha Mind

The wisdom tradition of Bn is yet another jewel from the spiritual treasury of Tibet. The Venerable Tenzin Wangyal polishes and presents it like a master jeweler, making it sparkle, delight, and give benefit. Read this book, work with it in a relaxed way, baby step by baby step, live with it, and your heart will open and your life will be way more fulfilling.

Tenzin Robert Thurman, Jey Tsong Khapa professor of Buddhist studies, Columbia University; president, Tibet House U.S.; and author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche delivers the good news that there isnt any life situation that doesnt offer us rich material to work with. He generously offers us ancient methods for synchronizing body, breath, and mind, teachings which are readily applicable to our modern lives. I highly recommend them.

Michael Bernard Beckwith, author of Spiritual Liberation

The existence and role of subtle, vital energies in the body known in Tibetan as lung remain unknown by modern science, for they are most directly revealed through first-person experience. In his new book, Awakening the Sacred Body, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche clearly explains various methods for refining and utilizing these energies, or winds, to enhance ones spiritual practice and awaken the body and mind. This is a valuable contribution to bringing the contemplative sciences of Tibet to the modern world.

B. Alan Wallace, author of Mind in the Balance

Tibetan Sound Healing

The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep

Healing with Form, Energy, and Light

Wonders of the Natural Mind

Unbounded Wholeness (with Anne Klein)

Copyright 2011 by Tenzin Wangyal

Published in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com

Published in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au

Published in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk

Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Design: Riann Bender Interior photos: Janine Guldener:

www.janineguldener.comInterior illustrations: Lhari-la Kalsang Nyima

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private useother than for fair use as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviewswithout prior written permission of the publisher.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the original edition

Wangyal, Tenzin.

Awakening the sacred body : Tibetan yogas of breath and movement / Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche ; edited by Marcy Vaughn. -- 1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4019-2871-1 (tradepaper : alk. paper) 1. Yoga--Bon (Tibetan religion) 2. Meditation--Bon (Tibetan religion) I. Vaughn, Marcy. II. Title.

BQ7982.2.W33 2011

299.54--dc22

2010025565

ISBN: 978-1-4019-5554-0

Digital ISBN: 978-1-4019-2947-3

The particular teachings we will explore together in this book have helped me to move forward in my life, to deepen loving relationships, to expand creativity, and to support me in contributing more fully to my students and my lineage within the indigenous Bn tradition of Tibet. The meditation practices described within have been treasures for me and for my students. They are simple, direct, powerful methods suitable for anyone who is willing to reflect upon his or her life, and can support each of us to recognize and release familiar patterns that no longer serve while embracing the fresh and spontaneous possibilities available in each and every moment.

It is very important from time to time for each of us, as individuals, to reflect upon and take stock of where we stand in terms of our personal development, our commitments to our relationships and to our society, and our spiritual aspirations. When we are willing to look directly and honestly at where we actually find ourselves in life, the very limitations that we identify become the doorways to greater potential.

In society today, we elevate the status of our conceptual mind and seek change through our intellect. But how we experience the mind itself is a product of wind, or lung. (The u is pronounced like the oo in the word look.) In other Eastern cultures, lung is referred to as prana, qi, or chi. The minds capacity for either subtlety and clarity or confusion and turbulence is all dependent upon lung. In the wisdom traditions of India and Tibet there is a vast knowledge about lung that has not fully taken root in the West. How can we have access to this wind? It is not through the conceptual mind, but through our direct, nonconceptual awareness. We access the wind by connecting directly with our body, our speech, and our mindknown as the three doors in both Bn and Buddhism.

I am particularly interested in how our relation to the internal winds can improve health of mind and body and bring change in ones own life and in society, ultimately liberating the suffering of cyclic existence, or samsara, altogether. Emptying samsara may be the larger goal, but emptying your anger toward your partner has immediate relevance. It is important that we work with our conditions as we experience them now. And in this work, wind plays a very important role in transforming suffering. I am confident that by deepening your understanding of wind, you will greatly enhance your ability to make important changes in your life.

I was educated in India as a monk in the Bn tradition from the ages of ten to twenty-five. I have great love and appreciation for my teachers and respect for my training, which was rigorous and unceasing. I have continued reflecting upon these teachings and bringing them into the life I now live as a husband, father, and teacher. In the past, I used to carry my books with me and read from them constantly. I have stopped doing that. It is not that I dont read at all anymore, but now I focus on bringing alive the teachings I have received and studied. This is what is challenging for meto apply these teachings in all situations of life. This is the place where my life has energy, and this is the place from which I am inspired to write this book.