Twelve Main Breathing Methods Essential to the Prāṇāyāma Practice of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga
Lama Dhampa Sonam Gyaltsen (14th century)
Translator’s Note
This is a very short text or note on twelve main breathing methods necessary for the practice of Ṣaḍaṅgayoga's Prāṇāyāma practice, written by Lama Dhampa Sonam Gyaltsen (14th century) of the Sakya lineage. The instructions for each breathing technique are very brief. Some of them are difficult to understand. I have translated them according to my understanding of the text. He has written several other texts on Ṣaḍaṅgayoga practices.
One of the main breathing techniques in Virupa's Amrtasiddhi Yoga practice [especially the text written by Amoghavajra] is to press the upper air down, draw the lower air up and unite them at the navel. Interestingly, Lama Dhampa Sonam Gyaltsen calls this breathing technique Amrtasiddhi samputa yoga [འཆི་མེད་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁ་སྦྱོར་]. In one of the Tibetan Ṣaḍaṅgayoga texts, the Sanskrit term Haṭhayoga is translated as སྟོབས་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་ [yoga of power/strength]. The author does not say what this breathing technique is.
TRANSLATION
ན་མཿཤྲཱི་ཀཱ་ལ་ཙཀྲཱ་ཡ།
Namaḥ Śrī Kālacakraya
There are twelve main breathing methods in the Prāṇāyāma practice of the Ṣaḍaṅgayoga Yoga system, which came down from the oral instruction of the excellent Gurus.
I. Vajra breathing [རྡོ་རྗེའི་བཟླས་པ་]
Sit in a cross-legged posture.
Hands in a mudra that ushers the vital air into the central channel.
Eyes in a peaceful gaze.
Focus your mind clearly on the breath coming in, staying in and going out with the syllables Oṃ ah hum or Om hum ah in that order.
There are three kinds of vajra breathing
Cooling breath [གྲང་སེལ་]
With a hissing sound, suck the air through the gaps in your teeth and release the air from the nose.
Warmth breath [ཚ་སེལ་]
Close your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose.
Blowing air out with ‘phoo’ sound [ཕུས་འདེད་]
Breathe in through your nose and release the air through your mouth with a 'phoo' sound.
II. [Kumbhaka with] Gentle breathing [འཇམ་རླུང་དགང་གཏོང་]
First check from which nostrils the air is flowing.
Close the nostril through which the air is flowing with your index finger.
Practice inhalation, retention and exhalation through the other nostril.
Now close the nostril through which you have just done the breathing and practise inhalation, retention and exhalation through the nostril that was closed.
And again, as before, shift the breathing practice to the other nostril.
III. Nāḍī yoga [རྩའི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་]
Leave one nostril as it is from which you will do the breathing.
Now close the other nostril with the index finger of the same side of the closed nostril.
With the hand on the same side of the open nostril, tightly bind the pulsating channel of the opposite armpit of the hand closing the nostril.
Press the elbow of the hand closing the nostril, with the arm pressed against the adjacent breast, on the same side of the knee.
Now focus your mind on the breath coming in, staying in and going out.
IV. Hūṃ breathing [ཧཱུྃ་འདྲེན་]
Exhale (voluntary exhalation) as far as you can. Immediately take a quick inhalation and hold it when there is nothing left to exhale.
V. Oṃ breathing [ཨོཾ་འདྲེན་]
Let the air out [involuntary exhalation] as far as you can without pushing the air out. Immediately when the air goes out, squeeze both nostrils with your hands not allowing the air to come back in.
VI. Kumbhaka [བུམ་པ་ཅན་]
Let the air out all at once. Immediately after the end of the exhalation, inhale and press [the air] down below the navel.
VII. Amrtasiddhi Sampuṭa breathing [འཆི་མེད་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཁ་སྦྱོར་]
[Let the air out all at once] Immediately after the end of the exhalation, press the upper air [down] and instantly press the lower air [down] and draw it [up]. Unite [the upper and lower air] and hold.
VIII. Generating bliss Sampuṭa breathing [བདེ་བ་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཁ་སྦྱོར་]
[Let the air out all at once] Immediately after the end of the exhalation, press the upper air [down] and instantly draw [up] the upper air. Unite and hold.
IX. Yoga of power breathing [སྟོབས་ཀྱི་རྣལ་འབྱོར་]
You should learn this from your teacher's mouth.
X. Shooting like an arrow breathing [མདའ་ལྟར་འཕེན་པ་]
Leave the upper air in its own resting place. Press the ocean [belly] against the Meru [spine]. Press [down] the air that is below the navel [lower air] down to the lower opening [anus] to one's capacity.
XI. Draw in air like a bow [གཞུ་ལྟར་འགུགས་པ་]
This is a method to open the door (of central channel) below the navel with the aid of downward moving air [apana vayu].
XII. Quick Withdrawal [མྱུར་སྡུད་]
Draw the [apana vayu] downward-moving air [down] to the lower opening (anus) by squeezing and opening the anus, and then draw the air [up] just below the navel.