Naropa's Channel-Energy Exercises.

There is an interesting text called _The Cycle of Channel-Energy Exercises from the Hearing Lineage of (Chakra)samvara_ (བདེ་མཆོག་སྙན་རྒྱུད་ཀྱི་རྩ་རླུང་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་གྱི་སྐོར་)

The text covers an ancient Indian set of yoga practices that were passed on to the translator Marpa (མར་པ་ལོ་ཙ་བ་) by the famous Indian teacher Mahapandita Nadapada (महापण्डित पादधर्म) better known as Naropa. As such they originate within the Pa-Panth of the Siddhasampradaya (Nath-Sampradaya) and are essentially the Buddhist version of Nadi-Vayu practices of Hatha-yoga. Interestingly the Buddhist practices preserved in the Indo-Tibetan tradition are probably older than their Saivite counterparts.

These teachings form part of the oral instructions known as the “Hearing Lineage” (Karna-Tantra कर्णतन्त्र) of the tantric system related to the deity Cakrasamvara (चक्रसंवर).

The book’s topic is the highly secretive practice of “channel-energy exercises” (Sk. nadi-vayu-yantra नाडिवायुयन्त्र Tib. rtsa rlung 'khrul 'khor རྩ་རླུང་འཁྲུལ་འཁོར་).

These “channel-energy exercises” involve, among other things, moving the prana (vayu to be more accurate) through various subtle nerve-like channels called nadis. These techniques are used as a support to a Buddhist form of kundalini-yoga which is called candali-yoga (चाण्डालियोग Tib. gtum mo rnal 'byor གཏུམ་མོ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་)

These techniques have been integrated into the well-known “Six Yogas of Naropa” (Sk. Sadnadapadadharma षड्नादपादधर्म Tib. na ro chos drug ན་རོ་ཆོས་དྲུག་).

Below is a short quotation from the text describing some of these exercises (please excuse my poorly edited English translation):

“The Root Verses of the Five Subsidiary Yantras: Sit in seven point Vairocana posture. Make vajra-fists and put them upon the knees. This is endowed with the four-applications of breath. Extend the left hand and rub it three times with the right hand. Do the same by rubbing three times on right side. Strike the palms (together). Rub the face, backs the front side of the body three times. Jump and extend the right leg. Rub it three times with both hands. Do the same on the left side. Sit in the cross-legged posture (Vajrasana). Put the two fists on the waist and jump. Then shake your body making a ‘Ha’ sound. This is the excellent intent of the Incomparable Mila. The Indian-Snowlion-Yantra is like the following: Make a six-cornered stove. Hold the air in the vase (kumbhaka). Rotate the waist to the right and then to the left side. Move the elbows back and front. Jump three times. Shuvam.”

It is interesting that the particular movement-sequence described in the quotation above is actually demonstrated in the DVD “The Yogis of Tibet” by a Tibetan teacher named spyan snga rin po che (who is a relatively important member of the 'bri kung bka' brgyud lineage).