Selected Yogic Postures from the Zhangzhung Trulkhor Text of Bön Dzogchen
I. Anger — Striking the hammer of a wrestler
Interlace your fingers and place your hands behind the neck (base of the skull). Kneel on the ground and cross your ankles behind you. Shift your body weight onto your knees and straighten your waist. From this posture, extend your neck backward, then bend forward, hitting your elbows to the knees. Repeat this movement of bending backward and forward seven times.
II. Ignorance — Window of Primordial Wisdom
Sit in a cross-legged posture. Place your thumbs on your adjacent hips, with the remaining fingers resting on your abdomen. Then position each elbow on the corresponding knee, forming a triangular opening between your elbows and armpits. In that position, roll backward, touching the back of your neck to the ground, and then roll forward, touching your forehead to the ground. Repeat this rolling movement seven times.
III. Egotism — Rolling Four Wheels
Sit in a Sattva posture. Press the front parts of the feet beneath the thighs and grasp the adjacent big toes with your hands. Roll backward, placing the back of your neck on the ground, then roll forward to plant your knees on the ground. From there, straighten your knees and waist. Repeat this rolling movement seven times.
IV. Desire — Loosening the Knot’s corner
Sit in a Sattva posture. With your elbows extended outward, press your thumbs into the adjacent armpits and join the fingertips of opposite hands at the center of the chest. Then twist your upper body to the left and right seven times, touching the right elbow to the left knee and the left elbow to the right knee.
V. Envy — Shaking Flag upward
Plant your left shin and left palm firmly on the ground. Extend your right arm and right leg upward toward the sky and shake them. Repeat this movement seven times. Then switch sides and repeat with the opposite arm and leg.
VI. Dullness and Agitation — Tigress jumping pose
[In a seated position], pass your arms behind your knees from the outside in, bringing them through the inner sides of the legs. Grasp your adjacent ears with your hands. Then, bow your head down and plant your soles firmly on the ground. In this position, jump forward seven times. And jump backward seven times as well.
VII. Goose Drinking Water Pose
[From a seated position], straighten your body and grasp your waist with both hands, thumbs facing inward. Bend your upper body forward until your head touches the ground, then rise up swiftly. Next, bend your head backward toward the nape of your neck, then forward again. Repeat this backward and forward movement of the head seven times.
VIII. Peacock Drinking Water Pose
[From a seated position], extend your legs forward keeping them side by side. Fold your arms behind your back pressing the ring fingers with your thumbs. Then bend your upper body inward so that your forehead just touches the knees. [In that position] raise your head up and look to the right and left above your shoulders and then look above to the sky. Repeat this head movement seven times.
IX. Cluster of Four Tree Trunks
From a seated position, grasp your big toes with the adjacent hands and lower your spine onto the ground. Extend all four limbs upward toward the sky, as if forming the spreading trunks of a tree.
X. Garuda Flapping Wings
[From a seated position], swiftly rise up [onto your feet]. Raise your right arm above the crown of the head toward the sky, while simultaneously touching your left heel beneath the buttock and extending your left arm downward beside the left hip. Repeat the same movement, alternating sides with the opposite limbs.
XI. Loosening the Nine Knots
Sit with your legs half-extended. Using the palms of your hands, gently strike the following areas one by one: the crown of the head, forehead, back of the neck, both shoulders, both hips, and both knees. Then strike your heels against the ground. Next, place your palms on the ground and lift your lower body upward, throwing it toward the sky. Repeat this motion three times, each time striking the soles of your feet to the ground. Finally, rise up swiftly and perform a big Beps (yogic drop).
XII. Raven’s Breath-Holding
Bring your feet side by side and stand up. Place your hands on your waist with the thumbs facing inward and the fingers pointing backward. Slightly raise the soles of your feet, then turn your head and torso to the right, left, and back. Bounce lightly into the air. Repeat this sequence seven times.
XIII. Rolling to Touch Head and Feet to the Ground
[In a seated position], grasp the fronts of your feet with your hands. Roll backward, touching your feet to the ground, then roll forward, touching your forehead to the ground. Repeat this movement seven times.
XIV. Jumping with Four Limbs joined
In a seated position, bring the soles of your feet together. Hold the front parts of the feet with your hands. In this posture, jump forward seven times, then jump backward seven times.
XV. Black Antelope Gait
[In a standing position], hold the front part of the left foot with your left hand, placing the sole against the lower right abdomen. With the right leg, perform a jumping gait while simultaneously shaking the right hand beside the right hip. Make a small jump forward, then turn back and continue jumping in the same manner seven times.
Thank you!
These were familiar movements to me, as I had often done them during my 49-day darkness retreat in Kathmandu.