Vase Breathing Meditation

THE BLISS OF lNNER FIRE

Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa

LAMA THUBTEN YesHe

Chapter 16. - Vase Breathing Meditation

• DISPELLING THE IMPURE AIRS
• VASE BREATHING

16.

Vase Breathing Meditation

As I mentioned earlier, Having the Three Convictions lists vase breathing

meditation as the first of the six hatha yoga exercises, although Lama Tsongkhapa

describes it only briefly in that section.

Vase breathing is not an insignificant practice. The other five hatha yoga

exercises are performed while holding the vase breath, and, most important, the

inner fire meditations are performed on the basis of this breathing technique.

Successfully bringing all the airs into the central channel and stabilizing and

absorbing them there depend upon vase breathing.

DISPELLING THE IMPURE AIRS

Before attempting to practice vase breathing, you should first dispel all the impure

airs with the nine-round breathing exercise.

Holding your left nostril closed with the back of your right index finger, breathe

in slowly through your right nostril. Then block your right nostril with the front of

the same finger and exhale through your left nostril. Think that you are breathing

out all your impure desire energy. Do this three times. Actually, you don’t need to

hold the nostril closed; you can just visualize the air leaving through the other

nostril.

Now do the reverse, breathing in three times through the left nostril. As you

exhale through your right nostril, think that you are breathing out all your impure

hatred energy. Finally, breathe in and out three times through both nostrils to

make all the energies clean-clear and equal. As you exhale, think that you are

breathing out all your impure ignorance energy. In total this makes nine rounds.1

Lama Tsongkhapa emphasizes that you should breathe in and out only through

your nostrils, not through your mouth. He recommends breathing in first through

the right nostril, but because the female principle of mother tantra is normally

associated with the left side, you might want to emphasize the auspiciousness of

female energy by breathing in first through your left nostril. If you want to

emphasize the father tantra approach, breathe in first through your right nostril.

Breathe in slowly and gently. While breathing in, you can think you are inhaling

pure blissful energy from Tilopa, Naropa, and all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of

the ten directions. When you exhale, think that all your physical and mental

difficulties, the symptoms of your blocked energy, disappear. This is not simply

visualization. As soon as you begin to practice nine-round breathing, you will feel

some change. When exhaling, first breathe out gently, then strongly, and then

gently again.

VASE BREATHING

Ideally, you should practice vase breathing when your stomach is empty and

comfortable; in other words, before eating a meal or after the food has been

digested. Posture is also important. Your body should be very straight; vase

breathing cannot be effective if your body is bent and squeezed.

The vase breathing meditation comprises four steps: inhaling; filling the right

and left channels with air; milking the air from the two side channels into the

central channel; and exhaling, or “shooting up like an arrow.”

Begin the practice by making your hands into vajra fists: place the tip of the

thumb at the base of the ring finger and then close the four fingers over the

thumb. Place your hands on top of your thighs, with your arms very close to your

body and locked straight. Stretch your body upward as much as possible; this

enables the airs to flow better. However, you don’t have to sit like this all the time;

after a while, you can sit normally.

Visualize yourself as the deity and visualize clearly the three main channels and

four principal chakras as described earlier. Concentrate on the short a in the navel

chakra.

The first step is inhaling. Breathe in slowly and gently through both nostrils

until your lungs are completely filled, visualizing that the air is filling the two side

channels. Remember not to inhale through your mouth and to bring in a complete

breath. Although some lamas say to breathe in strongly, Lama Tsongkhapa

emphasizes that the inhalation should be very slow and very gentle.

In the second step, visualize that the right and left channels are filled with air,

like inflated balloons.

With the third step, while holding the breath, you swallow a little saliva, tense

your diaphragm, and press firmly down. Feel that these downward movements

push the inhaled air all the way down the two side channels to the short a at your

navel chakra. You might need to exert a little force to hold the air there.

Then, still holding your breath and pressing down with the diaphragm, tighten

the lower doors by contracting your pelvic muscles. This brings up the lower airs

to embrace and unify with the upper airs at the navel chakra. Feel that the short a

is magnetizing the air energies, drawing them all into the central channel.

Imagine that the upper and lower airs unite precisely at the short a,2 which is in

the central channel in the navel chakra. (The reason this breathing technique is

called vase meditation is that the short a is held by the upper and lower airs as if it

were in a vase or a teapot.) Hold your breath and tense the upper and lower

muscles for as long as you can.

Don’t think that the process is complicated or that you will have difficulty doing

it. Many things seem to be happening at the same time, but the main steps involve

bringing the airs from above and below and unifying them at the navel chakra.

Rather than forcing the process, you should feel that the short a automatically

draws all the airs into the navel chakra. Good concentration helps all this to

happen naturally.

Finally, we come to the fourth step. When you can no longer comfortably hold

your breath, you should exhale through your nostrils, visualizing that the unified

upper and lower airs held at the short a shoot up the central channel like an

arrow. They completely absorb inside the central channel, energizing much bliss.

You should exhale slowly at first, but toward the end of the expiration breathe

the air out forcefully until your lungs feel empty. Although Lama Tsongkhapa’s

text does not mention to breathe out strongly (in fact, he advises us to release the

breath gently and quietly), I have seen many lamas do it this way.

While some lamas say that you should visualize the air leaving the body at the

crown, Lama Tsongkhapa says that it should be kept inside the central channel.

This is understandable since our main aim is to have all the winds enter, stabilize,

and be absorbed there. From the navel chakra the air goes to the heart, throat, and

then crown, but it does not exit from the crown chakra.

Although we visualize all the air going into the two side channels when we

breathe in, our purpose is to fill the central channel, not the side channels. In

order to accomplish this, we bring the air down completely and hold it below the

navel, where the side channels enter the central channel. When we swallow saliva

and then milk the airs from the side channels into the central channel at the navel

chakra, the central channel automatically opens, and all the airs from the side

channels enter into it.

When the side channels are open and functioning, the central channel is closed;

and when the central channel is open and functioning, the side channels are

closed. Lama Tsongkhapa says that these are the only alternatives.

According to Lama Tsongkhapa’s experience, holding the unified upper and

lower airs at the navel chakra can be uncomfortable in the beginning, with the

abdomen sometimes becoming a little bloated. He explains, however, that with

practice the discomfort passes and the abdomen naturally shrinks.

Some people might feel that they cannot bring the airs from above and below to

unify at the navel chakra; others might feel that their abdomen is too small. The

solution is not to force anything. Don’t rush to unify the two airs. Of course, it is a

good idea to apply a little force at the beginning, but not so much that you have

difficulty or pain. Don’t think that you can only do this practice forcefully. Just try

to bring the energy inside in a relaxed fashion.

If you don’t like to do the meditation forcefully, imagine that the short a itself

magnetically attracts the airs from above and below, drawing them into union at

the navel chakra. It is as if the short a sucks the entire energy of your body into the

navel chakra. Without any effort, you visualize that the short a forcefully draws

the airs from the two side channels, as well as from all the other channels, and

from above and below, into one unified absorption. This is an easy way to do vase

meditation.

If you apply too much force, you may experience wind disorders, known as lung

in Tibetan. You could also experience strong heart palpitations, suffer cold sweats,

or feel sick. Don’t strain. Just practice in a relaxed and natural way. Perform the

technique slowly and gently, and allow the process to develop in accordance with

your personal capacity. Everyone’s body is different. Some people have large

stomachs, others small; some have large channels, others small. Everyone should

breathe according to their individual proportions. In any case, the process is the

same.

In my opinion, Lama Tsongkhapa is saying that each individual person can

judge how much air to bring in and how long to hold it. A lama can instruct you in

the techniques, but you should decide from your own experience what works best

for you.

The more gently you go in the beginning, the more forcefully you will

eventually be able to bring all the airs to the navel chakra. Lama Tsongkhapa says,

however, that at a certain point vase breathing will come naturally. As your

concentration becomes stable, you will find that you can hold the upper and lower

winds together effortlessly and naturally. You might be finding the technique

difficult, but then suddenly and unexpectedly one day your breathing will become

more natural, more subtle, and more easily controlled. You will be able to tell

from your own experiences when you have succeeded.

You might not be meditating, simply talking or doing some ordinary activity, yet

you suddenly notice that you are doing vase breathing. You press down a little, and

the energies spontaneously move around inside your body. With regular practice

the process becomes very natural, and you will find yourself bringing the airs

inside automatically.

Of course, if you really do find the technique too complicated, just breathe

naturally and develop concentration on the short a. Lama Tsongkhapa’s

commentary actually says that vase breathing is not absolutely required for

success in the inner fire meditations. You can breathe with small natural breaths,

yet deep down you hold the energies.

Holding the upper and lower winds together at the navel chakra is the key to

success in inner fire meditation. You should practice vase breathing over and over

again, until you can do it effortlessly. It is not a difficult technique; in fact, it is

unbelievably easy. A sense of bliss arising from the secret chakra will indicate that

you are making progress. Even performing the vase meditation without much

concentration will induce bliss. You don’t need to be a great meditator. All you

have to do is practice, live peacefully, control yourself, relax, and you can

experience blissful energy even without good concentration.

Vase breathing can also be used as a way to extend your life span. It is said that

each of us takes a fixed number of breaths during our life, and if we can learn to

control our usual rapid breathing and breathe more slowly, we can prolong our

life.

Also, I think that slowing the rhythm of our breathing slows down our nervous

system, and then our mind automatically slows down as well. In this way our

concentration spontaneously becomes much stronger and our mind less distracted.

There are various ways to assess your progress in vase breathing. Kagyu

practitioners have a method of timing the vase breath in which you touch one

knee, then the other, then your forehead, and finally snap your fingers three

times. This cycle is counted as one unit of measurement. Being able to do 108 of

these while holding a vase breath is considered a sign of great success; seventy-two

indicates middling success; and thirty-six, small success. The Kagyu texts explain

that this success is only from the point of view of a beginner. For advanced yogis

and yoginis, there is no question of counting; they can hold their breath for an

extremely long time.

Lama Tsongkhapa has a different way of counting. You place your right palm on

the left palm and stroke it three times, touch both knees, then snap your fingers

six times. The Kagyu method seems simpler to me. Concentrating deeply on inner

fire and performing complicated counting at the same time would be difficult. I do

not negate Lama Tsongkhapa’s method. I’m sure that someone with indestructible

concentration could count in his way; but those who are easily distracted would

find it better to count by the other method. There were no watches or clocks in the

old days, so time couldn’t be calculated accurately. Anyway, these days we all have

watches so we don’t need to count in either Lama Tsongkhapa or Kagyupa style.

We can count in twentieth-century style.

We should now dedicate the merit. “May the hatred and desire energy from the

right and left channels totally absorb into the short a. May all sentient beings

experience the wind energies entering into the central channel, becoming stable,

and then absorbing there. May they all discover the clear light.”