CHAPTER 1

The Ligmincha Yoga of
Instructions of the A

Tibetan Yoga for Everyone and Everyday Life

THE LIGMINCHA YOGA OF INSTRUCTIONS OF THE A practice consists of stating your purpose or intention, using proper body posture and breathings, understanding your subtle body with inner channels and guiding your breath through them, and, finally, incorporating the magical movements. I will present it in five steps, three (intention, posture and breathings, and subtle body) in this chapter, and then the fourth and fifth, the magical movements and sharing the benefits of your practice, in Chapter 2.

STEP 1: Stating Your Purpose or Intention

The Instructions of the A yoga text starts with a beautiful Tibetan homage that describes the intention we cultivate when we practice this yoga:

Kun zang long la chag tsal lo

This praises being in the expanse of one’s natural state of mind, which is reached by clearing the external and internal obstacles with this Tibetan yoga practice. The main purpose of this practice is to achieve that fully aware and focused A state of mind.

It is important to first calm one’s “monkey mind,” the aspect of the mind that goes from thought to thought and emotion to emotion like a monkey from one branch to the next in search of happiness.

Traditionally, the practices called zhiné, or calm abiding, focus your attention on an object—external or internal—which allows your mind to relax, concentrate, and connect to yourself more deeply.

Over 40 years ago, Herbert Benson, M.D., at Harvard Medical School scientifically proved that a simple breathing meditation can elicit what he called the relaxation response.¹ During the relaxation response, a series of changes occur that increase the activity of your parasympathetic nervous system to balance the “fight or flight” response that heightens the activity of your sympathetic nervous system and provokes a cascade of brain chemicals that our body perceives as stress. In other words, the relaxation response is a decrease in physiological stress that helps you achieve a state of calm. Therefore, learning how to breath properly is very important for practicing this yoga, and for your everyday life.

When I started teaching meditation at the MD Anderson Cancer Center almost 20 years ago, in consultation with my teachers and the hospital, I designed a simple meditation practice that I called Connecting with Your Heart. It helps you relax your monkey mind, notice and adjust your body posture, and focus on your breathing, thereby enhancing your connection to your mind-heart, your inner home.

STEP 2: Using Proper Body Posture and Breathings

Your body posture is key in sustaining your mind’s attention on your breath. As you prepare to meditate, focusing on your body posture can bring a sense of stillness that aids in attaining the stillness and focus of your mind; your breath becomes the link between your body and mind.

The preferred posture for this practice is the classic meditation posture that has five points.

The Five-Point Posture

On a cushion or mat:

• Sit cross-legged, which helps to contain your warmth and energy within your body and helps you keep your back straight.
• Keep your back straight, which aids the flow of energy and keeps the channels straight.
• Make your chest open, like an eagle soaring in the sky, to give yourself a sense of openness and lightness so you are not too tense.

• Hold your hands in the equipoise position (palms up, left palm resting on right, thumbs at the bases of the corresponding ring fingers, resting on your lap), which supports an inner sense of equanimity.
• Tuck your jaw slightly down and in to lengthen the back of your neck and lessen the wandering of your thoughts.

If you are unable to sit on a cushion on the floor, you may sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor. Keep your back straight and sit toward the edge of the chair. The rest of the pose is the same, as set out above.

Keep your eyes closed or, if you prefer to keep them open, gaze downward peacefully without looking around.

Conscious Breathing

A simple way to start your breathing, with your mind guiding your breath, is to:

1. Inhale/breathe in—Welcome all positive and nurturing qualities.
2. Exhale/breathe out—Let go of negative and obstructive qualities.
3. Relax—Find an inner space where you feel more connected to yourself.

Guided Practice: Connecting with Your Heart

Now that you have set the intention of your practice of staying connected with your mind-heart for the benefit of all beings by clearing external and internal obstacles, and that you know the correct posture and have performed a simple breathing exercise, here is a guided practice that incorporates these aspects and concludes with sharing the benefits of your practice with all beings.

Connecting with Your Heart guided practice (approx. 10 to 12 minutes)

Read the text below to support your practice. If you would like an audio recording of it, see Resources, where you’ll find a link to the free audio files that I have used with positive results in the clinic at MD Anderson and in my research.

Welcome,

Take a moment to sit comfortably on your cushion or chair.

Take a deep and comfortable breath.

Feel comfortable in your body posture, exhaling any stress.

Keep your body straight but also relaxed, and as you breathe in and out, connect to the stillness that your body provides.

Allow your shoulders to relax, but keep your back straight.

Relax your forehead, jaw, and face with a gentle smile as you bring your tongue up to your upper palate. Breathe comfortably, if possible through your nose.

Relax your eyes, closing them if that’s comfortable. If you prefer them open, look at the tip of your nose and down into the floor.

Maintaining your mind’s attention on your breath, keep inhaling and exhaling through your nose, slowly bringing your breath lower into your abdomen, letting it inflate like a balloon with the inhalation, and contract comfortably with the exhalation. If your mind gets distracted, gently bring it back to your breath.

Our mind can be like a monkey jumping from branch to branch as it follows thoughts or is distracted by sounds, so without judgment, bring your awareness back to your breath, breathing into your abdomen and back to your nose. As we use our breath to connect, our breath becomes our anchor.

Take a few soft, gentle breaths, keeping your mind’s attention on your breath.

You can visualize your breath as light. As you breathe in, feel that your breath brings nurturing qualities with that light. These nurturing qualities could be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, and allow yourself to receive that nourishment. As you exhale, breathe out any obstacles or discomforts—any tensions, fear, negativity, pain—anything that no longer serves you. Let it go in that exhalation. And as you feel more comfortable, more settled at home, enjoy that stillness.

Now, listen to the silence instead of letting your mind follow sounds or thoughts. As you connect to your inner silence, you may feel a sense of inner peace.

Let your breath be an invitation to stay in the present moment and rest in that silence, allowing any obstacle to pass by like a bird flying in the sky, leaving no trace. In that inner sacred space and the support of the silence, your awareness dawns like the sun illuminating that space, and with that light, feel its warmth. Breathe and connect more deeply to that warmth.

This warmth can be your loving kindness, your compassion, your inner joy.

Connect deeply from your heart as you keep on breathing.

And as you feel more connected to yourself, open your heart and allow this feeling to connect you to others. Share all the wonderful qualities you now feel. It is like pouring nectar into the ocean, so that everyone, including you, can drink, and be nourished from those qualities.

Feel the openness of your inner space, your awareness as light, and your warmth as your loving kindness, compassion, and inner joy, sharing it with others and yourself.

Rest in that state for a few moments.

And as you maintain that sense of connection, without needing to open your eyes yet, you can slowly start to relax your body. Stretch your legs, your arms, and relax your body. Relax all the muscles of your face, your jaw; relax your eyes . . . and take your time to slowly open your eyes. Integrate with the external world, slowly breathing, without losing touch of your inner home, and remember that you can maintain this state of mind in your everyday life.

Every breath is an opportunity to connect in this way. Stay connected.

Have a wonderful day!

Nine Breathings of Purification

Breath is the most palpable aspect of our energy, so working more with our breath helps us to be more in tune with the mind-energy-body connection.

In addition to the way we use breath in Connecting with Your Heart, a more traditional Tibetan and elaborate breathing practice that you can use is called the Nine Breathings of Purification. At MD Anderson, we use it in our Power of Breath class, as well as in the Tibetan yoga research protocols.

Nine Breathings of Purification consists of three kinds of breaths. You repeat each kind three times using alternate-nostril breathing, and then breathe through both nostrils to clear the three poisons or afflictions that do not allow us to be in our meditative state—anger, attachment, and confusion. Once we clear these, we can be more open in our connection to our inner home and feel more balanced. From the Tibetan medicine perspective, this inner balance brings health of body, energy, and mind.

Breath is a wonderful tool for clearing your external and internal obstacles. Like the wind removing the clouds and letting us see the sky that was already there, these breathings can remove anger, attachment, and confusion, which the Tibetan medical and yogic traditions hold are the chief afflictions that prevent you from being healthy and realizing your natural state of mind.

Think about how anger can hijack you. When you are angry, you almost become anger itself, and you say, “I am angry.” You then see all the things around you through the lens of anger, limiting your perspective and your ability to be open to yourself and to others. Similarly, when you are attached to something or the way in which something has turned out, you limit yourself by not being able to “unstick” yourself from that situation or allow yourself to be in a more open state of mind. Finally, confusion is a muddy or cloudy state of mind that prevents you from clearly seeing what is really going on, and thus it limits your perspective with a lack of clarity.

Therefore, once you have calmed and focused your mind using the Connecting with Your Heart meditation, you will be able to fully engage in the Nine Breathings of Purification and connect to your breath for balance, clearing your obstacles and helping you gear up for the magical movements.

First set of three breaths: Purifying Anger

• Place your right thumb at the base of your ring finger.
• Close your right nostril with your right hand’s ring finger.
• Breathe in through your left nostril and feel your breath energizing the left side of your body.
• Release your right nostril, and, reaching across your face, cover your left nostril with your right hand’s ring finger.
• Exhale completely through your right nostril to dissolve obstacles related to anger.
• Repeat for a total of three rounds, inhaling through your left nostril and exhaling through your right nostril.
• Notice how you feel—maybe a little more open—on the right side of your body.

Second set of three breaths: Purifying Attachment

• Place your left thumb at the base of your ring finger.
• Close your left nostril with your left hand’s ring finger.
• Breathe in through your right nostril and feel the breath energizing the right side of your body.
• Release your left nostril and, reaching across your face, cover your right nostril with your left hand’s ring finger.
• Exhale completely through your left nostril to dissolve obstacles related to attachment.
• Repeat for a total of three rounds, inhaling through the right nostril and exhaling through the left nostril.
• Notice how you feel—maybe a little more open—on the left side of your body.

Third set of three breaths: Purifying Confusion or Self-Doubt

• Place your hands on your lap in the equipoise position, left over right, palms up, and thumbs at the bases of the ring fingers.
• Breathe in through both nostrils and feel the breath energizing your whole body.
• Exhale completely through both nostrils, dissolving obstacles related to confusion or self-doubt.
• Repeat for a total of three rounds, inhaling and exhaling through both nostrils.
• Notice how you feel—maybe a little more open—in your whole body.

After practicing the Nine Breathings of Purification and clearing obstacles within yourself, rest in a meditative state, staying relaxed and alert in your inner home. Remain comfortable within this experience for a few minutes, and then, to conclude, come back to your heart center and actualize your intention by sharing the benefits of your practice with others and with yourself.

STEP 3: Subtle-Body Practice: Incorporating Your Channels and Guiding Your Breath through Them

The subtle energy body, as its name suggests, is a subtler awareness of the body achieved by using the mind’s attention to guide the breath-energy through it. The breath-energy becomes a crucial link between your experience of your mind and body. When you do practices like the Nine Breathings of Purification, you can amplify their potency by performing them with the support of your subtle body. There are many conceptions of the subtle body. The one that is used in this Tibetan yoga consists of three main channels and five energy centers, or chakras.

The numbers and locations of the chakras vary by tradition and even by specific practice, but in general, the most important ones are located along the central channel, right in front of and along your spinal chord. Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen Rinpoche, a famous 19th-century Bon scholar and teacher, described them as:

• Crown, the chakra of great bliss, located at the top of your head
• Throat, the chakra of enjoyment and experience
• Heart, the chakra of your true nature
• Navel, the chakra of manifestation
• Secret, the chakra that sustains bliss, located at your perineum

The Tibetan yoga of the Instructions of the A will help you engage one or more chakras at a time, clearing obstructions and eliciting the different experiences in your different chakras. These movements relate to the five kinds of breath-energies that are identified in Tibetan medicine. When the breath is brought to each of the five chakras, it expresses the energy of that chakra as one of the five breath-energies, helping you to release obstacles, feel openness, and provide nurturing at different levels.

Your channels and chakras, and the breath-energies circulating through them, make up the subtle “playground” needed for the body movements in the poses of Tibetan yoga. In each of the poses you hold your breath, often in one of your chakras, while you move your body in a way that directs that breath, which has been guided by your mind.

Now that you know a little bit more about your subtle body and your channels, let’s again explore the Nine Breathings of Purification, but now with the assistance of your channels.

Nine Breathings of Purification with Channels

Right Channel, Central Channel, and Left Channel.

When working to clear obstacles using the breathing practices, imagine the three main channels of the body: the central channel and the two side channels, the right and the left. These channels are made of light.

• The central channel, which you can visualize as blue light, rises straight along the center of your body and in front of your spinal chord, widens slightly from your heart to its opening at the top of your head. It is described as being the diameter of a bamboo cane.
• The two side or secondary channels are somewhat smaller in diameter and join with the central channel at its base, about four finger-widths below your navel. You can visualize them with colors if that helps you focus on them, with the left one red and the right one white. These side channels rise straight up from the junction with the central channel, running parallel at the right and left of the central channel. However, whereas the central channel rises through the top of your head, the side channels curve around just under the top of your skull, pass downward behind the eyes, and then open at the corresponding nostrils.
• The right (white) channel represents method (skillful means) or qualities. This is the channel of the male energies.
• The left (red) channel represents wisdom. It is the channel of the female energies.
• The central channel is the main pathway. It is not a physical road or highway. Instead, it is a path, a stream of consciousness. In terms of experience, it is hard to define the central channel. There is no ordinary terminology for it. The simplest way to express it is to say it is a deep sense of settling within yourself, being completely at rest with full awareness rather than sleeping. We all know how to sleep, but resting with full awareness is something you must learn how to do.
• The chakras, which lie along the central channel, present opportunities for you to connect with certain qualities and characteristics to enhance your practice and your life.

A link to video recordings of a guided practice for the Nine Breathings of Purification is in the Resources section.

Exercising the Pathways of the Secondary Channels

Sit in the five-point posture or comfortably on a chair and visualize the central and secondary channels.

Before we engage in the Nine Breathings of Purification again, familiarize yourself with guiding your breath through your channels. To do so:

• Breathe in and out through both nostrils as you did in the third set of breathing described earlier.
• Continue breathing in and out through both nostrils and guide your breath from your nostrils to your side channels, using the channels as pathways for your breath-energy. Let your mind’s awareness guide your breath to carry your nurturing qualities in the inhalation and remove your obstacles in the exhalation.
• Repeat this process several times, inhaling and exhaling through both nostrils.

I have found it very useful, both for myself and when teaching, to do this simple breathing exercise to get familiar with my two side channels before beginning the Nine Breathings of Purification practice.

As you practice the Nine Breathings using your side channels, focus on releasing your main affliction and recognizing the space within and calmness of your mind after that release. Every time you inhale, visualize the air as a green light, since green is the color of the air element. During the exhalation, visualize the air as smoke to represent letting go of your afflictions. Anger or irritation are represented as blue smoke, attachment or control as pink smoke, and confusion or self-doubt as gray smoke. Note that when using the channels in the third set of breaths, you will guide your breath-energy through your central channel and crown chakra, although, of course, your normal, physical breath will be exhaled through your nostrils.

Guided Practice of the Nine Breathings of Purification, Incorporating Your Channels

PREPARATION:

Now that you are more familiar with your subtle body’s channels and guiding your breath-energy through them, you are again ready to engage in the Nine Breathings of Purification. Use the three kinds of breath with the support of your channels to purify your emotions of anger, attachment, and confusion.

Sitting in the five-point posture or in a chair, bring your mind’s attention to your breath. As you breathe in and out a few times, visualize your three channels.

The first three breaths: Purifying Anger

• Place your right thumb at the base of your right ring finger.
• Close your right nostril with that ring finger.
• Inhale through your left nostril, feeling the pure, nourishing air coming into your body.
• Imagine the breath as green light following your left channel.
• As your breath travels through your left channel, feel how your channel expands, like a balloon being inflated.
• As your breath reaches the point of union of your channels, allow it to continue to your right side, and slowly release your right ring finger from your right nostril and close your left nostril with that same finger.
• Guide your breath as it follows your right channel up your body and out through your right nostril, visualizing it as dark blue smoke and feeling this releasing breath carrying blocks and obstacles, especially those related to anger, from your body, energy, and mind.
• Imagine these obstacles dissolving instantly into the vast surrounding space.
• Repeat two more times. In the inhalation, breathe in pure air through your left nostril and left channel, visualizing it as green light, to nourish and support your concentration. Then feel that air traverse your right channel and, in the exhalation through your right nostril, visualize it as dark blue smoke, carrying out the obstacles of anger to let them out of your system.
• Take a moment to notice how you feel on your right side and right channel—maybe a sense of being more open and possibly a little less anger or irritation.

The second three breaths: Purifying Attachment

• Place your left thumb at the base of your left ring finger.
• Close your left nostril with that ring finger.
• Inhale through your right nostril, feeling the pure, nourishing air coming into your body.
• Imagine the breath as green light following the path of your right channel.
• As your breath travels through your right channel, feel how your channel expands, like a balloon being inflated.
• As your breath reaches the point of union of your channels, allow it to continue to your left side, and slowly release your left ring finger from your left nostril and close your right nostril with that same finger.
• Guide your breath as it follows your left channel up your body and out through your left nostril, visualizing it as pink smoke and feeling this releasing breath carrying blocks and obstacles, especially those related to desire and attachment, from your body, energy, and mind.
• Imagine these obstacles dissolving instantly into the vast surrounding space.
• Repeat two more times. In the inhalation, breathe in pure air, visualizing it as green light, through your right nostril and your right channel, to nourish and support your concentration. Then feel it traverse the left channel and, in the exhalation through your left nostril, visualizing the air as pink smoke, breathe out the obstacles of attachment to let them out of your system.
• Take a moment to notice how you feel on your left side and left channel—maybe a sense of being more open and possibly a little less grasping, attachment or control.

The third three breaths: Purifying Confusion or Cloudy Mind

• Place your hands on your lap in the equipoise position, left over right, with the palms up and the thumbs at the bases of the ring fingers.
• Inhale through both nostrils, feeling the pure, nourishing air coming into your body.
• Imagine the breath as green light following your right and left side channels.
• As your breath travels through them, feel how the channels expand, like balloons being inflated.
• As your breath reaches the point of union of your channels, allow it to enter and continue up your central channel as you guide it along the pathway. Feel the subtle breath going up your central channel and leaving slightly upward through your crown chakra, visualizing it as dark gray smoke. Exhale your normal physical breath through your nostrils.
• Feel this releasing breath carrying blocks and obstacles, especially those related to confusion or unawareness, from your body, energy, and mind.
• Imagine these obstacles dissolving instantly into the vast surrounding space.
• Repeat two more times. In the inhalation, breathe in pure air through both nostrils, visualizing it as green light, to nourish and support your concentration. In the exhalation, visualizing the air as dark smoke, breathe out the obstacles slightly upward through your crown chakra and also through both nostrils.
• Take a moment to notice how you feel in your central channel and your whole body—maybe a sense of being more open, and a little less cloudy mind and more clarity instead.

Now, having deeply nurtured and purified yourself, rest in your inner home while you get ready to connect to your chakras and start the Tibetan yoga movements.

An Experiential Run through the Chakras: Preparing the Energy Landscape2

This practice brings your attention to each of your energy centers—chakras—so you can open to the subtle movement of the five breath-energies that circulate in your subtle body.

This will help you become familiar with having your mind carry your breath through the channels and the chakras as you familiarize yourself with each breath-energy that you will eventually incorporate into the Tibetan yoga movements.

As you breathe into each chakra, hold your breath comfortably in that chakra for a few seconds so you can feel its energy there, and then slowly release, noticing how you feel before going on to the next chakra. At the end, one simple movement will bring the pervasive breath-energy expanding throughout your channels and chakras and clearing through every pore of your body, leaving you open and ready for the Tibetan yoga movements.

Guided Practice through the Five Chakras and Pervasive Breath Exercise

1. Focus your attention on your breath filling your throat chakra. As you slightly hold your breath there, feel any experience that arises as you allow that breath to move upward toward your crown chakra. Feel your breath waking up and nourishing your sense organs, then reaching your crown chakra. Notice how you feel there and exhale slightly upward (as you did in the third kind of breathing in the Nine Breathings of Purification). Take a moment to notice how you feel in your throat and crown chakras.
2. Now, slowly bring your attention and breath down to your heart chakra. Hold your breath slightly as you contact the life force–sustaining energy of your mind-heart. After a few seconds, exhale slowly, as if your heart chakra is a valve for releasing air, subtle air, and unwanted energy out the front and back. Notice how you feel in your heart chakra.
3. Slowly bring your attention and breath down to your navel chakra. Hold your breath slightly as you connect to your fire energy of digestion and creativity, then exhale slowly, as if your navel chakra is also a valve for releasing the air, subtle air, and unwanted energy out the front and back. Notice how you feel in your navel chakra.
4. Slowly bring your attention and breath down to your secret chakra (inside yourself, at your perineum, within the space between your anus and genitals). Hold your breath slightly, connecting to your blissful downward and clearing moving energy, and then exhale slowly downward through your secret chakra, releasing the air, subtle air, and unwanted energy. Notice how you feel in your secret chakra.
5. Take a moment to notice how your whole central channel and your five chakras feel more open.
6. You will now do a movement to connect to your pervasive breath energy through your central channel and your whole body. Exhale all your stale air while contracting yourself into a curled sitting position. Notice how you feel almost devoid of air, and inhale smoothly through your side channels, continuing to guide your breath filling your central channel. Slowly stretch your body wide open to receive the air, feeling your air and energy expanding throughout your body and reaching the tips of your fingers through your arms, reaching your toes through your legs, and expanding into every sense organ in your head. Stay in that expansive sensation, comfortably holding your breath and energy. Exhale downward through your central channel, up your side channels, and out your nostrils while you feel your subtle breath and energy releasing through all your pores. You can stay seated or let yourself fall backward. Then, remain in that position for a few moments.

7. Assuming the cross-legged position and, if possible, the five-point meditation posture, continue feeling fully open and relaxed, with your focus directed throughout your entire body. Allow your breath-energy to permeate your body and beyond into the space around you.
8. Directly observe the changes in each of the chakras without engaging your intellect. Rest for a few moments with a meditative quality as you get ready to incorporate the magical movements.