Amrtasiddhi's Yoga instruction by Tāranātha (16th-17th century)
This is a translation of a dzogrim section of Tarnatha's Amrtasiddhi manual text. This Amrtasiddhi trulkhor practice is associated with the Shangpa Kagyu tradition. The text is written in the usual traditional Tibetan scripture format. However, for the convenience of the reader, I have bulleted it under different headings.
In terms of text and translation, there are some changes in the names and number of the main practices of Amrtasiddhi in the Amrtasiddhi trulkhor texts found in the Shangpa teaching cycle. There are four main yoga practices in the Amrtasiddhi trulkhor texts of Shangpa Kagyu instead of three (Mahamudra, Mahabandha and Mahavedha). They are Am-grol (which is the hathayogic mahamudra technique), bandha (which is mahabandha), vedha (mahavedha) and mahamudra (which has different postures and techniques).
In the mudra section, there is a strong possibility that the bandha is actually a vedha, and the vedha is a bandha, because at the end of the text the order of the trulkhor or mudras is listed as Am-grol, bandha, vedha, and mahāmudra, and especially the movements of yoga indicate this. In this text Tāranātha does not explain the practice of Jita-karma in detail. The term Jita-karma is mentioned in almost all Tibetan Amṛtasiddhi texts. The detailed explanation of this practice is taught in the Amṛtasiddhi 32 trulkhor text by Virya Simha (which I posted earlier). I am not sure if this practice is mentioned in the Sanskrit Amṛtasiddhi text. The Sanskrit term Jita-karma is transliterated into Tibetan, but I still haven't found the actual meaning of this term. It is of interest to note that Taranatha, in his Amrtasiddhi trulkhor text, mentioned a term called ཧ་སྲང་ཡོ་ག་ (Ha-srang yoga). Could this be a typo of ཧ་ཋྲ་ཡོ་ག (hathayoga)?
Amrtasiddhi yoga manual text by Tāranātha
Preliminary
Do not perform the trulkhor first.
Taking refuge, arousing bohicitta and guru yoga should be done before the trulkhor.
Posture (ལུས་གནད་)
Sit in a posture agreeing with general body posture, focussing eyes and mind on the root of the nose.
Breathing practice (རླུང་སྦྱོར་)
Learn breathing out slowly for one week.
And then putting aside that (breathing out) practice, learn how to draw in the air slowly for another one week.
Thereafter, bind the vital air at its own resting place, do not pull/draw the air downward. Bring the upper air fairly down and press it down below the navel. Do not carry out the gzhil ba breathing practice. If there arises any discomfort, release the air completely and settle the eyes either on the tip of the nose or on the spot between the eyebrows whichever is comfortable. Practice this for about half a month.
Then, even if there occurs any discomfort by holding (breath at the navel region), slightly lengthen the duration of holding each day. Practice this for about half a month.
Cleansing with substances (རྫས་སྦྱངས་)
At this point, since regions like Tibet are dependent on Sunlight, the practitioner should take a bath with (some kind of/སུག་ཆུ་) herb water in the morning. In the afternoon, apply grain oil or seed oil to the body. Do this for about a week.
Also, Wash your body with the bath water (one of the five nectar/དྲི་ཆུ་) followed by a massage. Do this for a few days.
Add either wood ash or dung ash to the juice extracted from the tip of the white or black mang-thang grass. Smear and rub the mixture on the body and wash it with clean water. Carry out the massage for a few more days.
While performing this cleansing practice, at the same time carry out the above breathing practice diligently as much as you can. However, avoid over-exertion.
Jita karma/ཛི་ཏ་ཀརྨ་ (first trulkhor)
Now learn to practice Jita karma trulkhor.
With the aid of the above breathing techniques, on the first day, perform Jita-karma five times in one session. Three sessions are sufficient for a day.
And on each consecutive day, add one more Jita-karma (1 rep) on each session. So that at the half month, you will be doing Jita-karma around 60 times a day.
(1st day-15, 2nd-18, 3rd-21, 4th-24, 5th-27….and on the 16th day-60).
Then for another half month, without increasing it any further, continue just on that course of practice.
The rest of the time, when you are not doing this trulkhor, always cultivate mainly the non-conceptuality.
So in one month, it is impossible not to see the arising of samadhi of its own accord.
Summary of the above practices
One and half months to learn three breathing practices.
Half a month for cleansing with substances.
One month for Jita-karma trulkhor practice.
These will bring suppleness/pliancy to the body.
MUDRAS
Mahāmudra
Next, practice kumbhaka which involves four breathing techniques with any one of the outer, inner and secret mahāmudra yoga postures.
Relax the mind into its own natural state and look at it.
In between the sessions, perform Jita-karma accordingly.
Practice this for about one month.
Outer Am-grol (hathayogic mahāmudra)
First, carry out Jita-karma around three times at the beginning of the session.
Afterwards, perform the outer Am-grol yoga posture:
Bind one side of the foot (heel) to the space between the anus and the genitalia.
With the other side (of the heel), press it from above by slightly (body) bent down.
Hold the tip of the foot with one hand and with the other hand hold from the upper foot.
By squeezing the anus, bring the lower air to the navel (area),
At the navel (region), unite the upper and lower air.
Beat from the left, right and middle like beating with the pestle.
After carrying out this yoga of breathing up to 21 times, perform any of the outer, inner or secret Am-grol trulkhor at least thirty-one in one session. In the very best case, hundred and eight in one session.
At the end of the session, carry out the mahāmudra as earlier.
In this way practice it for half a month.
བེ་ཏ་ Veta/Vedha (Might be Bandha instead of Veta/vedha)
Next, begin the session with a few Jita-karma.
Then after around seven Am-grol practices, unite the (upper and lower) air through kumbhaka. After drawing (the air) upwards, with great force throw it forcefully to the lower abdomen (lower intestine/རྒྱུ་ཞབས་) and press it down. This will kill the vāyu.
After performing this practice no less than twenty times, carry out any one of the outer, inner or secret Veta/vedha (might be bandha) practices between thirty-one to hundred and eight times in each session.
Conclude the session with the mahāmudra.
In this way practice this for also half a month.
བྷན་དྷ་ Bandha (might be Vedha/veta)
Begin the session by practising Jita-karma, Ang-drol and Veta five or seven times each.
While in Kumbhaka, when it reaches the latter half part of each breath, compress the waist and roll them to the middle. At this point, press it hard on the top.
Perform a small drop by lifting the buttocks, and releasing the air through the nose.
This is the method to confine/capture vāyu.
After performing this practice no less than twenty times, carry out any one of the outer, inner or secret Veta practices between thirty-one to hundred and eight times in each session.
Again conclude the session with mahāmudra.
Practice for half a month.
Summary of the mudras and concluding yoga
(Four mudras Am-grol, bandha, vedha and mahāmudra have three subclassifications: outer, inner and secret).
In the aforementioned practices, it is all right to perform the four outer mudras alone or just four inner mudras or just four secret mudras.
Or else the practitioner can practice one Ang-grol, one bandha, one vedha and one mahāmudra in series.
There is a saying, Ang-grol is effective for the outer, bandha is effective for the inner, Vedha is effective for the secret, and mahāmudra is effective for all three. So, the practitioner can practice in this manner as well.
However, Sangye Tonpa (the 12th century first Shangpa Amrtasiddhi lineage master) highly praised the Vedha in his text).
Practice a few Jita-karma at the beginning of the session. Then extend both legs in the front. Plant both hands on the ground and hold the unified (upper and lower) air for a little bit. Draw the air forcefully (up) from the anus and exhale the air with the sound HUM completely (till there is no air coming out སྟོང་འདྲེན་). In the end, shake the body in a quivering manner by twisting hard the upper and lower body. This will destroy the vāyu.
After performing the above practice around twenty-one times, followed by the outer Am-grol, reverse the bindu and rāhu upward. Practice this between ten to thirty times. Conclude with the mahāmudra as mentioned earlier. Practice this for half a month.
The practitioner should have six months of actual hand in training with all these practices with three sessions (a day).