Dhamma Notes No.3

Body of Light

Tibetan letter "A", the symbol of body of light: The ultimate fruition of the thodgal practices is a body of pure energy, called a rainbow body (Wylie 'ja' lus, pronounced Jalü.), which occurs at the death of such a person.[40] At death, from the point of view of an external observer, the following happens: the corpse does not start to decompose, but starts to shrink until it disappears. Usually fingernails, toenails and hair are left behind[41] (see e.g. Togden Urgyen Tendzin, Ayu Khandro, Changchub Dorje.) The attainment of the rainbow body is typically accompanied by the appearance of lights and rainbows.[40]

Some exceptional practitioners such as Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra are held to have realized the Great Transference (Wylie 'pho ba chen po, pronounced Phowa Chenpo). This is an advanced Phowa practice. The individual does not die at all, but his or her physical body gradually disappears for an external observer, while being able to exist and abide wherever and whenever is pointed by one's will.

KAGYU

A special transmission of the Lower Drukpa Lineage is known as the The Five Capabilities (thub pa lnga) which are:

1. Being capable of [facing] death: capability of Mahāmudrā (phyag rgya chen-po 'chi thub).
2. Being capable of [wearing only] the cotton cloth: capability of psychic heat (gtum mo ras thub).
3. Being capable of the tantric activities done in seclusion (gsang spyod kyi ri thub)
4. Being capable of [facing] the disturbances of 'don spirits: sickness (nad 'don gyi 'khrug thub).
5. Being capable of [facing] circumstances: capability of [applying] antidotes (gnyen-po rkyen thub-pa).

Mahāmudrā

Main article: Mahamudra

The central teaching of Kagyu is the doctrine of Mahamudra, "the Great Seal", as elucidated by Gampopa in his various works. This doctrine focuses on four principal stages of meditative practice (the Four Yogas of Mahamudra), namely:

1. The development of single-pointedness of mind,
2. The transcendence of all conceptual elaboration,
3. The cultivation of the perspective that all phenomena are of a "single taste",
4. The fruition of the path, which is beyond any contrived acts of meditation.

It is through these four stages of development that the practitioner is said to attain the perfect realization of Mahamudra.

CHAKRAS

Tantric practice is said to eventually transform all experience into bliss. The practice aims to liberate from negative conditioning and leads to control over perception and cognition.[9]

By visualising a specific chakra, the subtle winds (which follow the mind), enter the central channel. The chakra at which they enter is important in order to realise specific practices, for example, meditating on the syllable 'Ah' in the navel chakra is important for the practice of tummo, or inner fire, the basis of the six yogas of Naropa. Meditating on the 'Hum' in the heart chakra is important for realising the Clear Light of bliss and emptiness. Meditating on the throat chakra is important for lucid dreaming and the practices of dream yoga. And meditating on the crown chakra is important for consciousness projection, either to another world, or into another body.

Lower chakras

There are said to be a series of seven chakras below muladhara going down the leg,[34] corresponding the base animal instincts, and to the Hindu underworld patala. They are called atala, vitala, sutala, talatala, rasatala, mahatala and patala.

Atala: This chakra is located in the hips, it governs fear and lust.

Vitala: Located in the thighs, it governs anger and resentment.

Sutala: Located in the knees, it governs jealousy.

Talatala: Translated as 'under the bottom level', it is located in the calves, and it is a state of prolonged confusion and instinctive wilfullness.

Rasatala: Located in the ankles, it is the centre of selfishness and pure animal nature.

Mahatala: Located in the feet, this is the dark realm 'without conscience', and inner blindness.

Patala: Located in the soles of the feet, this is the realm of malice, murder, torture and hatred, and in Hindu mythology it borders on the realm of Naraka, or Hell.

Others: There are said to be 21 minor chakras which are reflected points of the major chakras.[35] These 21 are further grouped into 10 bilateral minor chakras that correspond to the foot, hand, knee, elbow, groin, clavicular, navel, shoulder and ear. The spleen may also be classified as a minor chakra by some authorities despite not having an associated coupled minor chakra.

THE 9-STEP BOTTLED WIND PRACTICE:

As Tibetan Buddhism emphasize in some of its tantric techniques, you want to push their chi into the central channel—Sushumna (in the middle of the spine) to clear it out and open it. The 9-bottled wind practice helps prepare for this. This practice is done to increase effective anapanasati meditation to achieve jhana (dhyana) and concentration. In the Nine-step Bottled Wind Practice, there are four phases performed for each of the nine rounds of practice. 

These four phases are:

1. Slowly drawing wind (air) into the lungs 
2. Fully filling the lungs as much as possible with air as if they were a bottle or vase
3. Holding the air inside the lungs for as long as possible while remaining relaxed (not tensing the muscles to restrain the air, but keeping them as relaxed and non-stressed as possible)
4. Quickly expelling the air from the lungs when you can hold it no longer, shooting it out like an arrow

In the nine-step bottled wind practice:

1. You hold your breath 3 times while holding the left nostril shut, 
2. You hold your breath 3 times while holding the right nostril shut, 
3. You hold your breath 3 times while holding both nostrils open. 

This makes a total of 9 rounds of breath retention, hence the name "nine-step" vase breathing or "bottled wind" practice.

NINE STEP BOTTLED WIND PRACTICE

The exact steps of this breathing practice are as follows:

1. Sit in an upright position.
2. Visualize your body becoming as clear as crystal.
3. Close your mouth and using the index finger of your left hand to close your left nostril, press your finger against the left nostril and inhale the air into your lungs slowly through your right nostril. The inhalation should consist of a long, gentle, deep breath--as long and deep as possible. During your inhalation, contemplate that your body becomes filled with light and that this light dispels any internal poisons, darkness and obstructions. Continue inhaling as slowly and deeply as possible until you are "full" of breath and can inhale no longer.
4. When your lungs become full, relax the body as much as possible while holding your trapped breath within. The breath must be compressed, or held inside for as long as possible without being allowed to leave the body, and yet you must use as few muscles as possible to retain it without leaking. It is important while restraining your breath to maintain an upright position without tightening your body or any muscles so that your chi activates from the retention and starts opening up all the tiny channels in the body that might be compressed during muscular straining; if you tighten your body rather than relax it, then even if there is force behind your chi it will not be able to pass through certain chi channel pathways that are obstructed. Experienced breath retention (kumbhaka) practitioners can hold the breath for several minutes, even as the face turns red, which indicates that the wind element is opening up the body's tiny chi channels everywhere.
5. When you can hold your breath no longer, exhale it as forcefully and as quickly as possible through the other open nostril. You forcefully shoot your breath out of your body with the speed of an arrow and that exhalation completes one cycle or round of this exercise. You must repeat this exercise of slow inhalation, long retention, and forceful exhalation two more times, for a total of three times per nostril. All the while the left nostril is kept closed while the active nostril is the right nostril. Repeat 4 &5 for a total of 3 times.
6. Switch hands, so that the right hand now pinches the right nostril closed, and the left nostril is left open. Inhale through the left nostril following the equivalent instructions as before. Repeat this exercise three times for the new nostril. Thus, six repetitions of this exercise will now have been completed.
7. When the left and right nostril breathings are both done, extend both arms to push on your lap and lift your chest. Using neither of your hands since they are both pushing on your lap, inhale slowly through both open nostrils, hold your breath within for as long as possible, and then exhale quickly by shooting the stale air out through your open nostrils when you can't hold it any longer. Repeat 3 times (total). 

Altogether nine inhalations and retentions are performed, which gives rise to the name of nine-step bottled wind practice. The important point to this technique is to hold your breath, after drawing it in, for as long as possible, during which time you don't tighten your muscles. You should never employ too much force in restraining your body but simply hold your breath, with one nostril shut, using as few muscles and as little energy as possible.

You don't have to guide your breath or chi or do anything at all except RELAX while in the state of breath retention.

"Ohm Ahh Bee Lahh Hong! Chit!" 

When you use this burning technique and make the flames of fire burn everything, make sure they burn away the sexual desire as well. That's why many people succeed using this technique.

To cultivate the fire element visualization, you must first be able to imagine and hold in your mind an image of the fiery energy of the sun. You also need to bring a given off by an ordinary remembrance of the light and heat fire into this visualization.

As modern psychology NLP training suggests, the more sensations you can bring into your visualization, the more powerful will be its effects. So remember that when you observe a burning candle flame, the hottest part of the fire belongs to its blue and white flames rather than the yellow or red flames.

The same fact holds true for stars in a galaxy, where the hottest stars are bluish white and the older, cooler parts have turned yellow and red. This is useful to remember when we're practicing the fire visualization, and it has implications for why we sometimes visualize bright lights on our chakra locations, for if we focus on a point within the body, our chi will amass at that point and the friction can cause a tiny chi flame at appropriate locations.

Some beginners for this visualization practice start by visualizing a small bright flame or fire in the region of their tan-tien which gradually, in their imagination, grows bigger and bigger until the entire body burns just like it's being cremated. It's best if you can make this flame a shiny silver color.

Just as water can wash away impurities, in the fire visualization you imagine that all your internal obstructions and body impurities are burned away by a blazing fire. That's the key point -- everything becomes a mass of white and Is burned away so that there is only dust, and then emptiness. Crystal clear, pristine emptiness.You might choose to visualize that everything is burned away until even the atoms are destroyed, and only emptiness is left or you can adopt an Esoteric School technique and imagine that your body conjoins with the image of the sun, which radiates an irrepressible shining light that purifies your body and mind. Linking with that light, you become light which is invisible, formless, everywhere.

The Tao school talks of transforming jing into chi and chi into shen, but here you imagine you are transforming your entire body into the brightly shining silvery light of a large round sun. Stay with that visualization. Hold the brightness. Later, you can turn into emptiness ... emptiness with no thinking clarity.

This is a tremendous visualization for purifying the physical nature and entering samadhi.

People who are sick often use radiation or lasers to become cured, but you can also use a fire visualization to imagine that you are shining fire or light energy on any part of your body that's sick to help it get cured. You want to imagine that you burn bad chi away, and consciousness concentrated on a point will tend to bring chi to that point. This is a minor offshoot of the basic fire visualization method which has been adapted for healing purposes. Does it work? For some people yes. An article on the website about cancer meditations can explain more in detail.

Some individuals try to cultivate the fire element by absorbing the light of the sun, which is practiced in Taoism. Yogi ascetics and orthodox Hinduism also have their own various fire, or Agni practices. In Esoteric Buddhism, there is also the method where you imagine that you are sitting in the center of the sun and become unified with its being. You imagine your body and mind melt and merge with the sun, while remembering Buddha's saying that "The true nature of fire is emptiness. Because our fundamental nature is empty it can give birth to fire. Originally our fundamental nature is clear, calm, and peaceful extending across the entire universe. The extent to which you can understand this depends upon your wisdom, practice and experience."

If you can attain the fire visualization samadhi, you can burn things at a thought or transform your body into a pillar of fire, as the Tibetan master Gampopa often demonstrated. However, if someone looks at you quite carefully, they will still see the shadow of a person sitting there in the flames. You can find mention of this also in a book called Maharaj, but recognize that the Indian master in that book, despite his experiences, never made it to the genuine first dhyana.

If you can combine the fire visualization results with prajna transcendental wisdom, then you can achieve real emptiness.

Remember, the fire visualization technique is to imagine that you are a bright sun and to lose yourself in that visualization to cultivate emptiness. Or, you can cultivate the kundalini element as instructed, which is another way of cultivating the fire element. Or you can imagine that fire burns away your body and karma so that what is left is empty and pure.

The Lord must be worshipped at the point of the meeting of day and night.”4 In other words, the proper thing to cultivate is the junction ... whether it is the junction between the thoughts, or breath.

In fact, when you analyze the purpose of various breathing practices in the world’s spiritual traditions, you’ll find that their main purpose is to help you clear your chi channels and to train you to encounter and then naturally dwell in that gap for a prolonged period of time without strain.

There is a fourth type which is the spontaneous suspension of breath, ...Then, the veil of psychic impurity and spiritual ignorance that covers the inner light is thinned and rent asunder. In all schools of spiritual cultivation—no matter what they are—when you are meditating you must reach this point of breath cessation naturally without force because it’s the very beginning of a new spiritual life. The Tao school even calls this point of cessation the beginning of “internal embryo breathing” because it sets into motion an internal circulation of chi while external respiration ceases.

As in kundalini cultivation, you can also imagine small tongues of flame at each of the major chakra locations and focus on these white hot flames. That will pull chi to these locations and the chi, if you cultivate emptiness, will help to open up the chi channels that run to these locations; by fixing your concentration on one point while being empty, you can draw chi into your chi channels to those very locations. But you must never do this sort of practice without a master, and women should especially avoid doing this in their belly otherwise they can create menstrual difficulties. 

The book, “Tao and Longevity,” provides further instructions and warnings. Unless you practice breath retention exercises, such as the nine-bottled wind practice, and emptiness meditation this can be quite perilous unless you know what you are doing. Nevertheless now you know the principles of practice.