Before I describe sKu-mNyé (pronounced koom nyay) or simply Tibetan Yoga, let me relate an incident.
Another lifetime ago I was living in a remote house in the exquisitely beautiful Marshwood Vale of Dorset, England. The countryside remains untouched by our century and it is a place where you could easily experience the time of the Romans or Thomas Hardy just by being present on the land. Also it is the most heavily haunted part of Britain. Our house and garden stood isolated in amongst the rolling hills, a perfect location for practicing Meditation and Yoga in the garden.
I would go horseback riding every day and my friend Jo told me that the people in the villages were talking about me, discussing my religion. I happen to be an Ordained Buddhist but apparently the local arguments revolved around a lack of knowledge of Buddhism so some pretty weird and inaccurate opinions were arising but also some villagers were arguing as to whether I was a Buddhist or Muslim. I laughed about this.
On gloriously sunny June day I was meditating in my wild flower paddock, I was alone except for my Jack Russell Terrier named Tangle who wanted to catch and kill rabbits but he never disrespected my meditation time with actions of such an impermanent nature so he remained still. After a while I decided to practice some Tibetan Yoga, so I took my clothes off. Yes, it was warm and sunny, I was on my own except for Tangle who did not mind, and a requirement of this solitary practice is no clothes. I will explain later.
I practiced a few exercises (with names relating to lions, vultures, tigers, eagles and garudas), meditating between the sets of exercises and when I was enjoying one of my favourite exercises named Stalking Tiger which involves standing on all fours, buttocks higher than the shoulders and the pelvis rotates clockwise in a circle horizontally while the nose rotates in a circle horizontally in the opposite direction, (have I lost you?). Never say I don't have a sense of humour, but I began to sense that I was being observed. You know that feeling?
My paddock was surrounded my 1000 year old hedgerows so I did not think it was possible to be seen, except I was mistaken. There was a small gap in the hedge and I saw the face of one of my neighbours who lived a few fields away and today he was walking his gun dogs. He was dressed from the BBC Costume Department in Plus fours and he sported the most enormous handlebar moustache. He was watching me. I stopped mid rotation to stare back at him and at this point without embarrassment he shouted, "now I can see you are a Buddhist." Go figure. I understand his observation of me had solved the argument about which religion I belonged to. Only in England, folks, only in England.
I have practiced Tibetan Yoga with a lot of humour, for twenty years ever since I was taught the practice by my Buddhist Teachers, Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen who are the lineage holders of a Tibetan Yogic Lineage called the Aro gTér. This is a rare and unique strand of non-monastic Buddhism within the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage emanates from Yeshé Tsogyel, the female Tantric Buddha and consort of Padmasambhava through to Aro Lingma, a visionary genius of the early 20th Century.
Although I have enjoyed and taught many movement practices all my life, Tibetan Yoga carries all the components of a fully inclusive exercise system with a meditation practice. It employs a number of varied exercises requiring strength, balance, coordination, flexibility that all develop into various levels of aerobic activity. It is a cardiovascular exercise system and encourages bone density, joint mobility and overall strength and flexibility.
"lose yourself" Eminem
Now for the interesting part. The Meditation practice concentrates on physical sensation resulting in opening and invigorating the senses. This is achieved by not wearing any clothes, employing a distinctive use of the eyes, the hands and disorienting moving postures (as described previously with Stalking Tiger). I jokingly said earlier that it requires a sense of humour to practice it, but interestingly with regular practice, experience of the senses becomes enlivened and increasingly vivid and people become livelier, happier, less depressed as their world becomes more potent. The routine of alternating exercises with meditation allows the benefits of interval training, so weight loss occurs and fitness developed rapidly. One of the initial and welcome side effects of practicing is an increased sex drive as well as an increase of awareness of sensations. Simply put, better Sex!
Tibetan Yoga also ameliorates mental conditions such as depression, because it is entirely concerned with physical sensation rather than any form of mental re-programming. If you exercise and want to meditate and stop paying for gym membership, this is the system for you and it is so much fun.
Over the years while living in New York I have taught Tibetan Yoga to hundreds of people all of whom loved and welcomed it into their daily exercise and meditation practice. By the way, in the teaching environment we always wear clothes! but this is a solitary practice to engage in at home on your own. I only mentioned briefly about the exercises encouraging sensations. This is also an unusual occurrence but you can only find out more about this by receiving the Theoretical Transmission of the practice, so I will not say anymore at this point. All my Tibetan Yoga clients noticed the benefits of this amazing system very quickly including my class of teenagers who apart from losing weight and exercising for fun, discovered the practice also improved their concentration at school.
Now due to the wonders of the internet, I am teaching Tibetan Yoga through Skype, for those in far away places, but also there are workshops available. Please feel free to contact me through www.enlightenedmoves.com
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