Instructions for Tummo Practice

Written by LocoAustriaco in Kenneth Folk Dharma Forum.

Compiled by Dharmandy

Last Uptade November 6th, 2011

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1 Preparation Phase
1. Breath 1 : One should be able hold the breath for 1 min 30 sec minimum before one begins the
real exercise. Everyday practice should make it possible quickly. Hold your breath whenever you can
and relax the whole body especially the neck, the back and the eyes. Avoid any pressure building up
in the body. Get gentle when it gets harsh. Never go over 2 min. I have friends who can hold the
breath up to 5 min, one for 9 min (christian is champion in apnoediving). Don’t do this. Stay under 2
min for medical reasons (brain cells dying). It is not necessary to have no braincells left to get enlightened.

When you inhale and hold, fill the lungs only 75%. Give already a 25% tension to the lower deep core
(abdominal) muscles (m. transversus abdominis). these are the muscles in the exact middle between
bellybutton and pubic bone. When you exhale and hold, breath out and let the mind follow the breath,
when the breath stops send the mind further into infinity (let it go and watch it vanish in infinity). Don’t
let the body collapse when you breath out, its important that the spine makes a kind of up straightening
movement when you breath out (self elongating).

The sequence in that phenomena for the beginner will arise in the body is this: Warmth - Shaking -
Silence

You will know what I am talking about when you do Tummo. Now this circle can already happen
by just holding the breath, must not but could happen.

At the beginning there can arise panic (to choke) probably between warmth and shaking or shaking
and silence. IGNORE IT. If you master the fear of dying you will have a new level of tolerance for all
fears soon. Fear will no longer make you do or avoid anything and later will not be a topic in your daily
life (if one has psychological anxiety problems make an additional therapy, its easy to cure normally).

Look at the watch and hold your breath. Nothing can happen to you in 1 min 30 sec. Start slowly
but get better quickly. Your willpower will increase soon to a tremendous level. This is the first step.

The traditional explanation is that the inner fire will burn through the blocked energy channels and
this makes it that painful. Its not true but it helps to see that the pain is something good. whenever
you avoid something in daily life it is because of this pain that you will feel in tummo. get used to it.
get through it. it will disappear soon.

2. Pelvic muscles: lay down on the back. let the knees fall outside. Increase the power of your
pelvic floor. a) At the beginning just pump the muscles fast and without any power but as long as you
can. the moment you give the impulse, let already go. with time you will get a feeling for it, it feels
nearly autonomous, like the body would do it by himself, like having a orgasm, like a twitch. don’t
use power. let it intensify by itself. let the rest of the body be relaxed, just train these muscles. b)
then contract first the anal muscles at the backside, if they are fully contracted, contract them stronger
:-) then go forward and add the front “door” like you would stop to pee and hold contracted as long
as possible, contract stronger. stronger! the picture that is taught is that of a bench vice. you can
always do it stronger than you think. let the rest of the body relax and the breath completely normal
and gentle. Its important to separate the flow of breath from the contraction of the pelvic floor. there
are a lot of western descriptions in books like “tiger feeling” of this pelvic gymnastics or “kegel-execrises”.

Within 2 weeks you will reach a level from where one can begin with tummo. your muscles will get
stronger and stronger.

1. Do the exercises in the morning before you have eaten. Dont do them with something in the
stomach! Don’t do them in the evening, you will probably not be able to sleep.

2. You will already notice increased self confidence, willpower, sexual lust, vital masculinity/femininity,
1 Tsa Lung can be practiced instead of this. See later.

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appetite, potency and a strong feeling for your territory and knowing what you want, and what is yours.
thats all ok! but be prepared for more to come. inform your girlfriend(s) so that she knows about the
change :-) or don’t, she will be the first to realize it.

Just for the Info: Preparation phase Tsa Lung/Trul Khor

It would be clever to let the body get used to the new levels of energy to reduce unwanted side effects
like itching in the forearms and legs, headache, stomach problems etc, but I know nobody will listen, so
go to amazon and buy the book of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche “Awakening the sacred body” and watch
the DVD. One can use this exercises to warm the body up or reduce negative side effects. If you have
problems with the spine be very careful or don’t do them all, because not all of them are ergonomic, a
good physiotherapist will know.

Then look at this:

Figure 1: trulkhor

This are also exercises to reduce side-effects called trulkhor.

With trulkhor and tsa lung and the 9 breathings of purification you would have the whole system
of side effect reducers. The truth is, despite of all hocus-pocus they sometimes don’t work. I will be
posting a what to do when later.

All these execises come from originally from India and so does Tummo. They are just variations.

Tummo is a variation of Maha Bandha (Mula Bandha+ Uddiyana Bandha+Jalandhara Bandha).

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The exercises around it, are a tibetan add-on. One can check the web for a description and how to do
Maha Bandha.

Question 1: I can’t hold my breath long enough to do all those movements [Tsa Lung exercises in
DVD]. Presuming I could simplify, such as doing one head rotation in each direction instead of five, until
I am more practiced?
Yes there is this gentle way, and it leads to the same success. The head rotation: Let me just say
that one should do this rotation less extreme than it is shown in the video.

Circle around the half of the diameter shown in the video or less. And avoid a bit the backward
circling, stay more forward. Do it slow and careful. The spiritual result will be the same or better. If
one doesn’t stay healthy one will be unable to do the exercise at all. The joints of the spine in this region
are pretty fragile (because it has to carry only the weight of the head at this level, not the whole upper
body. If one joint is a bit blocked the upper or lower has to take over and can be overused/damaged,
you then can get problems with the nerves or a certain artery that provides blood to your brain).

Especially the extreme backward circling is overdone in the video. If you want to do it more extreme
and take the risks, wait if you have absolutely no problems after a few weeks of gentle circling. you have
an unusual good spine then. but I wouldn’t recommend it.

2 Practise of Tummo: Standing Phase

The practise is done standing, do not sit down at this point. It is important that the shaking can take
over your whole body including the legs. If the legs are alive and full of feelings, they can give you the
grounding in reality that you will need for all the upgoing energy. Having a solid grounding in vibrant
legs and feet is very important to not take off and get lost in all kinds of heady spiritual far from the
world states of consciousness.

The stronger the base and the down-flow capacity of the body the higher you can go without loosing
contact with reality. the more energy you accumulate the better. if the body generates more energy than
he can eventually discharge the difference in the energy budget will appear as free floating fear. So it is
important that you develop enough dicharge ability via productive sexual and aggressive self expression.
Tummo will generate a lot of energy.

Here is the picture of the northern wall of the private temple of the Dalai Lama. Thats the way he
has learned Tummo, it is the right way: standing. Stand like the humpdidumpi [see fig. 2].
The picture shows a yogi while holding the breath (hands up) and after having exhaled (hands down).
Notice the position of the feet (important to get vibrations on the inner side of the thigh to get a channel
down into the ground for the sexual energy otherwise it will heat up your head :-))

2.1 Hand positions

Also notice the finger position. To fine tune your experience you can press different points from Tibetan
medicine/TCM:

1. Press with the index finger the lateral place under the corner of the fingernail of the thumb (Lung
11): deepens breath, makes one feel confident and “invincible”, bring breath into its natural flow.
2. Press with the thumb the lateral place under the corner of the fingernail of the indexfinger (Large
intestine 1): harmonising energy flow in the stomach, if you have the feeling of heat in the eyes use
it, makes the eyes clear and increase concentration.

Tell me if you need more of this ... Also notice that when one day you would like to change to sitting
tummo the hand position is completely different, [like the one in the Sitting Position in Figure 3].

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 Figure 2: humpidumpi

Some people do it with “vajrafists” then, others simple extend the indexfinger strongly. Strange but
it helps to stand through some waves of shaking until the waters become more peaceful...

2.2 Instruction - Part Diaphragm

[These are not the instructions for Tummo, but an exercise to recognize some details that will be needed
for the actual core practice.]

1. Exhale

2. Close your nose with 2 fingers

3. Try to inhale without opening the nose
4. Recognise your lower abdomen being pulled in direction of the spine and if you do it stronger -
upwards cranial

5. Do it stronger to find the place where you can “lock it in”. keep it.
6. Train it a while to find out how it opens the heart after releasing it. Notice also the joy.
7. We will use this movement to transport “energy” from the root to the heart, cultivating the wild
animal-like power

Don’t do it if you have problems with gastritis or hernias in that region. Cure it first through
medical treatment. There is an old saying in psychosomatics: “behind every neurosis there is a gastric
ulcer” meaning that statistically 50% of the population have these problems and only recognise the
changes in their psyche not knowing about the gastric problems as a cause (symptoms are: irascibility,
constant bad mood, cynism, returning hiccup, burping, farting and bad breath :-)) also (dalai) lamas
have these problems often; some say it comes from the buttertea, some say it is from repression, some
from tummo, I dont know. just keep an eye on it, to be safe. if you become angry and high-handed- stop.

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 Figure 3: Sitting position

2.3 Instruction - part Spot of concentration

There are different opinions about where to transform the generated energies namely bringing them into
the central channel.

1. The most often heard is a spot 4 fingers below the navel in front of the spine, where it feels empty,
bottomless, clear, open.
2. I prefer the middle of the perineum, where the contraction is strongest. feels very solid there
3. Some say more up even in the heart.

Depends on the teacher. Simply concentrate on one of this points. If it helps you and you like naked
red women, you can do the whole visualization described in all books. I have seen the strongest result
in people who simply concentrated on one spot while doing the practice.

2.4 Tummo Concepts

Having an orgasm, dying and tummo are closely related processes. Tibetans tend to think in energetic
terminology, not so much in scientific language. funny that western science can easily explain the results
also with death related processes. simplified the change of ratio O2/CO2 through the change of breathing
makes the brain think it has not enough O2 (is going to die) and the body reacts with flooding it with
blood supply (vasodilatation).

Thats why some people can get headaches when they change their breathing patterns (or do tummo).
The change of blood pressure in the brain and the reaction of the vessels result in headaches.

Maybe you have also heard of DMT and its relation to spiritual perceptions and death.

Question 2 Thank you LocoAustriaco for very clear and interesting descriptions! All this sounds
very familiar from my asana and pranayama practices. I presume that Maha Bandha + sucking in the ab-

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domen (like in Nauli) is done right after the exhale and held during the whole retention and then released.

Do you always do the retention after exhaling, or is it also done after inhaling, like in many pranayama
practices? Or do you do just one exhale + retention for the maximum duration and then rest before doing
it again?

Yes it’s obvious that the tibetan yogic techniques have their roots in india and are refinements and
results of the sometimes overboarding tibetan culture with all its love for adornment. normally they
would start as described above, then do some exercises (Tsa Lung, 9 breaths of purification (more or
less pranyama) and then start with tummo. later you just contract the muscles and hold the breath and
should easily get the full energyboost, while sitting in the subway, watch TV etc.

The Core
1. stand like describe (footposition), knees lightly bent
2. hands like describe at the height of you shoulders (press the thumbnail under the corner of the
indexfingernail)
3. Inhale into the chest 75% (put the head a bit into the neck whil inhaling to open the chest) and
hold (gently, don’t press the breath against something)

4. Pull the lower abdomen in and up 75%

5. Press the chin against the chest (careful), tongue against roof of the mouth
6. contract the root as described

7. focus on one of the spots (I recommend perineum) or visualise the central channel
8. relax, wait :-)
9. warmth - hold - relax, keep the sternum still a bit up like a “proud” prince
10. shaking - hold, 1st wave, stay, 2nd wave, stay

11. silence - hold as long as you can without creating pressure, pressure is normal while the shaking
but shouldn’t come from you
12. exhale (a bit stronger at the end of breath if you like, called arrowbreath or as it happens)
13. let your body calm down, blood pressure/breath normalise, but don’t wait too long for the next
burning circle, the faster you do the next the easier/better it will be.

Its ok to get shaken off at the first lets say 3 trials, but then use your willpower to dive through and
get into the roam where you can feel that you have more space and the neurotic patterns are burned,
where you overcome your flight instinct and get as a price freedom.

We are crossing a river. if you jump off at the first wave you will not land on the other side of
the river, you will land in the river. this is the place of unwanted side effects where you can get more
problems than you had in the beginning (we talk about how to solve them later).

I would make sure to get to the silence part after the 2nd wave, there you can rest safer an repeat
the exercise.

@exhale/inhale: the version of the “sucking in of the abdomen”/udiyana bandha that is used for
tummo is done after inhaling 75% into the chest, thats why it is called “vase-breathing”. (as you pointed
out in the indian version or “udiyyana bandha” they pull in after exhaling completely) the breath is not
like often thought kept down in the belly but in the chest. so one can still pull the abdomen inward

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upward (which looks like an upside-down-vase). if one has used up all O2, breath in again - without
letting go before - and get the missing 25% , so you can prolong the state, try to have both lungs filled
with the same amount of air.

@retention: the retention is done after inhaling. same in the tsa lung exercises (inhale -retention-
movement - inhale rest 25% )

Question 3: How long did it take to get some results with this practice? What kinds of results did
you get? How do you generate the warmth off the cushion?

@time: This depends mainly on how long one can hold his breath, and this depends on1 the psy-
chophysiological state (tensions in the body that become turbulences when the flow gets stronger/capacity
of energy) and 2 how many red blood cells your body has developed through the preparations.

Some of the famous wonders that appear, when you do tummo (fast growing hair and nails, increased
speed of wound healing and regeneration, high vitality) have their cause in this Hypoxy-phenomena that
are also used in the training of professional athletes in environments of low O2/high altitudes. You
simply have more (rbc) O2 in your system and over the mitochondrial system more energy in a physical
sense. You get the same results (vitality, regeneration) if you book 10 session in a Hypoxy-studio in your
hood.

You probably realize a pretty strong change after ten minutes when you have made it the first time
really through the 3rd wave of shaking.

To practice for one hour a day will change your life completely from the first day on. just repeat the
exercise for one hour. if too strong start with 20 minutes and go up. Tibetans told me that this absolute
silent void that appears after maybe maximum of 25min, where you nearly can’t move and don’t know
if you are or not is the same like nirodha sampathi, I don’t know, but here probably somebody can tell me.

They say after 6 weeks with 1 hour practice a day, one normally starts to kind of see the energies
and can regulate them. For me it felt like there is suddenly a unbroken circuit in your trunk+head,
a constant flow without leaks, no matter what your hands and feet are doing or your head is saying,
the system feels like it is hermetically sealed and doesn’t loose energy anymore. somehow closed and
complete und incredible strong.

@off cushion: you will learn to do the exercise under all circumstances. The last karmapa was famous
for suddenly getting blue in the face in the middle of a negotiation. now you know why...

My experience is that the side effects vanish after some time it becomes completely effortless and
gentle. everything becomes a source of lust somehow (and the girls love you, don’t know how, but they
somehow feel it)

Let me just add that the head should not get hot, this a typical beginners mistake. after the training
the body is pretty warm, soft and relaxed, the head is clear and cool.

It’s not the kind of practice in which you have to ask yourself “ah, maybe it was this”. The results
and even the practice itself should be dramatic if done correctly. I have only seen people who couldn’t
handle it. until now nobody said I don’t feel anything. It doesn’t hurt if you have what one could
translate as a “hero or warrior mind”. But be careful with yourself also.

There are also sects who do it very soft, even just imagining to contract the muscles and if you are
very fine-tuned this could also be a 2nd best way. it didn’t work for me at all.

If also this is too strong or violent and you get more downsides than upside from it. go back to the
preparation stage and train the pelvic muscles and the muscles of your abdomen (aka “core muscles”)
without too much breathwork. you can get beautiful fruits from that and the time will come when you

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want more and are able to. in the tibetan medicine there are also massages to cure what they call “lung”
illness (sideeffects). I never tried them. for some also a combination with rolfing worked out fine to
remove problems before they appear.

Question 4: What kinds of results did you get?

I could clearly feel that it is a melting of energies, up and down, together. I wouldn’t call it red and
white, but the description of moonlight and sunset hits the point. It feels like the merging of warm rich
erotic sexual arousal and clean pure transparent consciousness. with holding the breath you bring the
white energy (tigle) down and the contraction of the root the red up (or better it grows so much that
it touches the other). and you hold them together. a kind of atomic core melting starts immediately.
when you get to that point: no more suffering is possible. there is also left and right merging. head and
butt are coming together and are reconnected in their natural way. I saw something like a very thin wire
that starts to glow in bright orange in the middle of the body, not the colours described in the texts.
not in the spine like the kundalini, clearly in the middle of the body, the absolute middle of you. when
energies are held into each other something funny happens. there appears a third unlimited energy but
at the same time the 2 others are a kind of used up or disappear so that there is a kind of vacuum in
the middle of the new.

I had the typical dreams of human snakes talking to me, I saw them slipping out of their skin, they
are the bouncers between the normal and the higher worlds, who decide who gets in the club. they are
friendly :-)) they are the rulers of all material things and the earth, Thats how the first maybe 10 days
were, but I can’t talk of all the later mystical experiences, there was something nearly everyday... its
all accompanied by a very grounded down to earth feeling. I’ve probably forgotten the most but what I
cant never forget is this 3rd energy, this clear light that is in everything, it is amazing, far beyond my
possibilities. its the reason why I am typing this.

With the right amount of time for the preparation phase it is possible to get into the melting process
before the discomfort can come up, in this case their is no suffering and no side effects at all.

Metaphorically you then jump so dynamically into the boat that it glides over the river and you fall
out at the the other side of the river and have not seen the waters of suffering at all.

There is similar process while dying. If you see the clear light and take the chance you will not see
any bardos at all. They say it’s good to train this skill during lifetime :-) (haha)

Later the bodily heat will change (some weeks) into a kind of mystical warmth, which is in essence
more a hmmm, yes, bodily or natural love for everything or love itself (@Cohen). but more on this and
what to to do later, when one is there.

Question 5: I have been testing doing Tummo and have found it to be similar to many pranayama
exercises that I have previously done, although it seems to generate warmth more efficiently than for
example Bhastrika (bellows) paranayama and is not so tiring to practice.

- Yes if one includes the bandhas into the pranayama it should feel similar. I don’t know if they keep
the breath retention as long as the tibetans. (I haven’t tried Bhastrika Yoga, just googled it.)

Question 6: It seems to me that doing Tummo standing makes it more effective and arcing the
chest is an important feature, whether it is done standing or sitting. Why is the retention done only af-
ter inhaling? Sucking in the stomach feels a bit forced even if the breath is inhaled mostly in the chest area.

- Yes standing develops the emotional vitality of the legs which are important to get a feeling to “be
full of life” and vibrant connection to the ground (reality). one maybe knows this feeling from skiing or
running. Yes the arcing of the chest is very essential. Inhaled: I think it is probably because one is able
to hold the breath longer with some oxygen in the lungs. I tried both and they work both but are not
the same for me, one feels more rich and one more fresh. The sucking in of the stomach is not done as

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strong as in udiyana bandha where you nearly touch the heart.

Question 7: When the retention is lengthened over one minute, my stomach starts contracting
rhythmically. Should I try to control this movement or let it happen? It is not weakening the control
of the bandhas but rather strengthening them. How tightly should one hold moola bandha? Tight in a
relaxed manner or super tight?

- over one minute/contraction: yes that is when the real tummo starts. somebody who has as much
experience with yoga as you has it probably easier to stay a bit longer because of gentler reactions. but
it depends also on other factors. you just let the contractions happens, just let the body shake off and
keep the bandhas. the traditional explanation is that the energy can not leave the body because of the
closing of the “gates” and burns now its way through the cloged channels. The contractions are just the
beginning, they will stop after some time and open into a void. The moola bandha is super tight. It
helps to get through the shaking, stay with it. the rest of the body is allowed to move and shake like
a snake, but you will notice that if you don’t let it move/control it a bit, the shaking goes more to the
inside and somehow targets your deepest soul. it’s less excessive but very, very intense, personal and
deeply touching the innermost parts. it just flows into everywhere, where one thought he could hide his
whole life and brings all kinds of rainbow coloured blessings.

Question 8: I wonder if the visualization part has to do with accessing the Tummo off the cushion.
If I train my mind to associate the visualization of the rising warm red energy to the actual experience
of getting warm, that would train me to get the same energy moving just by using the visualization.

- the traditional visualisation is quite a bit complicated. It includes a tibetan letter, a flame, falling
drops and all this. do you mean this visualisation?

By the way: if you do it while having an orgasm a firework of bright lightning joy will start off
and what the boxers call the second wind will appear immediately :-)) (seems to be a kind of biological
compensation for the girls, because one does not ejaculate in this case).

The tibetan tradition says that the buddha gave this teaching only to his most talented students and
kings.

:-) they then went on to what could be translated as “(bodily) union”-exercises quickly afterwards,
the fastest way to full enlightenment, not wasting any time.

The beginning exercise goes like this: maybe you have seen tibetan thangkas with 2 buddhas sitting
in union. thats the position, perceive/visualise “her”/“him” as deity/dakini/female buddha or simply
as perfect, put your mouths on each other like kissing and keep them sealed. when she/he exhales you
inhale her/his breath, when you exhale she/he inhales your breath. keep on doing this. feels a bit like
you don’t have to breath anymore because she/he is moving your lungs, effortless, oceanic. visualise
both a stream of energy when you f.e. exhale, from your lips to her lips through her spine to the pelvis
to your pelvis-spine to your lips. (I read in a text of the female translator of kalu rinpoche that he always
tried to convince her to do this exercises with him, so it seems that motivation for practice comes by
itself when one reaches the highest teachings :-))) at least for one)

but we are shortcutting now the shortcut of the shortcut :-)

2.5 Trouble shooting: 1a “Wrong” belly breathing

Keep a light tonus of 25% of the maximum contraction in the musculus transversus abdominis (lower
abdomen, between belly button and pelvic bone, deep layer) whatever you do in daily life. When you
stand up and put your weight forward on the toes you can feel that this muscle is activated autonomously
by your body to gain stability (it feels a bit “under the belly”). this is the exact right amount of tonus
to keep. Should feel natural and effortless. Also pull in the belly while doing the Tummo to avoid

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misguiding the “energy”(=awareness).

If you look into human anatomy you can clearly see that there is no such thing as deep bellybreathing
while you are standing or acting during everyday life. it is absolutely unphysiological. If you teach your
body artificially to keep the deep bellybreathing during daily life, your abdominal muscles can not carry
their part of your weight and protect your spine. this means the backmuscles have to carry all the weight
and will become stiffer. they then can not elastically support your breath movement with expansion
and contraction, massaging the whole system of spine, liquor, brain. because of this stiffness the breath
will go even further forward (no elasticity/space in the back) into the direction of the belly (ironically
one can experience this as a success because you then have more space to breath again). with time
back problems may appear and the inner organs have the tendency to fall more and more forward. The
problem is not not only that is doesn’t look so good :-), but it costs a lot of energy, it is not healthy and
a hindrance for developing the true full breath. if you are experiencing a tuff lack of energy or depression
after starting spiritual practices this can be a possible cause. try if it gets better, when you restrengthen
your abdominal muscles via the usual exercises and keep a tonus of 25% during activities. it should work
quickly within days if this was the problem. I know that for most people this wrong belly breathing feels
like a progress because it is more comfortable than the fast, short, flat breathing that is usual in our
society. but it is not.

the Indians didn’t bring up the ideology of the “always deep belly breathing”. when buddhism came
to china and japan into a culture in which control and calmness was highest priority they put the em-
phasis on it and poisoned the spiritual traditions with it. they misused the skill to calm down the mind
to suppress emotions, free self-expression and a natural sexuality. (”zen-disease”: stiff spine results in a
rigid character, that then has to be calmed down constantly with forward belly breathing - vicious circle).

There is a healthy way to breath freely without “forward belly breathing”:

The right direction is more down into the pelvis. if your pelvic muscles become free and relaxed over
time, your breath will touch a spot at the bottom, which is very lustful when you breath in. of course
it is a kind of sexual feeling but sexual or not, don’t get hysteric. it is a very nice and natural pleasant
sensual feeling at the end of every inbreath. a part of the breath goes also into the sides (flanks) and
into the back. (don’t push the breath down, it will go there by itself if you do what is necessary.)

Nearly every orthopedist or physiotherapist in the world will tell you to keep a muscletonus in the
abdomen and train your abdominal core. But the problem is most people have too much tensions in the
pelvis (sexual fears and fears to let go) to be able to get the full capacity of breath using the room down
there. The old Indians where right when they kept the tonus in the belly and waited for the release of the
inner pelvic muscles through training (tummo), stretching/yoga and psychological/spiritual development.

Normal belly breathing: In deep states of rest like when lying down or sleeping it is of course physio-
logical and healthy to breath deeply into the belly and give up all tonus, because you have no weight to
carry and you do not need support. but when you stand up and try to rescue the calmness into everyday
life via this wrong breathing technique all kinds of problems from depression to back pain can appear
and I won’t tell you what it does to your right thalamus. It is also normal to have some belly breathing
immediately after releasing the held breath (in tummo-training), cause the body will open all blockages
and give up all tensions (roof of mouth, throat, chest, diaphragm, belly, back, bottom of pelvis) to get
full breath-capacity and enough Oxygen for the brain.

I say all this here because in some versions of tummo the vase-breathing is described as putting the air
in the belly and pushing downward. This won’t work in this simpleness and from a modern perspective
encourages the wrong breathing pattern after practice. it will result in various unwanted side effects,
that a lot of people are afraid of and make them drop out before even getting a taste of the power of the
practice. (This minimal push down effect they are looking for is what I described above as touching a
spot of lust in the pelvis and will appear naturally and quickly if one doesn’t disturb the breath.)

Question 9: My strongest experience with it was more than a year ago, after a meeting with Kenneth

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at his place. Back in my hotel room in NYC, I felt a strong chakra activity and decided to integrate them
in my field of awareness. I then decided to unite prana and apana in the navel, holding the breath with
mulabandha. I then dropped the heat on muladhara chakra. With a short exhale, I then shot the energy
along the spine above the crow chakra.

What happened then is the the energy came back to muladhara. I then felt a warm liquid rising up
along the spine. When it reached the head space it felt like cosmic orgasm going on an on for 15 or
20 minutes. My body was shaking like a leaf. I then moved the energy to the heart and felt a sense
of unconditional love. It then merged with emptiness and my body felt transparent, merging with the
environment. The sense of self dissolved into this blissful all pervading stillness.

Last night, I experienced the same results (emptiness and bliss), integrating the awakreness of all
chakras into the natural state (Mahamudra).
Yes, that seems to be it! In my case there is a feeling of something going down first (coming com-
pletely into reality), I don’t experience the going up as strong as it is often described, I just feel the
results in the head and crown and above and then the “warm rain” coming down again from somewhere
in cosmos/sky above.

If you have already made the strong version of the experience, the art is now to prolong it.

I don’t recommend the visualisations, because if people visualise a flame in their stomach all that
happens is that the body releases acid into their stomach and creates a hot burning feeling there and
that is the opposite of what should happen. But if one knows what is meant, it sometimes works. Better
iseems to me to simply prolong the exercise and use the new energy to create even more with it (like a
nuclear plant :-)).

2.6 Touble Shooting 2: Traditional Don’ts

I post them here just to complete the topic. In my case most of this advices didn’t make a difference,
don’t think about them if you have no problems. Most of the people don’t. I just post them, maybe for
somebody there is a hint. Texts mention following Don’ts for tummo-practice:

1. Mind direct sun and heat, especially on the head, especially when you have no hair
2. Don’t eat before practice
3. Protein rich diet, less carbohydrate (I read that the faces of Europeans looked pretty stupid, when
the first “vegetarian” tibetan lamas came to Europe and conquered a chicken grill at the roadside)

4. Mind lifting heavy and carrying heavy weights

5. Mind wearing hot clothes
6. Mind sexual activity or too much sexual activity (I would say hyper excessive sexuality that you
are suddenly capable of)

Question 10: Does anyone have suggestions of what to do with the lack of need for sleep that seems
to come with these kind of practices? I would read, but I read and write intensively for work, and my eyes
can’t take much more. I meditate sometimes, just to kill time. I guess I could get back into drawing/art
or something else beautiful but not too brain-intensive (and quiet, given I tend to be awake for several
hours in the middle of the night). My need for sleep generally drops to about 5 hours from 8 when I do
this kind of practice, and often in short segments, a few hours at a time, then wakeful again.
Practice only in the morning after waking up. Yes it is common :-) In my case after a week or two
the sleep gets much better than it was before. If I practice in the morning I sleep perfect but still shorter
than before. It is also a usual result of other meditations to change the sleep pattern. it just happens
faster here.

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 If you sleep less than 5 hours a day I would slow down the practice a bit, because it could be a sign
that you become a bit hypomanic and the change for your system is too fast. Keep practicing a bit
shorter or even every 2nd day. Just slow down a bit.

Even more important: Work with your legs to get grounding again (running/crosstrainer is good) in
the time that you have won. Get Grounding is the topic then. (A bit too much energy up because the
lightning rod into earth/reality has not grown with the system yet. All kind of exercises that make the
legs shake, shiver and vibrate for a longer period of time and give them endurance, will help).

2.7 Sightseeing on the way: Mahakala and the eye of wisdom

After a bit of time of practice it could happen that suffering completely disappears nearly as a matter of
course. A feeling as if you are protected like if a higher beeing or god wrapped a warm and cosy invisible
black coat around you. Somebody watching and guarding you. A feeling that nothing can happen to
you. Accompanied by a sense of determination, firmness, joy to act and shape the world. Some say it
feels like one is invincible. Others say you know that you have now become the man that you always
wanted to be, when you where a little boy. You know you can lead and others will follow. A feeling of
standing on your feet. I myself have a quite adventurous feeling and a perception of a transparent black
light or a gravity in everything I see.

It is then fun to take all the beautiful characteristics that the mind shows and realise their formerly
“negative” form of appearance in them and learn how they were transformed into what they are now by
remembering.

Question 11: Was wondering, since it seems tummo makes you feel like a bit of a superman: does
it (negatively) affect your ability to care for the feelings of others, admit mistakes, feel compassion, that
sort of thing?
Yes, it can. I haven’t seen it, because people normally enjoy other people so much that there is simply
a lot of feelings for each other. but it can happen that someone only grows strong and misses the insight
of his emptyness especially at the beginning. (thats when tibetans say, he develops into a demon :-))
missing the third eye of wisdom and the knowledge of emptyness) I would rather say he becomes Captain
Jack Sparrow. I wanted to post about the aspect of emptyness anyway, so I will do it now. Thank you
for reminding me.

2.8 Where comes the fun from?

I saw some time ago that for some people who have no experiences with it, it can be difficult to un-
derstand what is happening here. So I like to write a bit about it in a way that makes sense for the
practicing at this stage and also the more theoretical interested. If it doesn’t make sense at all, I would
recommend to do what you want, but do something :-))

If we take for example the feeling of invincibility. Realise that you feel invincible now, because you
are not there anymore. you probably haven’t noticed your disappearance, because you enjoyed the world
and your mind was completely in it. Well thats the thing here. nothing can touch you because there
is nothing but life. you see through yourself. but seeing through something means see nothing. there
is no something. just what is behind it, just what is there. namely the world. that is the way things
happen in this practice, you are disappearing before you realise it. but thats possible because “you”
’ve never been there at all. we are creating so much energy, joy and lust for the world that you kind
of jump into the world before you can realize it. leaving “you” behind. means leaving nothing behind.
thats why you haven’t noticed it. you didn’t miss anything in this world of lust, bliss and joy, did you?
because you realize that there never has been anything (but sometimes people don’t realize that this
is why they are so happy now. they don’t realize because there isn’t anybody there anymore to realise it.)

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 you are acting but it is not that “you” did it - it happens out of the moment and it has already
happened before “you” came into the game. forget what you heard about the dying of the ego or
killing the ego and all the ********. there is nothing to die. these are metaphors that want to bring
some radicality into the game to make something clear. but of course they are not so useful, because
no human being wants to leave somebody dying alone behind or kill somebody (especially not if it is
yourself :-). one would want to safe him and it will strengthen this way the illusion that there is somebody.

Now try to do the following, say to yourself: “Aah, I am already that far, I did a great practice, I
am faster than the others, I am better. I will hide that I know that I am better and they will not see
it. so they can not give me problems or attack me. but I know. I made myself invincible. I can do
that. I always knew it would turn out l like this. I was already better as a child. I knew it before. I
am different. I am a very talented person. I am something special.” While doing this, you will feel that
it is somehow painful, it puts a kind of burden on you. you now have to carry something. it changes
your naturally appearing feeling of invincibility into something personal, something you did. you put
something in between you and the world that you can’t get rid off easily. there is something you have
to walk around now, to get contact to other people. notice that this is suffering. a human needs direct
contact to others, he needs to be touched by people and by the world directly. this great looking “I” is
a kind of fat heavy chicken, an old chewing gum, a cake of pure sugar, a plug for everything flowing, a
terrible weight to carry. that’s why it has to do so much advertising. So simply go back to the joy of the
world. The ego is not a thing, it is a doing. so if you stop, it disappears.

Your invincibility was true and honest (what they call divine pride) before we made the experiment
and let the ego abuse it, reshape it and put it as plug into the sink. from now on the water would rise
and suffering in all forms appear. pull the plug, and you will not need the plumber. or a new house.

Notice also that you can easily switch on the level of energy you have achieved. by simply forgetting
what you read and look back into the world. forget it and see around you, feel the pleasure of your body
again. come back into reality, which is always there for you. will always be there for you. waiting for
you to come home and reunite.

All the things Loco is writing are as wrong as they are right. They mean nothing compared to your
experience.

2.9 Troubleshooting 3: Equalising

If you get into all kinds of strange states and can not hold the breath long, there is often an easy solution
called “Equalising”. It means that both sides of the lung should be filled with the absolute same amount
of air. After you breath in and hold, check if both sides of the lung really feel the same. humans have a
quite precise feeling for this.

Fill the side of the lung that has less volume by closing the opposite nostril (with a finger) and bend
the thorax a bit to the opposite side while inhaling into the less filled side of the lung. Check again.
After a short time you maybe learn to control with your mind which side of the lung you want to activate
when you inhale. you can also close the opposite nostril just 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 and regulate the in-flow in
this way (I do this).

If the lungs are filled with the same amount of air, hold the breath and continue with the exercise.

Once sensitised for this you will see that unpleasant states in daily life are also correlating with
asymmetric filled lungs. After progress in tummo you will feel that your body always fills both sides of
the lung absolutely symmetrical without your assistance.

Within short time your maximum lung expansion will increase (which is healthy for nearly every-
thing).

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 (The traditional way to solve the problem is to inhale first 75%, check and wait a bit, then inhale the
rest of the 25% with short breaths. Sometimes works, sometimes not. The ancient explanation says the
“energy” enters the “psychic nerves” or channels instead of flowing into the system causing troubles, if
the lungs are symmetrically filled.)

2.10 Troubleshooting 4: Half-hearted practise, headaches, hot head

You maybe remember that the processes of dying, sex and tummo are related. In the process of dying
there is a time when the wrathful deities appear. This is in Tummo when the pain/shaking appears and
heat burns through the channels. (That’s why Tummo-masters sometimes don’t take other practices so
serious, because it shows that masters of other traditions can not stand even the wrathful deities when
the mind is still connected to the body. this in their tibetan concept of course means, that when you die
you will be taken away by them easily (no body no safetynet) the amount of energy with that one will
be confronted after death is simply underestimated they say. good motivation he? ;-)).

But we still have a body :-)), if “wrathful deities” appear and we give up (stop too early) and let
us take away with them there can only appear some unpleasant sideeffects/states. Here is what to do then.

The first inbreath after the exercise is often not deep and complete then. people have a tendency to
take fresh air in short breaths as soon as the exhalation is completed. This is known as “The rebounding
of the air”. “The process here indicated consists of expelling the air of the exhalation forcibly, so that
the lungs are completely emptied to the very bottom, and then refilling the lungs completely to the very
bottom by slowly drawing in the inspiration.”

If you got somehow a kind of headache put your palms on the head, above the ears, on the temporal
bones on the left and right side and press both together to the middle nearly as strong as you can (!), do
the same with front/back/sides. experiment. find the spot where the pain stops and keep the pressure
then. often its gone afterwards. helps against most (bloodpressure/vesselcontractioninduced) headaches
of everyday life too.

If you got a staying “red or hot head”, sometimes combined with a feverlike weakness and maybe
angry/grumpy mood, take an icecold shower. let the water run over the skull and the back along the
spine downwards, until its better. This is not a sign of success like you can often read in internet forums.
It means that you transformed energy only into bodily heat instead of transcendental heat, have not
gotten the ability to regulate it.

Once the connection between head and butt is established and “burned through” or clean all this can
not happen anymore.

“The head stays then where the butt is” tibetans say, meaning you stay in the moment effortlessly.
the head (intellect) is connected to the pelvis (instincts/feelings) and they are not wanting different
things at the same time anymore. they now know about each/are the same because they are closely and
seamlessly connected (I think in a probably neurological way, feels very physical).

2.11 Troubleshooting: Unfree Breath [from Sneezes and Breezes post]

There is also an exercise where you sit down in meditation posture, one crosses his left and right index
finfinger with extended arms over the head and moves the arms quickly (like chopping) down and to
the respective side of the body (left to left/right to right) while shouting out HA! (very strong and with
a deep voice) and breathing out through the nose at the same time. (LOL, but works...) for those
interested: helps also in tummo if the breath feels unfree somehow or when you get stuck in a black
objectless space that is not emptiness (”not-hot-not-cold-hell”) and is somehow related to deep sleep and
you can not really move. it catapults you out immediately into a very serious but clean mood.

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2.12 Books: Nearly all the details
Luckily I found the the best version of “Tibetan Yogas and the secret doctrines” on the net. It includes
nearly all details. Together with the videos and the thread you have much more information than most
lamas ;-) and it should be useable (and I don’t need to type it all). Here is the link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35504018/Tibetan-Yoga-and-Secret-Doctrines

Question 12 1/7: about the lower abdomen you say “6. Train it a while to find out how it opens
the heart after releasing it. Notice also the joy.” - Is the heart component important?

All energy systems have two components: producing energy and distributing it to the right place.
the contraction at the root is producing energy while the diaphragm distributes it upward. both factors
are important to avoid unnecessary problems, but if you are tough enough you could also simply flood
the system with energy and wait, like some other spiritual systems do. the heart component brings in a
very personal, loving, light, open, fresh quality and balances the predator/animal like power that appears.

Question 12/7: The breath is hold inside the thorax/rib cage with the diaphragm pressing it up and
the chin look holding it down, right? Is there any pressure towards the navel?

Yes, a little inward upward under the navel resulting from the diaphragm “flying high”. rather ef-
fortless like when a young boy sees a beautiful women and naturally draws himself to his full height.
And: If you find the place to lock in the diaphragm it rests there naturally and it doesn’t feel so much
like pressing it up.

Question 12 3/7: When you say hold the breath for about one and a half minute, is that after you
have inhaled?
Yes

Question 12 4/7: Do you inhale slowly or rapidly?

Normal-slowly

Question 12 5/7: The shakings/ wave number 1,2,3, are they all occurring within one holding of
breath?
Yes. They will get softer after some progress, but first one has to survive them :-)

Question 12 6/7: Was there anything permanent left after you stopped doing the practice or was
all the progress, all effects lost?

Concerning the bodily effects, I would say its lost Yes. f.e. I still wear only t-shirts in winter in NY
but it gets sometimes cold, wounds do not heal within a day anymore and and after love I am sleepy,
etc, etc.
The mental aspect of the experience has burned itself into my brain and I will never be able to forget it.
Some days my body is seeking the old energylevel does the exercise by itself
The mental aspect of the experience has still an impact on my life, probably because I know I can go
every time I want into a state that knows neither harm nor fear and get from the world what I want ;-).
(became wealthy from the readiness to play the game of life to the fullest, a sometimes seen result of
that development. when object, subject and action are one, you know what to do and do it in the right
moment, you don’t ask anymore) on that background phenomenons like fear, pain and suffering do not
appear dangerous or unpleasant to me but are a deepening part of life and make the whole thing round.
I like them somehow, especially when they get strong.

Question 12 7/7: Has this helped you with your other practices?

I still have an rather easy access to mahamudra and it actualises quickly when I meet somebody
who has it or somebody I love. the joy of beeing together then is not describable. I have access to one

16
or two states that would probably be called jhanas here but I haven’t seen them described. I probably
don’t take practices that don’t know mahamudra so seriously anymore, but I am still experimenting
and still open. And curious. The problem with mahamudra seems to be (in my case) that once you’ve
experienced it, you don’t need to manifest it or anything anymore, because you now know that it is there
and always will be there no matter what you think you have attained or not attained. there is no better
and no worse and we were all safe and secure from the beginning.

2.13 Background expansion and contraction

Energies: If one describes phenomena as energy movements one normally refers to sensations like stream-
ing, flowing, tingling, pulsing, warmth, musclecontractions etc. These phenomena can be described in
a 3rd person or scientific perspective also. it is useful to do this in cases where we want to find what
precisely is happening and not so much how it feels for the person who experiences the phenomenon.

The body can be seen as a skin-balloon filled with liquids namely blood and lymph (around 70% of
you is pure water). If we look closer, we see that on a cellular/microscopic level the cells are bathing
in these liquids like in an ocean and that blood/lymph vessels on this level are pipes/tubes with an
open end, so that all the stuff is more or less swimming and floating in the soup. what floats where, is
regulated by muscles around the vessels that can contract or relax, making the tubes narrow or wide. if
we have a picture of ourselves in mind as an walking ocean we are not wrong.

If we look now what these liquids in different states of mind do, we can see the following: in states
that are positive and beneficial, the pipes are opened and blood flows from core to the surface, the skin.
we experience this as expansion, and the receptors in the skin feel warmth because the blood from the
core of the body is warmer than the one from the surface. perhaps you have realised that in the heat
of pleasure your partner has red cheeks, thick lips, huge pupils, warm skin etc. this is because blood is
sent to the surface to increase the ability to feel there, vessels are relaxing what feels like inner pressure
falls off. women simulate the state by putting color on their cheeks and lips and darken their eyes to
look inviting and use all kinds of lotion to get soft skin. if the environment is warm the same thing is
happening, because the body doesn’t need to take care of getting cooled out and sends the blood to the
surface to rather cool itself down.

On the other hand if it is cold, blood flows from the surface to the center (better isolated rooms) to
keep the temperature, one gets pale and blue thin lips, it feels like a contraction. the same happens in
states of fear, hostile environment or danger because when you are wounded in a fight the loss of blood
through wounds in the limbs can be dangerous. the blood is kept to the middle, one gets cold hands and
legs, feels tension and starts to shiver like it would be cold. the inner organs necessary for survival are
served first. if we speak of a cold person we mean somebody who is not contributing to our pleasure.

So these are the two important directions liquids can flow in the body: to the surface or to the center.
one is expansion, the other is contraction.

Tummo now brings the body in a state of constant expansion. which feels good of course and warm.
if you go out into a very cold environment, your body will react with contracting to keep warm. even
the muscles of your skinhair will contract (what we call goose bumps.)

Through your practice you experienced resistance and friction, the plugged and unclean channels one
can clearly feel (which are the psychoactive micromuscletubes around the blood vessels, here described as
nadis or energy channels). you got rid of their subtile tensions through tummo practice, kind of burned
them away and opened the whole system.

If you go into the cold they will reappear, because contraction and tension in these subtle structures
reappear (a body reflex).

17
 It’s a way to test the ability to bring the body back into a state of expansion and pleasure. By
doing this, one is showing that one is able to do the same, one learned to do with contractions that were
caused by states of fear and psychic tension. Burn them away and lead the organism back into a state
of expansion and pleasure. (The cooled out blood from the surface will circle back and give your body
(Thalamus) the information to keep the heating system on)

It shows for the Tibetans one has mastered fear and contraction.

And the ego altogether of course is seen as a (subtle but deep form of) contraction.

2.14 Locating Yourself

It might be helpful to locate oneself from time to time on the map. If you [check] Tibetan Yoga and
Secret Doctrines ... Look around page 198. There are some stages of progress described. You can see
there also how you will experience the elements transform into each other.

There is also another possibility transmitted from mouth to ear for the earlier stages:

Breath in. Point with the right finger at the place in front of your nose from where you feel you took
the breath in. Measure with the other hand how many fingers away this place is from the tip of the nose.

• 16 fingers: the element of space is taken up

• 12 fingers: the element of air is taken up

• 8 fingers: the element of heat is taken up
• 4 fingers: the element of liquidity is taken up
• At the nostrils: The solid element is taken up

I recommend to take the breath from 16 fingers, but it will happen naturally anyway with progress
(it’s is always difficult to manipulate the breath without getting counter reactions).

Question 13: Ive had a interest in tummo for a while and I’m enjoying practicing the preliminaries.
I wonder if its best to keep the breath retention to 1.30min when practicing actual tummo. I imagine the
breath retention may naturally become longer. Any comment much appreciated.

Usually it is said that the more energy the body can store, the longer one can hold the breath. the
times given are 30sec for a normal person, 60 secs for a healthy person (athlete) and from 90 secs up for
a yogi (this is when effects are likely to start in a way that they change the real biochemistry).

My experience is that both is true the breath retention may become longer naturally, but it is also
necessary to put some effort in it to get a kind of quantum leap. there is an analogy I read of somebody
who hits 2 firestones against each other only one time. one can do this ones whole life without getting fire.

for me it was always easier to get the suffering intense and short, kind of dive through, than having
it long and moderate. but there are schools who do tummo softer, it feels a bit more gentle than and
the result is more like what Kenneth induces with his MM-techniques, it has a more mental and bright
qualitiy than this radical physical transforming.

I don’t know if you can melt snow with the soft approach (I didn’t try it), but it might not be the
most important aspect in times of snowblowers.

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 Question 14: Do you need to be able to hold the breath for two minutes for any effects to occur? If
I aim for doing one hour sessions with one minute retentions, will this amount to nothing?

Around 2 minutes something different usually happens, one can get results at 70-90 secs and stay
there a bit to acclimatise first and harvest all the fruits. 1 minute is a bit short honestly.

2.15 Alternative to Tsa Lung

[I’ve heard from several sources that it is a very good safeguard to already have cleaned the channels
somewhat before getting involved in forceful techniques with chakras, vase-breath etc.]

What is normally meant by cleaning the energy system is to remove tensions. There is no tension in
the body, that is not muscular (including deep muscular fibers around guts (peristaltic), organs, vessels).
there is no muscle that contracts without a nerval impulse to contract. there is no nerval impulse that
doesn’t originally come from the brain and the psyche. thats the way it works. and thats why awareness
is the golden key to everything.

I don’t recommend to loose too much time with preliminaries or other kinds of watering-can-principle-
exercises (i will post why later). A tibetologist told me that 90% of the monks in tibetan monasteries
don’t finish their ngondro (in their whole live).

If you don’t like the Tsa Lung, try the following exercise. It is strong, I have seen it in different
cultures, from monasteries to therapeutic practices:

Make a tight roll out of a blanket with a diameter of minimum of the length of your hand or bigger
(with a second blanket). bind it together so that your body can roll on it. Put it on the ground. Lay
down above it, so that it is below your pelvis. your legs are ”standing” having a 90 degree angle, feet
are on the ground.

If you let your feet walk now the blanket roll can slowly role under your body to the direction of the
head, doesn’t it? Ok.

1. Put your arms behind your head, let your head fall back as if in surrender. See the position in the
picture.

Figure 4: position with blanket roll for the alternative to Tsa Lung

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 2. Open your mouth and start breathing through it. Full capacity, easy, powerful, sensual, gentle
taking care of you, we are in tantric practice. Feel.

2a. Make sure your mother in law is not in the room next to you.

3. Make a sound Aaaah like a sigh with every beginning outbreath. (use ”kaaah” if you like it tibetan
:-), aaah is more natural). Prolong it over the the full length. Normally you will feel an inhibition to
make that sound and let yourself go (thats how you keep up the tension) Let your inhibition go. Let
yourself go. Keep breathing fully during the exercise.

3. Start with the role under your gluteus maximus (buttock) massaging the muscle and let it move up
slowly, vertebra after vertebra. Feel. Find the places with tension along the spine, stay there a bit and
breath into the tension until you can let go of it, simply feel the tension, move up and down a bit with
the role, massaging it. Remember to breath and make the sound, relax into it. It’s not about control or
doing it right. Do what feels good.

4. You can address tensions in the throat by letting the head fall back and pulling the chin in the
opposite direction of the chest, so that the muscles that go from chin to chest are stretched. (Your voice
will sound deeper and relaxed)

5. After finishing, stay on the ground a bit, relax. then turn to the side first and get up from there.
Because your muscles are relaxed first, they can not support you in the first moments afterwards. A bit
of a soar might appear later.

With this exercise you can work all the nerval plexi through and clean up all the places along the
spine from the pelvis to the head (what is called chakras in sanskrit). It helps to relax the deep muscles
along the spine without wearing the more superficial ones out (like some yogic systems do) and makes
the liquor move. It is triggering the physiological components of enlightenment. The head falls back to
straighten the pharynx and to use the full lung capacity (like done in first aid).

You can influence a bit the effects by the diameter of the role.

If feelings come up, keep breathing. Everything is ok.

With tensions removed, try tummo again afterwards or after a few days of doing this practice (some
people feel so well or enlightened, that they don’t like to do any other exercises afterwards. That’s ok
too. Try it later)

Question 15: This morning I did 25 minutes of Tummo starting from 80 second retentions and
working my way up to 100 seconds. I did the last round for 120 seconds without much straining and
something new took place during the last ten seconds. My whole body started to dissolve and the ground
beneath me felt soft. I am sure that I was not losing my consciousness at that point yet. Some side effect
perhaps? Antero

It seems to me that you could be at a crossing. If you like change to the following exercise (at this
level no tsa lung or anything else is necessary):

1. Do the tummo like you used to, but visualise with the in breath a white light in the lowest chakra.
Experience 2 qualities of the light: bliss and void. 10 long breaths (as you are used to), like charging the
energy up in that chakra. Resting always a bit in the void and expand after one retention. The feeling
of expansion balances a bit the contractions and leads the mind to what is called the white light (which
also normal people can experience when they die)

2. Then take the next higher chakra until you end at the crown. Always 10 breath retentions long
for one chakra. Take specially care for the throat and the one 4 fingers below the navel.

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 3. If you are up at the crown you can go down again chakra per chakra, having the feeling of an
overflowing waterfall, cascade or melting fluid dropping down in the next light, flowing down from chakra
to chakra.

This is to change a bit the quality from cleaning/catharsis to overflow and enlightenment and create
surplus. If you go simply in the direction of prolonging the breath retention you come more into the
“magical” fields hinted to in the former posts.

This exercise is pretty close to the snow melting thing you asked for.

Question 16, (regarding the last 3rd point): At what point is this visualization of a waterfall done?
Does the basic visualization technique described in No. 1 change when coming down?

Yes, in the sense that all chakras are already fully filled when you arrive at the top. you see then the
whole system shining and stable. then you visualise the highest chakra melting and let light drop down
along a very thin fiber (like a spiders) into the next lowest (to create a feeling for slow downward flowing
energy). now this one overflows (waterfall) over into the next lowest. don’t forget to fill the feet at the
beginning and the end if you are sitting.

The name [of the technique] is Nam-mkhai-ba which ’means cow of heavens’ and points to the hindu
technique ’ gradually milking the nektar amrita from the cow of the heavens’. It is used to create what
is called secret psychic heat (other than f.e. transcendental heat)

2.16 Entering the next level

You probably made it faster than in the traditional mentioned 6 weeks. Nobody knows why, but west-
erners are extremely talented for this practice. some say because desire is the main ingredient of our
mind, thats why we were born here. Others say that our mind is so trained in processing informations
and concentration (education systems) that it does everything faster, even dying.

The mind’s two deepest forces are sexuality and aggression. You can label it as the drive of replica-
tion and survival (biological), eros and thanatos (psychological) or clinging and rejection (Buddhists).
It always comes down to this two. They are also correlating to the both channels left and right to
the central channel. Notice that one (sexuality/eros/clinging) has the tendency to put things together
into one, unite, while the other has a tendency to break something apart, into pieces. So they are the
elementary forces in nature also. Of course the world is held together by love but there would be no
dynamic or movements possible if there was not aggression. Anyway we kind of utilised these two forces
by using/contracting the areas of the body associated with them.

So nobody can tell you where on the other side of the river you landed. tummo brought you here.
where you landed depends on how you were composed of this two forces.

If you had more sexuality/clinging and uniting forces in you, your experience will be dominated by
bliss, pleasure, joy, touchiness, togetherness, we, and if you had more aggression/selfpreservation it will be
dominated by calmness, emptiness, clearness, void, silence, centeredness. But the state you are in some-
how combines this two ingredients in a very mystical way that can not be well describes, only experienced.

So one of the next things that will happen is that suddenly you might have a kind of development you
didn’t expect. It can happen that you are entering fields of experience, which show themselves to you.
These are the roams of being or 6 lokas. Sometimes before it starts the following happens: You have the
feeling you don’t have to breath anymore, you feel comfortable without breathing. If that happens have
an eye on the watch. stick around in the 2 minutes area.

1. (sexuality/clinging-types) You have probably heard of practices in the SM-scene where people used
breath restriction to increase their ecstasy and and end up choked. Also you might have heard of the

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macabre sounding cases that people who die or were hung get an erection in the moment of death. All
this is pointing to one phenomenon. After all the fireworks and the final calmness you have experienced,
there will come another last ecstasy.

It can feel like the last overwhelming huge army of warm expanding autumn light is marching. the
mother of all sunsets. Enjoy, but don’t get drunk, if you have experience with it do emptiness :-),
disidentify. What comes is much better, clean and pure. It will show itself, don’t try to trigger it. Enjoy
the friendly warmth but don’t cling to it, like someone who lives in a hotel enjoys everything, but doesn’t
think it’s his. Don’t fall completely into it, because you can get unconscious. Balance it. Not in, not out.

2. Some people have a more unspectacular version and open the gates to death directly and radical
(the aggression-types).

Question 17: Ha! That sounds interesting [point 2]. And what’s up with the body dissolving – floor
melting thingy Antero mentioned up thread?

Yeah, lets talk about Antero in the 3rd person :-)). (In the brackets how much I bet on it, remember
they are not official text citations, just descriptions of me). It’s very interesting to me because he has a
lot of experience with other techniques and I am curious if he finds something similar in tummo. could
be that its simply a new technique and everybody has to start from the beginning, could be that he is
jumping.

The thing with him is that he is describing in his journal a state well known in psychology (first
described by Wilhelm Reich) which has the funny side effects of something named orgasm-reflex, means
if the organism is free of any tension a wave of sensation from time to time wanders up from the pelvis
to the head. psychic tension is freely floating through the organism and unloads in microbursts or mi-
croshiverings in mimics or muscles. one can see that when one watches a baby sleeping in its face.

I hesitate to interpret the experience cause the only objective information I have is the time of breath
retention and I don’t want to influence the process, because there is nothing more disturbing when you
enter a new level and it is interpreted in an older context. I would need to get into the practice and meet
to tune in but I am just describing from my memories (I will maybe do tummo/snow melting around
february with a dutch friend in Soho/NY, depends on private factors) So now, this is the entertainment
section:

it could be the transforming of the solid element into water. it would have been preceded then by
very powerful feelings like a mixture between rockstar and the calmness of a predator, tiger etc. (mastery
of the earth element) and being followed by a very gentle open perception of the world, easy, sensual,
flowing, feeling like a child, sensitive, innocent, loving to touch solid things like the earth (kids playing in
the sand), walls and recognizing how they protect and support you, how the world and the ground carry
you walking through them full of wonders in an uncomplicated, friendly and natural way. the liquid
aspect of the world loves the solid because it gives hold and direction and lets it flow and snuggle into
the flow. You will know from where the metaphor of jesus walking on water comes. (2 beers)

it could be what is called all-voidness, meaning internal and external void at the same time. internal
void could maybe be related to arhatship in mctb/small vehicle where one experiences completely that
the ego is not existing. therefore reality gets very important and people get realistic and down to earth
and turn to their senses and sense perceptions. they are literally coming to their senses. (its what freud
described as the person becoming an object of nature and an subject of its own history) the result is
liberation from suffering. the experience that the real environment is also empty is called external void,
this is experienced not in an “as if” way but very factual und more difficult to achieve. the environment is
included here into enlightenment and the experience of emptiness. the result is achieving the 6 liberating
actions and freedom from suffering. to manifest external and internal void both at the same time is a
high attainment. (1 beer)

it could also be his body is opening in direction of the 6 lokas. it disapears to get receptive to other

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fields of being. this feels like if one is entering a different country, or in diving when one enters a different
temperature zone, a welcoming feeling and the a kind of direct transference of knowledge without think-
ing that everything in the world is alive and intelligent (also things) and then a change of viewpoint.
in my case the first that appear was the animal kingdom, then the worlds of gods, then one of the not
cold/not hot hells. animal kingdom first is often (could be brain chemistry), the rest I don’t know. (1
box of beer)

It could be also the better known changes of body or the transference of consciousness into somebody
else. I don’t know anybody who has experience with this, works like this: if you let yourself fall into clear
light totally and get unconscious kind of a sec before you wake up you can concentrate on somebody or a
certain landscape to direct consciousness. you will only know that you’ve been disappeared/unconscious
from reconstructing time afterwards, consciousness is switched off. you will have somebody elses life
experience then, don’t make me responsible for that one, I don’t believe in rebirth at all ( btw this is
not normal phowa). and I don’t know how to get out :-) (1 banana)

Question 18: I’m now practicing about 25min of tummo and finding pleasant warmth noticable es-
pecially around the root chakra and throughout the body. I also find I feel energised by the practice and
it really stills the mind so its good do do before my regular meditation. I wonder if its possible to reach
the higher stages without doing visualisations.

There are 2 bodily signs that indicate the 1st step in progress (= energies entering the central channel):

1. The amount of air that goes through the left and the right nostrils is exactly the same

2. The pressure of inbreath and outbreath is the same. Normal people feel a kind of resistance
(higher pressure) when they breath in and a lower pressure when they breath out (I think so, I
don’t remember it anymore ;-)).
3. 1stperson: Things have a kind of enjoyable cleanness.

There were all kinds of variations of the practice invented which has to do with tibetan monastery
politics and political power (the others are always making it wrong). if you got the signs 1 and 2 try it
both with or without visualisation and report back what you think if you like.

(normally if the energies enter the central channel they have no other way to go than up and after-
wards down, thats kind of the cool thing in this practice. this is why some people call it a technique
with autopilot. it will show the way.)

2.17 Visualisation/Concentration and entry points into the central channel

For those who like to practice the soft-core-version of tummo I called a friend yesterday who told me
about a newer book with good description around the peaceful version: Clear Light of Bliss, by Geshe
Kelsang Gyatso.

It also has some (uncensored) infos about which entry point into the central channel leads to which
results on page 32. Some systems leave some points out to not include sexual development. The entry
points can be visualised as very small vacuoles in the middle of the lights (but remember mahamudra
is a objectless state, so visualisations can eventually lead away from it, if not done very subtle and in
combination with void/emptiness. so what ever might speak for them, to simply concentrate on a point
could be nearer to the goal. in the end it depends on how empty one can visualise something :-))

Also the descriptions of stages later in the book seem to be the first ok version on the market and
explain correctly how the sequence turns around after the clear light, rare.

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2.18 The Tube
If the winds which carry the consciousness enter the central channel: where is your consciousness now?
exactly. inside the central channel. that means you are experiencing to be inside a channel or a tube.
look up now there is an opening above you. the feeling that you get is one of tremendous joy. something
like winds or turbulences are carrying you up there if you let go of your convictions or move by will. you
are moving toward a brightness or deep deep release and a miraculous feeling of overwhelming wonder.
there is an exciting accelerations feelable. you will be catapulted out into pure space and understand
what a wonder it all is. there is so much out there and it has been there for so long. you are like a clown
levitating in the universe speechless, unwanting to move and overwhelmed by the uncountable stars all
around him, each of them a complete and new world. it is so much more playful and free than you
allowed yourself to hope (we are leaving tummo and entering phowa territory here, I stop here)

take a holiday if you come back at the heart area if it fits for you, to experience completely how
precious it is to be born as a human. not because of what you are in everydayconsciousness but because
of your immense potential to be everything. the human in humans is a treasurechest.

the channel is the same that normal people experience when they die. it can happen early in practice
that’s why I mention it here, some people get it already during tsa lung, when they feel a vibration or
light tube around them. you will understand then that this is not some exotic meditation technique but
the most intimate and personal experience of yourself. you will remember that you already know it and
it happened to you a thousand times or better you did it a thousand times before. the wonder of the
incarnation of devine energy. it is so natural this coming and going and such a wonder at the same time.

2.19 Rebirth
There is no such thing as being reborn without wanting it.

2.20 Hints
If tuned into tummo-mode and you breath, breath in and out through your ears. (let go of the visual.
it has the ability to focus/stop things. the ears can’t stop, they take what is there).

There is mahamudra directly after sneezing.

Those of you with a love for extremesports: there is One Taste the millisecond before the extreme,
when it glides into the extreme (or extreme situation)

2.21 Gentlemen’s Section

There is a chakra at the top of the male organ which can be used as an entrypoint of the energies to create
deep sleep and a prolonged clear light of sleep. some people put instinctively their hand there before
they fall asleep.You might have experienced it after good sex. the sleep is deep and light at the same time.

It is important because it is used in the union-exercises with a companion. If you are in union find
the spot where the vagina/uterus is most sensitive. if you look down :-)) you can see that you are / this
system (vagina/uterus) is pretty exactly 4 fingers below the navel of her. this is no coincidence.

4 fingers below is the same chakra that is used to create heat in tummo. the man here is kind of
connected into the circuit of the woman. there are indications in the texts that a man can enlighten a
woman this way, even if I have to admit that my experience is normally the other way round :-)

If you concentrate on this spot you might feel, that it is possible that the energies enter her central
channel, means that the direction of your energies can turn around (if this happens the coordination

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between in/out-breath, in/out-movement of pelvis and head-movement might turn around also, because
it is in westerners normally paradox. That’s why we feel sleepy instead of refreshed afterwards. You can
also do it simply other than you would normally do it, to get it (more easy than to precisely describe it
for me))

This is the same process we induce with the tummo exercise, when we are alone. energies are turning
their direction because the usual doors are closed. the texts say that you become younger from there on
:-) if you want to do tummo only for health reasons, you just have to do the exercise to the point it creates
this turning of energies (usually after the first or second wave of shaking) and the thing is done for the day.

2.22 Troubleshooting: Emotions and Traumas

I got the impression that there is still an interest in how to handle side effects or unwanted emotions,
that’s why I uploaded some instructional videos to vimeo. They are about a technique that can be used
easily by everybody to get rid of unwanted emotions or to help others to do so. It’s well combinable with
a spiritual life, so it won’t interfere with your practice. Don’t be alienated by the 90s style of the video.
It’s a must to know this technique.

Here is the link where you can begin: http://vimeo.com/31293108

Question 19: What do you do if you get cloudy in the head, a bit spaced out and stupid? (This is
how I feel, not perhaps other’s impressions)

PS. Did something similar when i was sleeping a couple of weeks ago. Was freezing to death, got
an erection and the energy gave me an orgasm. Suddenly I felt something flex in my pelvis, without
me flexing the muscles in the perineum/anus at all. A ball of energy travelled through my body which
immediately became hot.

Diagnosis: uprising energy but only a part in the central channel. Points to a problem for the organ-
ism letting energies flow down outside the channel over the front side. very common for beginners.

Explanation: If energy rises up inside the central channel it creates cleanness, and when coming
down bliss (or what in the tibetan system is called 4 blisses).

If it rises up outside the channel it creates feelings and normal emotions (associated in our culture
with male qualities) like f.e. activity, aggression, taking control of something. etc. (notice how your
back muscles get activated, when someone attacks and you make yourself big and start to walk like a
gorilla, the body activates them to get ready to do or fight something, if you have a good self perception
you can also feel the energy go from the back to the muscles in your shoulders and arms ready to hit
somebody, you can feel it in the hands fingertips (associated with doing) when adrenalin rushes in.

(Insertion: Forearms: If you have itching in the forearms after doing tummo - a very common prob-
lem - it could be a probably longer suppressed aggressions which ended in anesthesia/lameness of the
muscles. making a fist, when you get aggressive is a transcultural unconscious reflex that can be seen
even in youngest children, it’s not really psychological. these muscles have the function to ”make fists or
do something about it”, they are located in the forearms and not so much in the hands and have been
numbed to not feel the chronic tensions and conflict and keep the rest of the system functioning. you feel
that live is coming back into them through tummo. if strong it can drive you crazy because the conflict
of ”want to do/but don’t allow yourself” becomes conscious again. it usually disappears with time. you
can also use catharsis to get rid of it.)

if the energy goes down outside the central channel it takes the front side of the body and creates
love, surrender, giving up, giving in, letting go. you might have experienced when everything gets too
much the body starts to cry (shaking of the chest, diaphragm and belly) to get rid of held back energy
on the front side and create a flow down to the ground (grounding, getting in contact with reality again,

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standing on your own feet). same movements when you start to laugh. feel the release of tension in it.
realize also the bliss after crying or laughing long and fully. it’s related to state we are looking for.

All this has to do with the times when we were standing on 4 feet and exposed the back to the
environment and the sensitive belly to the ground to hide it from aggressors (easy to get to the organs
there, predators like to attack there). when we got on 2 feet we had to expose our vulnerable front also
and became human meaning to be vulnerable and sensitive without having to hide it. we still show love
by letting our front sides and hearts touch when we embrace somebody.
there is balance in the organism if the same amount of energy can flow up as can flow down, if the
ability to charge up is the same as to discharge. Lets say 10 units rising up, 3 in the central channel,
means 7 left. if one can discharge only 4 units through the ability to let go/give in to the process, there
are 3 units left to create all kinds of psychosomatic symptoms. they remain in muscles and vesselcon-
tractions, discharge through nerves tingling, or produce other symptoms and whatever normally happens
when feelings are not allowed to be expressed (discharged) or perceived.

2.23 Therapy
Try to get a session with Kenneth to get a feeling for mahamudra or practice his methods first. other
than this, his way is rather free from sideffects. it is very useful to have the neurons connected in the
right pattern before you make an energy highway out of the thin paths. if you want to do it the energetic
way only because of the nice snow melting etc. and problems appear, use these methods to solve problems:

All generally speaking not to somebody specific:

1. technical: have you pressed the chin against the chest during tummo? there is a system that
regulates the blood pressure at the sides of the throat. it is stimulated by this bandha and should help
to reduce blood pressure and dizziness.

2. technical: don’t press against the pressure you feel, relax into it. a lighter dizziness is normal and
will disappear after a week or shorter, but it shouldn’t be disorienting or painful.

3. reduce the amount of energy rising: just hold the breath without contractions and concentrate. the
moment you feel a bit uncomfortable, let go. see if you can get a stable cleanness. once the energies enter
the central channel you can increase the amount of energy you send up (prolong the time or contract
a bit). be sensitive when you feel that something goes up outside of the channel, because your ability
to discharge the energy via feelings and self-expression like constructive aggression (making things clear,
give direction to things, stop abusive behavior, etc.) must have time to grow with the amount of energy.

4. increase the ability to discharge: don’t be afraid to be weak, be open to discharging feelings like
honesty, sadness, crying, laughing etc. giving in to the process will provide a symptom free path. Let
go of controlling or patterns “being always stronger”. power, activity and control are not everything.
I know everybody is talking about how to rise kundalini, but its useless if one can not utilise it and
develop wisdom. it’s just another drug then.

5. biological discharge:

5.a. if energy rises up too fast there is another possibility to discharge for the organism than to fight
which is: flight, 45min on the running machine/crosstrainer and the thing is done. natural grounding of
energy through the leg and stimulation of the feet through ground contact. natural

5.b catharsis: this one is funny! find another expression for the feeling than the symptom. try to dis-
charge the muscles, exhaust them until it is gone f.e. in the forearms via wringing out a towel, shouting,
hitting a mattress with a racket, act crazy (when you are unobserved) there is a “crazy man yoga”

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 5.c (congratulation for the erection btw). the organism can often uses another exit to discharge
energy which is masturbation. the problem is, if done without emotional commitment, it might end up
in discharging the central channel while leaving the rest as messed up as it is, then you are literally
f******-up and feel like your arm when your girlfriend slept the whole night on it. texts say to not
engage into sexuality when beginning tummo. try it out. and also the opposite.

6. treat it as a symptom: first massage this point circular (KI9 Zhubin) for 3 minutes with medium
pressure to come down in a soft way. [The point is] 4 fingers+2thumbs up from the medial and 1 thumb
behind the shinbone, it’s pretty antipsychotic and very pleasant. Then use this one: LI 11 to get clarity
in your mind.

7. use the exercise in [section 2.14] to correct the flow of up- and down going energies.

8. use the EFT - method of [section 2.21] to get rid of uncovered neurotic or traumatic material.

Question 20: Will the practice of Tummo by itself lead to enlightenment? Or is it best done as a
supportive practice to other techniques: noting, self-enquiry, etc.?

Tummo is part of what is called “the path of tools” which leads to enlightenment (whatever that
means). it is the basic exercise of the 6 yogas of Naropa. a lot of people do only this all their life. if
you have mastered it, you can go to the other 5 yogas, if you are heading for enlightenment you would
choose “illusory body” next, if you need to kill 1000 brahmans first, you would choose “phowa” ;-), etc,
etc.

for the “path of tools” it is important that enlightenment is the NATURAL state of mind, attained
from a place which is called “Non-meditation” means “not poisoned by the efforts of meditation” (3rd
Karmapa). So the “tools” let the needed qualities arise spontaneously (!) in the mind, for example:
calmness without shamata practice, cleanness without etc., etc. To use the tools for other meditation
will work, but is in a sense paradox. (by the way, Kenneth’s practices include some of the important
mechanisms of these tools, self inquire seems to be a very, very combination with tummo for me, it is
related to illusory body).

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3 Checklist
1st week:
Lying, start with the pelvic muscles pulsing easy, slightly, quickly, 1 set is 50-200 repetition, also during
the day whenever possible, let the breath be as it is, relax

2st week:
Time
In the morning?
Not eaten yet?

(start 9 breaths of purification easy and gentle)

start Tsa lung easy and gentle as seen in the video
(I decided to take [practicing to hold your breath 90 seconds] out and added the 9 breaths of purification
instead. it is gentler now. it will help to eliminate sideeffects this way. the truth is that one can not
completely objectify the time, cause some people have f.e. smaller lungs in relation to their weight. it
depends on age, female/male, training, altitude you life in (tibet is 6000m), genetics.)

3rd week:
(9 breaths of purification)
Tsa lung Train the breath, hold it longer during Tsa Lung

Add Tummo:

- Time
In the morning?
Not eaten yet?

- Position standing
Toes a bit to the outside?
Knees slightly bent?
Thumbnail pressed indexfingernail? rest of the fingers extend?
thoracic spine straight?

- Position sitting
A bit weight on the bent wrists on the thighs, because of this thoracic spine straight?
fists included the thumb but index finger extend?

1. Inhale :
75%
Same amount of air in both lungs?
sternum a bit up/proud/forward? also means thoracic spine straight? vertebrae like if you put coins
over each other?
Pulled lowerbelly in? diaphragm a bit pulled upwards?

1b Chin against the chest?

Contraction pelvic muscles
backwards?
frontside?
symmetrically contracted?
stronger possible?

2. Hold
not pressuring? let it happen, relax but keep an eye on the posture and pelvic contractions. concentrate
on one of the spots

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 3. Refill completely and correct lung volumina
spotconcentration?
(Clarification: hold the 75% and then fill up to 100%. Don’t exhale the 75%. Keep them in and add the
missing 25%. Some people will find that they are able to add another and another step with some %
because their lungs got elastic. You can do that too if it feels natural to you. The sense is 1. to prolong
the exercise and 2. not to start with 100% because it can create a tendency in some people to press
against the inner pressure of the full lungs which raises bloodpressure (like trumpetplayers) and is not
needed nor useful.)

4 Exhale
arrow breathing: exhaled stronger at the end (like in Tsa lung video)?
through the nose?
not collapsed the upper part of the body? elongated it
completely emptied the lungs?

5. Inhale
took a full (!) inbreath in the first inhaling after releasing?

4th week:
Additional exercises (Tsa Lung, 9 breaths) if you like them, also possible to do only Tummo. Do the
circle 1-5 above for one hour, lets say 70-90 seconds retention would be approximately 30 repetitions,
pauses included

There will quickly come a time when your “central channel” is free. Forget about the rules then.
You can do Tummo while shopping with your girlfriend, serving 8 Caipirinhas, drinking 8 Caipirinhas,
massaging an euphoric elephant, talking in front of islamistic parties, sitting, lying, standing, walking (I
haven’t tried running, but should work). You will feel addicted to it.

You have then finished the basic stage.

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