The Five Tsa Lung Trul Khor Exercises – Tibetan Yoga of Breath and Movement

The Five Tsa Lung Exercises are movements that work with five primary energy center (chakra) locations within the central channel of the body: the crown, throat, heart, navel and “secret chakra”.

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It contains five types of exercises corresponding to the five elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and Void).

Meaning of Tsa Lung Trul Khor :

Tsa is the Tibetan word for channel, and lung is the word for wind (called prana, qi or chi in other traditions). These exercises are used in the Tibetan Bon tradition and the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

It is said in the introduction of Lama Kunga’s book about Tsa Lung:

“Tsa Lung, in Tibetan, means channel and wind and it refers to a collection of traditional psychophysiological techniques based on the subtle constitution of individuals. Spread from India to Tibet … some may think that it is the Tibetan version of the Indian Yogi, but it is not, the yoga has Hinduism for origin, Tsa Lung is a pure Buddhist technique.”

Practicing Tsa Lung exercises benefits

Tsa Lung works with both the body and the breath. Also, this technique combines movements of the body (subtle body channels – nadi)) while holding the breath and visualizations, to open channels, release blockages and restore the healthy flow of prana (energy).

Because you are holding the breath, the movements can penetrate deeper into the body and open more of the smaller channels, the very subtle chakras. It is only possible to open these small chakras with the breath. Movement alone is not sufficient. Something more subtle, such as the breath, must be used to reach these subtle places.

During the practice of these simple exercises, you inhale, bringing your focus and breath together to a particular chakra in the body. Then you reinhale and hold the breath and focus while performing a specific movement designed to open the blockages and obscurations of that chakra. After releasing the breath, you rest in open awareness, which allows you to become aware of more subtle qualities.

Main Tsa Lung exercises benefits:

It opens major chakras in order to access the deeper wisdom that is always available. When you would like to go even deeper than TsaLung, then you need to practice Tummo.

How to practice Tsa Lung exercises:

Watch Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama from Bon tradition in the video below. If you are finding the starting pose hard to accommodate on the floor, you could invest in a comfortable yoga mat.

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Tashigar explains the benefits of practicing these exercises:

“The most important part of all Tantric practices is Tsa Lung.”

What does this word really mean? Tsa means channels; lung means prana energy – so altogether it means how the prana is related to the channels and how we should work with these. We always prepare to do the Tsalung practices by doing the main practice of Mandarava.

Also, you remember that Mandarava manifests the three Kayas. We stay in the presence of whichever aspect is necessary for the particular practice we are doing.

Here we are explaining Tsa Lung practices which put a lot of emphasis on the heat. If people are living in a warm place they wonder why we need even more heat.

Even if the weather is warm it doesn’t mean we have developed our inner heat. What we need to develop is inner heat because it is important for discovering and developing sensation. The sensation of pleasure is one of the most important means for having knowledge and realization. If we don’t develop inner heat we don’t have that possibility.

When you do these practices in a perfect way, relaxing in the sensation of the pleasant feeling and staying in this presence, combining it with the visualization, you can obtain the following benefits: all the self-perfected, lhundrub qualities arise; also you automatically overcome attachment to food and you can easily integrate and stay in instant presence forever.

It also becomes a very important purification of negative karma and any kinds of obstacles. Your clarity will manifest and develop and you will be able to go beyond your limitations.

Don’t waste time. Start practicing now.