Prāṇāyāma Yogāṅga of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga
Anupamarakshita Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, text by Drukchen Pema Karpo [16th century]
Note:
This text was written by Drukchen Pema karop [16th century] and is the Prāṇāyāma section of the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga [six limbs of yoga] practice of the Anupamarakshita tradition. It is not a complete translation.
If you want to read the Prāṇāyāma section of the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga text of Taranatha, here are the links Part #1 and Part #2
Prāṇāyāma
Body posture [controlling the five senses and the vital air].
Eyes position.
The actual practice of prāṇāyāma.
I. Body posture
Press the right heel against the perineum and support the left heel on the other toes.
Cross your hands over your chest and grasp your armpits with the opposite hands. Or put your hands on your knees.
Straighten the body. Press the larynx with the chin.
Touch the tongue to the palate. Keep a gap between the lips and the teeth.
II. Eyes position
The gaze should be 'amrta whorl gaze' (Amṛta kuṇḍali dṛṣṭi), that is, [turn the eyes inward towards nose bridge] as if the eyes had become one, and roll the eyes to the spot between the eyebrows [bhrūmadhyam].
III. The actual practice of Prāṇāyāma.
Quick exhalation
Inhalation and kumbhaka
Gathering air into the central channel
vajra breathing
Prāṇāyāma ancillary practices
1. Quick exhalation
With the above body posture and eye position, exhale twenty-one times, fast but with just the right amount of force.
This will clear away the harmful residual air in the 72,000 channels of the body. Visualise the karmic air disappearing completely. The vital air that produces the conceptual thoughts dissolves into the sky.
2. Inhalation and kumbhaka
Inhale slowly, press the upper air down and draw the lower air up. Hold the union of the upper and lower air [prāṇavāyu and apānavāyu] as best you can. This is Kumbhaka.
3. Gathering air into the central channel
Visualise all the secondary channels in the body facing towards the central channel.
Inhale with the tip of your nose pointing slightly towards your left knee and bring the air right to the navel. Bring the lower air and your mind to the navel as well. When you are on the verge of not being able to hold it any longer, let the air out.
Again, inhale with the tip of your nose pointing slightly towards your right knee and bring the air right to the navel. The rest is the same as above.
Again, inhale with the tip of the nose pointing forward and bring the air to the navel. The rest is the same as above.
Visualise all the vital air and the bindu of the body being gathered inside the Avadhūtī [central channel].
Finally, by making a slight moaning sound, bring the air upwards and visualise the air dissolving into the bindu on the forehead.
4. Vajra breathing
In the centre of the navel Nāḍī-chakra, within the Avadhūtī [central channel], visualise the tummo [Caṇḍālī] as fine as the tip of a hair and four inches long.
As you exhale, let the air come out as if the syllable Aḥ (ཨཱཿ) were going out in a clockwise direction around the central channel [from the navel].
As you inhale, let the air come in as if the syllable Ōṃ (ༀ) comes clockwise around the central channel [to the navel].
When you bind/unite the [upper and lower] air, the syllable Huṃ (ཧཱུྃ) remains in the form of nondual gnosis [advayajñānam].
Practice vajra-breathing until you see the colours of the air.
5. Prāṇāyāma ancillary practices
(i) Relishing the nectar from the small tongue to attain immortality [amrtasiddhi]
(ii) Dispersing the nectar between the eyebrows to attain khecara
(i) Relishing the nectar from the small tongue [lambikā] to attain immortality [amrtasiddhi]
At dawn, add sugar and black pepper to the red cow's milk, hold the mixture in your mouth and savour the taste for a long time. Finally, without feeling it go down, let it slowly drip into your body in drops.
Visualise a moon on the mandala of the forehead, with nectar dripping from the sixteen vowels above the moon.
Visualise a syllable 'soom' in the cavity of the small tongue, through which the nectar flows down from the small tongue. Then visualise the whole body being filled with the nectar.
Move and rub the small tongue with your tongue. Finally, as you breathe in, swallow both the air and the saliva that falls from the small tongue.
This will drive away grey hair, old age and death, and attain immortality.
(ii) Dispersing the nectar between the eyebrows to attain khecara
When the air is inhaled from the crown of the head, it becomes one taste [ekarasa] with the nectar of the small tongue flowing from the chandramandala [moon ring] of the forehead.
Then draw the lower air upwards.
Focus your mind on the eight inches long lightning rod like tummo '[Caṇḍālī] in the centre of the Nāḍī-chakra.
When the union [of the upper and lower airs] touches it, it burns with a crackling sound, like oil touching a butter lamp.
Finally, one should settle one’s mind on the emptiness.