Thirty-two yogic trulkhors
རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་འཕྲིན་ལས་སོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་
Translator’s Note
[རྣལ་འབྱོར་གྱི་འཕྲིན་ལས་སོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་] The thirty-two yogic trulkhor is one of the best-known trulkhor practices of the Sakya Lamdrepa. There are a few different versions of this trulkhor practice in the Sakya Lamdre texts. One is attributed to Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo [12th century] whose trulkhor instructions are quite different and brief. This translation is based on the text composed by Lama Dampa Sonam Gyaltsen [14th century]. It was later edited by Jamgon Anye zhab Kunga Sonam [17th century].
During the time when China was under the rule of the Mongols [Yuan Dynasty] and the Sakya lamas held the role of imperial preceptors in China, the teachings of the Sakyas reached the Chinese mainland. In Hangzhou, south of Beijing, are the rock carvings of Virupa [source of the Sakya lamdru teachings] [13th-14th century]. The images of the trulkhors shown in this article are from the thirty-two trulkhor practices of the Sakya Lamdrepa, which can be found in the Palace Museum in Beijing. According to the Himalaya Art Resource website, 'The images are a Qianlong period text copied from a Yuan period publication'. Here is the link to the website where you can see all the images.
Almost all the names of the trulkhors in this text are Sanskrit terms transliterated into Tibetan, many of which are difficult to decipher and understand. Different texts give different spellings. For example, I have found three different spellings of the name of the second trulkhor, Hamsasaruka, Hamsapatuka and Hamsabaduka, which I have written down as Haṃsapaduka [derived from Haṃsapada?]. Here are some enumerated notes on the names of the Trulkhors, I've left question marks where I don't know.
Jālandhara: [སྤྱི་གཙུག་དགུག་] This trulkhor involves bending down the crown of the head, and the crown of the head is usually called Jālandhara.
Haṃsapaduka: ?
Uḍḍiyāna: [རྣ་བ་གཡས་པའི་ཕྱོགས་] This may be because the ears are usually referred to as Uḍḍiyāna and this trulkhor involves raising the arms opposite the ear.
kamala-Kuliśa: [པདྨ་རྡོ་རྗེ་] As the Tibetan name suggests, this term means lotus and vajra [thunderbolt]. It is performed with the lotus crossed-legged posture [not Hindu full lotus, but crossed legs at the ankles] and the heels being hit on the abdomen [as a vajra].
Cauraṅgī: Name of Mahasiddha?
Aprasara/Apapāra: ?
Gaura-karma/Gaura-karna: ?
Yantra: Yantra
Upakumara: ?
Calana: movement of belly?
Navali-1: ?
Navali-2: ?
śṛṅkhalā: It is written as Singhali, but I reckon it is śṛṅkhalā because it is called iron-chain in another text.
མཉམ་གཞག་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་: This is one of the trulkhors, which doesn’t have sanskrit name and I have named it as dhyana-mudra.
Balacakra: power-wheel/circle [may be movement of head in circle?].
Amara: Immortal
Trulkhors in this practice generally begins and ends with a specific breathing technique. [I think] it starts with: “Crossing arms over the chest [with the vajra fist placed on the opposite breast], [first] blow out the residual harmful air, [then inhale and press down the upper air] and hold the union of the upper and lower air.” And it ends with: "Crossing the arms over the chest and let the air out.” Crossing the hands [vajra fists] over the chest is the signature step of Tibetan Vajrayana Yoga.
PS: This post contains the translation of half of the text, the rest will be published in the next post.
1. Jālandhara [ཛཱ་ལནྡྷ་ར་]
ཛཱ་ལནྡྷ་ར་སྤྱི་གཙུག་དགུག་པར་བྱ། །འོག་སྒོ་སྟན་ལ་མ་རེག་རྐང་མཐིལ་བགྲད། །ཙོག་པུ་ལག་གཉིས་སྒོམ་ཐག་ཚུལ་དུ་འཁྲིལ། །ཁྲག་དང་མ་ཞུ་བད་ཀན་ནད་རྣམས་སེལ།
Stand up straight, with your heels about six inches apart and your forefeet turned slightly outward. Crossing your arms over your chest [with the vajra fist placed on the opposite breast], [first] blow out the residual harmful air, [then inhale and press down the upper air] and hold the union of the upper and lower air. In this [union of the upper and lower air] breathing method, stretch out your two arms straight in the air directly opposite your ears, like the wings of a bird. Then bend your arms over your head, holding your elbows with the palms of your opposite hands. And slowly bring your arms down and place them around your knees. Then bend your head down and place the head between your knees. Sit [in a squatting position] with your bottom barely touching the ground. Stay in this position [with the breathing technique] as long as you can. Then come out of this position and sit in the vajra crossed-legged posture. [Finally], cross your arms over your chest and slowly exhale through the left nostril.
Benefits: This eliminates the ailments related with blood, indigestion and phlegm.
2. Haṃsapaduka [ཧཾ་ས་ས་རུ་ཀ་/ཧཾ་ས་པ་ཏུ་ཀ་/ཧཾ་ས་བ་དུ་ཀ་]
ཧཾ་ས་ས་རུ་ཀ་ནི་ཙོག་པུ་སྟེ། །འདི་ཡང་འོག་སྒོ་སྟན་ལ་མ་རེག་པ། །རྟིང་པ་ཅུང་བསྣོལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྡམས་པས་འཁྱུད། །ཡན་ལག་ནད་སེལ་མིག་ལ་ཕན་པ་ཡིན།
[Stand up straight], with your heels slightly touching each other and your forefeet turned slightly outward. Cross your arms over your chest, blow out the residual harmful air, and hold the breath. Then stretch out your two arms straight in the air, directly opposite your ears, like the wings of a bird. Then interlock your ten fingers [vajrabandha] and extend your arms above the crown of your head three times. Then slowly bring your arms [and body] down into a squatting posture, with your arms around your knees, vajrabandha [interlocked hands] facing up, and your buttocks not touching the ground. Stay in this position [with breathing technique] as much as you can. [Finally], come out of this position and, like before, sit in the vajra crossed-legged posture, cross your arms over your chest and let the air out.
Benefits: This eliminates the ailments of the limbs and is good for eyes.
3. Uḍḍiyāna [ཨོ་ཌཱི་ཡ་ན]
ཨོ་ཌི་ཡ་ན་རྣ་བ་གཡས་པའི་ཕྱོགས། །ལག་པས་བསྟོད་དེ་གཡས་པ་རིམ་གྱིས་ཏེ། །གཡོན་པའང་དེ་བཞིན་མགོ་སྤྲུག་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ཡིན། །བད་ཀན་ནད་སེལ་ལག་པའི་ནད་ལ་ཕན།
In the vajra crossed-legged posture, with the arms crossed over the chest [forming vajra fists], blow out the residual harmful air, [inhale] and hold. From the position of the left elbow, bring the right fist to the right side, slowly stretch it out, and [finally] extend it in the air opposite the right shoulder. Then bend the right elbow, strike with the right fist on the side of the right rib, and stretch the arm up in the air opposite the right ear. Then open the left fist and while rubbing the right arm down with the left hand, shake your head. Repeat with the left side. [Finally], cross your arms over your chest. Slowly let the air out.
Benefits: This eliminates the ailments related to the phlegm and is good for pain in the arms.
4. kamala-Kuliśa [རྡོ་རྗེ་པདྨ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་]
རྡོ་རྗེ་པདྨ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་བོལ་གོང་སྤྲད། །རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྡམས་པ་ལྟེ་བའི་ཐད་ཀར་བཅེར། །པདྨ་རྡོ་རྗེ་འདྲ་སྟེ་ལྟེ་བར་བཅེར། །རིང་བ་དང་བད་ཀན་ནད་ལ་ཕན།
In the vajra crossed-legged posture, with the arms crossed over the chest [forming vajra fists], blow out the residual harmful air, [inhale] and hold. Extend both legs forward, and [sitting in the lotus posture] place the right ankle over the left ankle. Form a vajrabandha hand posture [fingers intertwined] at the navel, facing upwards. Press the abdomen against the spine. Spread out the upper body [chest and shoulders] and hit the belly with the heels three times. Then place the hands on the navel in the vajrabandha posture. [Finally], as before, sit in the vajra crossed-legged posture, cross your hands over your chest, and slowly let the air out.
Benefits: It is good for longevity and ailments related to the phlegm.
5. Cauraṅgī [ཙོོ་རང་གི་]
ཙོ་རང་གི་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ལུས་པོ་བསྲང་། །མཇིང་པ་ཡང་གཅུ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྡམས་པ་ནི། །སྙིང་གར་དྲག་ཏུ་བཅེར་ན་མ་ཞུ་དང་། །བད་སྣབས་འཁྲུ་དང་ལུས་པོ་ཐང་ཆད་སེལ།
In the vajra crossed-legged posture, with the arms crossed over the chest [forming vajra fists], blow out the residual harmful air, [inhale] and hold. With the hands in a vajrabandha [ten fingers interlocked] facing upwards, press them firmly against the chest. Straighten your body and, without moving your eyes, transfer your chin to your left shoulder and then to your right shoulder three times. Then cross your hands [vajra fists] over your chest, let the air out and hold.
Benefits: This will relieve indigestion, mucus and fatigue.
6. Aprasara/Apapāra
ཨ་པར་ས་ར་ལུས་བསྲང་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་སྟེ། ལག་མཐིལ་བསྣོལ་བ་ལྟག་པའི་ཕྱོགས་ནས་དགུག །མི་འཁུག་ལུས་འདར་མགོ་བོ་ཡང་ཡང་བསྒྱུར། །སྟོབས་ཆེན་མགོ་བོའི་ནད་ནི་སེལ་བའི་མཆོག །
In the vajra crossed-legged posture, with the arms crossed over the chest [forming vajra fists], blow out the residual harmful air, [inhale] and hold. Then, having stretched out the arms [by the shoulders], place the left palm on the back of the neck and the right palm on top of it. Then, having brought your elbows forward side by side, bend them down to the middle, right and left. Then [finally, as before] cross your hands over your chest and let the air out.
Benefits: This is the method to relieve the headache.
7. Gaura-karma/Gaura-karna [གོོ་ར་ཀརྨ་/གྷོ་ར་ཀར་ན་]
གོ་ར་ཀརྨ་ལུས་བསྲང་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་སྟེ། །རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྡམས་པ་སྙིང་་་་་གའི་སྟེང་དུ་བཅེར། །རྟ་ཡི་མགོ་བཞིན་མགོ་བོ་དགུག་པར་བྱ། །ལུས་འཚོ་ནད་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སེལ་བ་ཡིན།
In the vajra crossed-legged posture, with the arms crossed over the chest [forming vajra fists], blow out the residual harmful air, [inhale] and hold. Hold a vajrabandha hand posture [ten fingers interlocked] firmly over the chest. Bend your head down like a horse's head three times, to the middle, to the right and to the left. Then [finally, as before] cross your hands over your chest and let the air out.
Benefits: This nourishes the body and removes all diseases.
8. Yantra [ཛཾ་ཏྲ་]
ཛི་ཏྲ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ལུས་པོ་དྲང་བར་བྱ། །ལག་པ་བསྣོལ་བས་དཔུང་པ་དམ་དུ་བསྡམས། །ལྟོ་བཅེར་མིག་བགྲད་མགོ་སྤྲུག་དགྱེ་དགུ་བྱ། །ཕོ་བ་སྦོས་དང་སྐྲན་དང་མ་ཞུ་སེལ།
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Then cross your arms over your chest and hold your shoulders with your opposite hands. Attach your belly to the spine and shake your head with your eyes wide open. Then, in the same leg and arm position, extend your elbows forward and push them as far as they will go. Then extend your crossed legs backwards and place your shins on the ground. Stand up (on your shins) and fall onto your back. Place your head, neck and spine on the ground. And push your elbows back as far as they will go. Do this about three times. Finally stand up, cross your arms over your chest and exhale.
Benefits: This eliminates the bloating, indigestion and tumour (in abdomen).
9. Upakumara [ཨུ་པ་ཀུ་མ་ར་]
ཨུ་པ་ཀུ་མ་ར་ནི་ཙོག་པུ་སྟེ། །པུས་མོ་གང་རུང་སྟེང་དུ་སྐྱིད་ཁུག་གཞག །དེ་་སྟེང་ལག་གཉིས་བསྣོལ་བ་ཀོས་ཀོས་མནན། །དྲོད་ཆེ་རླུང་མེད་དང་པོའི་གཟུགས་དགུ་ཡིན༑
Stand up and straighten your body. Place your right knee-pit over your left knee. Place your right heel on the talus bone of your left foot with your forefoot resting on the left side. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Then stretch your arms out like a bird's wings and bend your arms towards your forehead, placing the right palm over the back of the left hand. Then bring your hands down with your head and place them on your knees. And place your chin on the hands. Then bring your buttocks down and sit so that your buttocks barely touch the ground. Finally, cross your arms over your chest and exhale.
10. Calana [ཙ་ལ་ན]
སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་པུས་མོའི་སྟེང་ནས་ལག་པས་མནན། དགྱེ་ཚེ་ལྟོ་མདུན་དུ་འབུར་བ་ཡི། །ཁ་སྦྱར་རེ་ལ་གཡས་སུ་བསྐོར་བ་དང་། །གཡོན་གཅུ་ལྟོ་བའི་་ནད་སེལ་ཙ་ལ་ན།
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Then place your hands on your knees, bend your upper body [shoulders and chest] slightly, and let your belly protrude. Without bending your arms or spine, rotate your stomach clockwise and counte-rclockwise three times. [Finally], cross your arms over your chest and exhale.
Benefits: This eliminates the stomach ailments.
11. Navali-1 [ན་བ་ལི་དང་པོ་]
པུས་མོ་གཅིག་གི་སྟེང་དུ་སྒྱིད་ཁུག་གཞག །དེ་སྟེང་སོར་མོའི་ནང་བསྟན་ལག་མཐིལ་དགབ། །དེ་སྟེང་དཔྲལ་བས་མནན་ལ་ཁ་སྦྱར་བྱ། །དྲོད་ཆེན་ན་བ་ལི་སྟེ་གོང་མ་ཡིན།
This is similar to the Upakumara above. Except that when you bring your hands up to your forehead, place the palm of your left hand over the back of your right hand, then bring your hands down and place them on your knees, keeping both hands together. Then place your forehead on your hands and sit like this [without your buttocks touching the ground].
Benefits: This brings great heat.
12. Navali-2 [ན་བ་ལི་གཉིས་པ་]
སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་གཡས་པའི་ལག་པ་གཡོན་དུ་གཅུ། །དཔུང་པ་དག་ནས་གཡོན་པས་ཐུར་ལ་དེད། །གཡོན་པའང་དེ་བཞིན་ན་བ་ལི་གཉིས་པ༑ །དྲོད་ཆེ་འདུས་དང་མ་ཞུའི་ནད་ཀུན་སེལ།
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Stretch out your [right] arm to the right side. Then, bending the elbow, after striking the [right] fist on the side of the ribs, extend the right fist down to the left knee. Then use your left hand to rub your right arm down from your right shoulder. Repeat with the left arm. The rest is the same as before.
Benefits: This brings great heat and eliminates ailment of indigestion.
13. śṛṅkhalā [སིངྒ་ལི་]
སིངྒ་ལི་སྟེ་ཙོག་པུ་རྐང་པ་བསྣོལ། །པུས་འཁྱུད་བཅུག་ལ་རྡོ་རྗེ་བསྡམས་པ་ནི། །སྙིང་གར་བཞག་ཅིང་ལག་གཉིས་བར་དུ་བཅང་། །མགོ་ནད་མིག་ནད་དབུགས་མི་བདེ་བ་སེལ།
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Now keep your knees upright with your feet crossed, and then strap your waist and knees with the yoga belt. With your hands in vajrabandha (fingers fully interlocked), rub your chest up and down, and push your knees out with your elbows and simultaneously push your elbows in with your knees. The rest is the same as before.
Benefits: This eliminates the ailments of head and eyes, and discomfort in breathing.
14. མཉམ་གཞག་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ [Dhyana mudra?]
རྡོ་རྗེ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་མཉམ་གཞག་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཡི། །ལྟོ་བ་བཅེར་ཞིང་རླུང་ནི་རང་སོར་གཟུང་། །ཐང་ཆད་པ་དང་འདུ་བ་འཁྲུགས་པ་དང་། །བད་ཀན་སྣབས་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་འགྱུར།
Sit in the vajra cross-legged posture, placing the hands above the heels in dhyana mudra. Press the belly toward the spine and let the breath be natural.
Benefits: One will be free from the ailments related to phlegm and mucus.
15. Balachakra [བ་ལ་ཙཀྲ་]
བ་ལ་ཙཀྲ་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་ལག་གཉིས་ཀྱིས། །བརླ་ཡི་སྟོད་མནན་མགོ་བོ་དལ་གྱིས་བསྐྱོད། །གཡས་དང་གཡོན་དུ་བསྐོར་བ་གཉིས་ཀ་བྱ། །ཁ་མཚུལ་མཆུ་དང་མགོ་ནད་མ་ལུས་སེལ༑
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Now fix your right and left thumbs on the right and left thighs, respectively, with the remaining fingers hanging outside the thighs. In this position, slowly turn your head three times to the left and three times to the right. Finally, cross your arms over your chest and exhale.
Benefits: This eliminates all the ailments of mouth, lips and head.
16. Amara [ཨ་མ་ར་]
ཨ་མ་ར་ནི་སྐྱིལ་ཀྲུང་བདེ་བར་བསྡད། །ལག་པ་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རླབས་གཉིས་བཙིར། །རླུང་ནི་ཁ་སྦྱར་བཞིན་ནི་སྲུངས་པ་སྟེ། །འཆི་བ་བསླུ་ཞིང་ཏིང་འཛིན་མྱུར་དུ་སྐྱེ།
Sit in a vajra cross-legged posture. Cross your fists over your chest, exhale and hold. Now place your right and left thumbs on your throat and your other fingers on the back of your neck. Then use your thumbs to find the two channels/vessels on your throat and press them. Finally, cross your arms over your chest and exhale.
Benefits: This will defy death [mṛtyuvañcana] and quickly bring samadhi.