Tummo

The yoga of inner heat

Taken from Tibetan Yoga and Secret Doctrines by Evans-Wentz:

In addition to his two most prominent disciples, Dvagpo Lharje and Rechung, Milarepa is reputed
to have developed eight other disciples to adeptship in yoga; others to mastery of the science of
generating vital-heat (Tib. Tummo), so that clad in only a cotton cloth, the dress of all Kargyutpa
yogins, they were immune to the severe cold of the Tibetan winter; and to have set numerous other
disciples, male and female, on the Path of Bodhic Enlightenment.
The first of these is known to the Tibetans as Tummo, signifying a peculiar bodily heat, or warmth
of a psycho-physical character, generated by yogic means. According to the secret lore, the word
Tummo refers to a method of extracting prana, from the inexhaustible pranic reservoir in Nature,
and storing it in the human-body battery and then employing it to transmute the generative fluid
into a subtle fiery energy whereby a psycho-physical heat is produced internally and made to
circulate through the nerve-channels of the psychic nervous system.
This system, invisible to all save those possessed of clairvoyant vision, is the psychic counterpart of
the physical nervous system. Its nerve-channels are called in Tibetan tsas and in Sanskrit nadi. Of
these there are three of primary importance:
Sushumna (Tib. Uma-tsa: Skt. Sushumna-nadi), extending through the centre of the spinal column;
the Right-Nerve (Tib.Roma-tsa: Skt.Pingala-nadi) ; and the Left-Nerve (Tib. Kyangma-tsa: Skt. Ida-
nadi). The last two, like two serpents, are said to coil round Sushumna to the right and to the left.
Connected with these three there are numerous subsidiary psychic-nerves by which the psycho-
nervous energy (Tib. Sliugs: Skt. prana) is carried to each psychic nerve centre (Tib. khorlo: Skt.
chakra) and therein stored and thence distributed to every organ and part of the body.
According to our text, in practicing the art of Tummo, the yogin must employ very elaborate
visualizations, meditations, postures, breathings, directing of thought, training of the psychic-nerve
system, and physical exercises. Our annotations are sufficiently numerous and detailed to serve as a
commentary and to afford the student some practical guidance. But, as the Tibetan gurus
emphasize, it is highly desirable for the neophyte, prior to beginning the practice of Tummo, to
obtain preliminary initiation and personal guidance from a master of the art.
A lengthy probationary period is usually necessary before the yogin can arrive at any assurance of
success. At the outset, he must accustom himself to the minimum of clothing and avoid, as far as
possible, resort to fire for warming the body. It is by their never wearing furs or woolen garments
or seeking artificial external heat that the masters of the art are recognized. The yogin must also
observe the strictest sexual continence, for it is chiefly upon the yogically transmuted sex energy
that proficiency in Tummo depends.
The actual practicing must not be done inside or near the dwelling of a householder, but preferably
in some place of hermitage, such as a remote mountain cave, far removed from localities where the
air is made impure by smoke or the auric emanations of towns or villages. A yogin aiming at
mastery of the art may remain in such solitary hermitage for a very long time and see no human
being save the guru, who will appear at intervals to direct the yogins progress. The beginner is
advised to perform the yogic exercises in the early morning before sunrise, when Nature and the
Earth's magnetic currents are apt to be the least disturbed. Once the art is mastered, it can be
practiced anywhere and at any time.
As progress is made in this science of yogically conserving and directing the physical, mental, and
psychic energy of the human organism, the hermit yogin gradually develops the psycho-physical
warmth. The subtle fiery energy, accompanied by a pleasant warmth, begins to pervade every atom
of his body, and, little by little, he acquires the yogic power of enduring, with comfort, the most
extreme cold, clad only in a single cotton cloth, or even entirely nude.
When the probationary training ends and the neophyte feels confident of success, the guru not
infrequently tests him to judge of the degree of proficiency attained. The following account of such
a testing is given by Madame David-Neel, whose interesting researches and experiences in the
Orient, especially with respect to Tibetan mystics, parallel in many ways the editor's own:
' Upon a frosty winter night, those who think themselves capable of victoriously enduring the test
are led to the shore of a river or lake. If all the streams are frozen in the region, a hole is made in
the ice. A moonlight night, with a hard wind blowing, is chosen. Such nights are not rare in Tibet
during the winter months.
' The neophytes sit on the ground, cross-legged and naked. Sheets are dipped in the icy water. Each
man wraps himself in one of them and must dry it on his body. As soon as the sheet has become dry,
it is again dipped in the water and placed on the novice's body to be dried as before. The operation
goes on in that way until daybreak. Then he who has dried the largest number of sheets is
acknowledged the winner of the competition.'
The size of the sheet varies. Some sheets are quite small, being little larger than the ordinary face
towels; others are as big as large shawls. The rule requires that the yogin must have dried at least
three of the wet sheets in order to be entitled to wear the insignia of proficiency in Tummo, namely,
the single white cotton shirt or robe, on account of which he comes to be called, in Tibetan, a Repa,
meaning 'Cotton-Clad One'. Mila-repa, the great Tibetan Yogin, as his name, meaning 'Mila, the
Cotton-Clad One', indicates, mastered the art of Tummo under the guidance of his guru Marpa.
Eight of Milarepa's advanced disciples were also Repas.

Summary of Tummo
The Tibetan of the text for these six occult doctrines is as follows: (1) Gtum-mo (pron. Tum-mo).
meaning, 'Psychic (or Vital, or Secret) Heat (or Warmth)', which is the necessary driving force for
the devotee seeking spiritual development, and the means for the solitary hermit, in the very severe
cold of the snowy ranges of Tibet, to be comfortable without fire;
The Tummo practice is broken into three main sections: Preliminaries, fundamental practices and
practical applications.
Preliminaries
Preliminaries include consecration, visualizations of the subtle body using breath and mantra’s,
setting up a protective field and asking for the blessing of the Guru’s of the past. The visualizations
of the subtle body include seeing the body as vacuous and identifying the main nadi’s while
performing expansion and contraction based concentrations.

Fundamental Practices
The fundamental practices begin with the posturing of the body:
'Place the body in the Buddha-Posture. Make the vertebrae of the spinal column straight like unto a
pile of metallic coins, one coin on top of another. Throw out the diaphragm to its full extent. Hide
the esophagus well [by letting the chin touch it]. Place the tongue against the roof of the mouth.
Place the hands just below the navel, with the bends of the wrists pressing against the thighs in the
posture of equilibrium. Without changing the angle of vision [which is naturally adopted when
these postures have been assumed] or the flow of the thought-current, link the thought-process with
the breathing-process and forcibly control the mind. 'The Buddha-Posture affords the means
whereby one realizes complete enlightenment. One may also sit with the legs crossed in the Siddha-
Posture.'
Then the pranayama is described as being of two types: Soft breathing and forced breathing.
The soft breathing, starts with nine bellows-like blowing's. First one is to breathe three times
through the right nostril only while the head is being slowly turned from right to left; then, while the
head is being slowly turned from left to right, breathe another three times through the left nostril
only; then breathe three times with both nostrils keeping the head straight; these breathings to be in
such a soft and gentle manner as to be imperceptible; next, using stronger breathings, three times in
these same three directions and manners; next with the twisting and blowing sort of breathing, again
three times in these same three directions and manners.
These practices are nine in all, repeated three times.
Then one is to perform ‘combined breathings’. One should breath in through both nostrils from a
distance of about sixteen fingers in front of one, without making any sound. One should perform the
retention by pressing the air of the inspiration down to the very bottom of the lungs and then
contracting the diaphragm so as to raise the thorax, thereby making the chest conform to the shape
of an earthen pot. During the retention one should bend the neck to conform to the shape of an iron
hook (ie jalandhara bandha). When no longer able to retain this pot-like shape, draw in short
breaths, pressing the inhaled air to the right and left so as to equalize the lung expansion. When one
is incapable of continuing this equalizing, then using both nostrils, gently at the beginning and end
and with greater force in the middle of the process, one should throw out the breath - 'shooting the
breath forth like an arrow'.
Then follows the forceful breathing (which does not appear to be fully elucidated in Evans-Wentz’s
translation). All that is said is:
“The second part of the second practice of Producing Psychic-Heat, namely, the Violent Breathing,
consists of five practices: the Art of the Bellows-like Blowings of the Breathing, to prevent the
rebounding of the air; the Art of in-breathing to cause the air to enter into all its natural channels;
the Art of Maximum Lung Expansion to control the breathing [in the producing of the psychic-
force]; the Art of Gaining Complete Mastery over the Breathing, to cause the psychic-force
[extracted from the inhaled air] to enter into the capillaries of the psychic-nerves; and the Art of
Relaxing the Breathing, to bring about a mingling of the external and internal psychic-force.”

Then follows a complex visualization of the nadi’s and chakras combined with breathing.
First one is instructed to create a vivid mental image of the vacuous body of Vajra-Yogini
(Chinnamasta) the size of a normal human body - 'Meditate upon the illusory body Of the
instantaneously-produced tutelary deity.'
Then visualize at the center of the pranamaya-kosha the central channel as being void, and red in
color which is symbolical of Bliss. It is transparently bright, because its psychic functioning
removes the obscuration of Ignorance; and in its perpendicular straightness symbolical of the trunk
of the Tree of Life. Visualize it, endowed with the characteristics: extending from the
Brahmarandhra, to the Kanda (four fingers below the navel); its two ends flat and even; and to the
right and left of it, pingala-nadi and the ida-nadi, extending over the top of the brain and thence
down to the front of the face, and there ending in the two nasal apertures. Visualize the lower end of
these two subsidiary nadi’s as entering into the lower end of the central with a complete circular
turn.
From Sahasrara (or brahmarandhra) imagine thirty-two subsidiary nadis radiating downward.
Imagine sixteen radiating upward from the Vishudda. Imagine eight radiating downward from
Anahata. Imagine sixty-four radiating upward from the Manipura. Each group of these subsidiary
nadi’s is to be visualized as appearing like the spokes in the wheel of a chariot, of which the
connecting parts are Sushumna and the right and left nadi’s.
Accordingly, visualize at the point where the ida and pingala meet with sushumna four fingers
below the navel, the half-A, in hair-like outline, floating, and half a finger in height, of reddish
brown color, hot to the touch, undulating and emitting like a cord moved by the wind the sound of
'Phem! Phem!'
Then clearly visualize a letter HAM, white of color, inside sushumna at the crown of the head and
as if it were about to drop nectar.
Thereupon, by drawing in breath, the vital-force enters into the ida and pingala. These expand, as if
distended with air; and then the vital-force passes into sushumna and, striking against the hair-like
short-A, fills it out into its fully shaped red form. While the 'filling' and the 'equalizing' are thus
going on, concentrate thy mind upon the processes. While exhaling, imagine that the breath is going
out of Sushumna, in a bluish stream. Actually, however, the breath hath its exit through the nostrils.
Having arrived at mental concentration upon these visualizations, then, in a second course of
exercises, holding to the same manner of breathing, think that, from the hair-like short-A, a flame of
fire, half a finger in length and very sharp pointed, flares up. Think that the flame is endowed with
the four characteristics of the central channel that it resembles a revolving spindle. Think that with
each such breathing the flame rises up half a finger higher; and that by eight such breathings it
reaches Manipura. With ten such breathings, all the petals of the Manipura will have been filled
with psychic-fire. With ten more breathings, the fire moves downward and fills all the lower parts of
the body, even to the ends of the toes. From there, with ten more breathings, it burns upward and
fills all the body up to Anahata. With ten more breathings, the fire passes up to Vishuddha. With ten
more breathings, it reaches Sahasrara.
With ten more breathings the visualized letter HAM, within the crown of the head, is dissolved by
the psychic-fire into the secret vital-force of the transmuted 'moon-fluid', and this fills the psychic
Sahasrara. This nectar then begins to pervade the rest of the body. With ten more breathings, it fills
Vishuddha. With ten more breathings, it fills Anahata. With ten more breathings, it fills Manipura.
With ten more breathings, the whole body is filled to the tips of the fingers and toes.
These 108 breathings constitute one course of exercises. At the outset, they are to be repeated six
times during a day and night. Later on, reduce the number of repetitions to four, in keeping with the
prolongation of the breathing-process. Except when taking food and recuperative sleep, carry on the
meditation incessantly.

Psychic Heat Experiences

Then follows the description of the psychic heat experiences.
By retaining [or storing] in the chakras the vital-force, something akin to heat is produced at first;
Secondly, blissfulness is experienced; Thirdly, the mind assumes its natural state (voidness); Then
the forming of thoughts ceases automatically, and phenomena, appearing like smoke, mirage, fire-
flies, ‘the light of dawn’, and ‘a cloudless sky.'
As the breath suspension is increased with practice the number of breathings is reduced. The vital-
force being retained causes the waves of the psychic heat to become stable.
Thereupon, the mind and the vital-force being tranquillized [or made to assume their natural
condition of primordial quiescence], heat is produced. Then follows the transmuting of the seminal-
fluid leading to the experiences of innumerable conditions of blissfulness of an exhaustible sort.
Then the mind being attuned by this internal bliss, one looks upon all external nature with
joyfulness. The poison of the unceasing current of thought-formation is thereby neutralized and the
mind attains its natural condition, the true state of abiding quiescence, or the tranquil state of
samadhi.
The state of quiescence thus realized is not a state devoid of all sensuous experiences; for
phenomena appearing like smoke, and mirage, and fire-flies, and dull light, like that of a lamp, or
the glimmer of twilight, and a cloud- less sky, and other phenomena, too numerous to be
enumerated, illumine it in a supernormal manner.
During the transmuting of the seminal-fluid, the yogin who is experiencing it should not ignore any
of the signs or omens which may thus phenomenally appear. Nor should he seek after those which
do not appear, but he should keep on practicing in the normal way.
The vital-force becoming efficacious, the yogin becomes immune from diseases, ageing, and other
ordinary causes of physical deterioration; and he acquires the supernormal knowledge.
When the vital-force enters into Sushumna during the time of these ‘normal experiences’, the
external and the internal vital-forces unite and become one body of vitality shaped like a tube.
Entering Sushumna, at the kanda, the vital-force moves through the middle of the other centers and
becoming the fire-force of the Wisdom of the Psychic-Heat, it permeates all the seminal nadi’s, thus
uniting all the chakras. Through this union Five Supernormal Signs appear. These Signs are the
Flaring, the Moon, the Sun, Saturn, and the Lightning.
The Flaring will appear as yellow radiance; the Moon, as white; the Sun, as red; Saturn, as blue; and
the Lightning, as pink. Within each of these radiances, in turn, one's own body will be haloed and
one will have visible signs of having acquired the Eight Virtues, which are as follows:

 By virtue of the element earth, one obtains strength like that of Narayana.

 By virtue of the element water, one obtains bodily suppleness and smoothness, and
immunity to harm by fire.

 By virtue of the element fire, one obtains ability to transmute and disperse all substances,
and immunity to sinking in water.

 By virtue of the element air, one obtains fleetness of foot and lightness of body, like unto
cotton-wool.

 By virtue of the element ether, one obtains the power of flight, and immunity to being
impeded either by earth or water.

 By virtue of the Moon-channel, one's body becomes transparent and casts no shadow.

 By virtue of the Sun-channel, all the gross matter of the body is made pure, and one's body
is transmuted into a body of varied colored radiances like unto those of a rainbow, becoming
invisible to others.

 By virtue of all these yogic powers being realized, the nine doors of the body are closed, the
four doors of the speech are closed, the two doors of the mind are opened; and thus great
blissfulness arises within oneself.
Thereby one experiences, in every condition of conscious being, the unbroken current of samadhi,
called 'The Ecstatic State of Quiescence.'
Within Manipura abides the karmic principle which makes karmic results to equal karmic actions;
within Anahata abides the karmic principle which causes karmic results to ripen; within vishuddha
abides the principle which increases karmic propensities; and within Sahasrara abides the karmic
principle which emancipates one from all karmic results.
The 'moon-fluid', in moving upward through the chakras, awakens these karmic principles into
activity, and the upper extremity of Sushumna is set into an overwhelming vibration of a blissful
nature.
Thus is produced the invisible psychic protuberance on the crown of the head. When the
protuberance becomes filled with the vital-force of the transmuted seminal-fluid, one attains the
transcendental boon of the Great Symbol, and realizes the State of the Great Vajra-Dhara.
Simultaneously with this realization, the white-fluid issues in an intensified manner from the base
of the organ of generation and flows upward to the crown of the head and permeates it completely;
and the red-fluid issues in an intensified manner from the crown of the head and flows downward
till it permeates all the body, even to the ends of the toes.

Practical Application
Then follows what is called the practical application.
Assume the squatting cross-legged posture: the calves and thighs resting on the feet, the knees
above the toes, the left leg innermost. Into the two cavities formed by the bent legs pass the hands,
first crossing the arms if they be long, and grasp the under part of the thighs; or, if the arms be short,
grasp in the manner most suitable. Then whirl the stomach from right to left thrice and then from
left to right thrice. Then agitate the stomach with a churning motion as forcibly as possible. Finally,
shake the body just as a spirited horse shakes itself and causes each of its hairs to vibrate. At the
same time perform one small bounce by rising on the crossed legs and then letting the body drop
back on to the meditation-cushion.
After having repeated this series of exercises three times, perform a forcible bounce, which marks
the completion of one course of this practice of the posturing.
To obtain the benefit of the warmth from the Art of Breathing, one must press down the inhalation
to the bottom of the lungs and then contract the diaphragm below the lungs so as to form the 'Pot-
shaped'.
To obtain the benefit of the warmth from the Art of Visualizing, visualize oneself as being the
vacuous form of Vajra-Yogini, with the three chief nadis and the four main chakras and the half-A
all most vividly visualized.
While in that state of visualization, imagine at the center of each of the two palms of the hands, and
at the center of each of the two soles of the feet, a sun; and then place these suns one against the
other. Then visualize at the junction of ida, pingala and sushumna at the level of the kanda a sun. By
the rubbing together of the suns of the hands and feet, fire flares up. This fire strikes the sun in the
kanda. A fire flares up from there and strikes the half-A. A fire flares up from the half-A and
permeates the body. Then, as the expiration is going out, visualize the whole world as being
permeated with fire in its true nature as invisible psychic-heat, or psychic-fire.
Perform twenty-one forcible bounces during one period of these visualization exercises. By
meditating thus, for seven days, one will undoubtedly become able to endure the most extreme cold
with only a cotton cloth on the body.
Then one should visualizing the Spiritual Consort of One's Mind; Visualize a human female form,
endowed with all the signs of perfect beauty and so attractive as to fascinate thy mind.
Now visualize, clearly as before, oneself as being Sambhara-chakra, hollow like a blue filmy silk
tent, and at the center of the vacuity the three chief psychic-nerves, the four chief psychic-nerve
centers [or chakra], the half-A, and the letter HAM as vividly defined as above. The vital-force sets
the half-A aflame; and, by the heat thus engendered, the letter HAM is melted and the drops of it
fall on the half-A. With a crackling sound, the flame moves quickly downward; and then, with
increased burning force, it reaches the Manipura. The letter HAM being very much melted, the
drops of it falling downward, cause the flame to increase in intensity till it reaches Anahata, then
Vishuddha, and then Sahasrara. Finally, the flow of the completely melted letter HAM descends to
the Vishuddha and completely permeates it; and thereby is experienced 'Bliss of Delight', or
physical blissfulness. Then momentarily dawn the various experiences. Abide in the equilibrium of
the Voidness. By this nectar, dropping from the molten letter HAM, permeating Anahata, one
experiences 'Transcendental Bliss', and attains consciousness of the faculty which ripens karma, and
realizes the State of the ‘Vastly Void’. By its permeating Manipura, one experiences 'Wonderful
Bliss', and a thrilling, or vibratory sensation, throughout the body, and realizes the State of the Great
Voidness. Finally, by this vital-fire descending to the base of the reproductive organ one experiences
'Simultaneously-born Bliss'.
Then one has the power to recognize the minutest conceivable fraction of time which in the normal
state of consciousness is beyond cognition and the Clear Light of the all-voidness being realized,
one becomes immersed in a condition of consciousness unaffected by all worldly [or external]
stimuli.
Practice recognizing these degrees of bliss, from the normal physical bliss, up to the
'Simultaneously-born Bliss ', as they arise, one after the other, in virtue of the vital-fire permeating,
in due order, the brain, the throat, the heart, and the navel chakras.

Six Fundamental Physical Exercises of Naropa

The text then concludes with what is called the “physical drill”. It consists of the fundamental
physical drill called 'Naropa's Exercises - the Six, Twenty, and Fifty '. The Six Fundamental
Physical Exercises of Naropa - Namo Maha-Mudraya!
The Six Fundamental Physical Exercises of Naropa are as follows:
(1) Rest the fists on the knees, with the feet in the Buddha posture; then whirl the waist round and
round, from right to left and from left to right. This practice dispels the disorders of the region of
the navel and unties the navel knot. Then [in the same posture] turn the neck round and round, and
bend it backward and forward. Thus the knots of the crown of the head and throat are untied. With
the hands open and held palms downward over the bended knees, and the body in all other respects
postured as in the first exercise, twist the upper part of the body from right to left and left to right
alternately. Diseases of the upper part of the body are thereby dispelled, and its knots are untied.
The extending and contracting of the limbs [i.e. the arms and hands, and the legs and feet], which
dispel the diseases of the limbs and unties the knots, are to be performed first with the two hands
and arms. Then, placing the two hands on the ground behind oneself, rest the buttocks on the
ground, and, extending the legs, vigorously shake the feet in the air. By bouncing upward and
dropping downward in the cross-legged posture, the hands resting on the knees, raising the body
and letting it drop back forcibly on to the meditation-cushion] the knots of the whole body will be
untied. And at every bounce, twist the body to the right and to the left; and, with the hands held
against the knees, shake the body vigorously. Shake the body placed in a stooping posture with the
hands, on the meditation-cushion, bracing the body. Then utter Uh, and rub and massage the body
all over. Thus all the nerves will be calmed, each in its own place.