The Five Tibetan Rites

[Scottoz]

Hi

The Five Tibetan Rites are an ancient yoga practice that consists of a sequence of five exercises performed 21 times a day. Practitioners report that the program has many physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. These effects are thought to restore a person's vitality and strength.

Since the Covid 19 lockdown started I wanted to find a quick yoga practice that I could do every day and have been enjoying this short but highly effective sequence of postures. I have felt better and enjoyed doing it, so thought I would share this short book which outlines the practice which only takes about 10 to 15 minutes to work through.

http://lib.ru/URIKOVA/KELDER/Ancient...ter_Kelder.pdf

[Scottoz]

This is also a really good link which summarises the main elements of the 5 Tibetan rites technique which has some useful infographics explaining each of the yoga rites. The intention of the rites is to get all of your chakras flowing, as having blocked chakras can cause health problems and the human body to age prematurely.

There is also an optional 6th rite which some people may chose to use(but it might not be suitable for everyone) which allows for the transmutation of sexual energies as part of the Tibetan Rites practice.

http://home.acceleration.net/clark/C...ive.Rites.html

I have been doing the exercises for a while now, and feel great, will let you know how I feel in a few months from now, would be interested to know if anyone else has practiced this technique for an extended period of time.

Cheers

Scott

[Ernie Nemeth]

Nice easy routine.

Good for large muscle groups. Energy release.

I wonder why there are no inverted poses? They do the most for detoxification.

[Clear Light]

Ah, just for some additional Dzogchen context, for those of us who actually do some form of "yoga", and perhaps for non-initiates that nevertheless are curious about what the real benefits such "practices" may have are, I'm posting the following excerpts from the book Imagining Chinese Medicine, chapter 29, "Moving towards Perfection: Physical Culture in Dzogchen as Revealed in Tibet’s Lukhang Murals" (Ian A. Baker) :

More than any other Dzogchen practice, the ‘vajra posture’ engages the physical body in ways designed to alter the flow of psychosomatic energies and to embody experientially the mind’s capacity to transcend and gain from physiological stress as it identifies ever increasingly with the essence of consciousness, rather than its adventitious forms including the illusory notion of an abiding self.

The development of increased mental and physical capacities through pushing through habitual limits is known in biology as hormesis, a process whereby beneficial effects such as increased strength and resilience, growth, and longevity can result from deliberate and systematic exposure to therapeutic stress.

... the body is used to its fullest potential to bring the mind to an innate state of lucid, all-pervading awareness, the foundation for all subsequent Dzogchen practices based on the existential ideal of discovering ultimate freedom within the flow of ordinary experience.

Figure 29.4 A section of the Lukhang murals illustrates Pema Lingpa’s ‘Secret Key to the Channels and Winds’ (Rtsa rlung gsang ba’i lde mig) and includes depictions of 23 yogic exercises (’khrul ’khor) that prepare body and mind for visionary gazing practices called thod rgal (‘leaping over the skull’), visions of which are pictured at the lower right. © Ian Baker

I'd say this is probably as "real" as it gets eh ?

[shaberon]

Posted by Ernie Nemeth (here)
I wonder why there are no inverted poses? They do the most for detoxification.

This type of yoga is really not about poses. It is mainly mental.

Something comparable is Wind Horse, which is associated with the millions of prayer flags to be found everywhere.

There is not much particularly Tibetan about it, particularly in origin. Tibet has no native beliefs or practices. It is, however, related to Ayurveda, and a principle of Five Upwards and Five Downwards Life Winds. If you take that as the main kernel, then you can perhaps penetrate all reality. If not, then you likely wander in misery and delusion.

Most Prayer Flags use Five Chinese Creatures, which, perhaps, is a slightly different appearance than Indian formulations. The Tibetan practices are Indian, but a lot of their medicine and astrology is Chinese. So the flags are Indian mantra surrounding creatures evnvisioned by the Chinese.

I do not know anything about the particular technique or any poses, but, as far as Life Wind itself, yes, I would be willing to go on oath to confirm it. That is what we call the Path. I would take another oath to describe it as more real than anything else I've come across. It eliminates Adventitious Defilements. There is no other reliable way to do it. There is a vast amount of material on that same Russian website with the Kelder book. The Russian collections are in fact awesome and straightforward even though they don't spring out in searches. There are only a couple such sites. Pema Lingpa sounds familiar since, if you start looking into it, you will quickly find almost the whole culture is based on Long Life Trinity and a handful of transmitted lineages from India. There is more to it, but in order for it to work, you need not just the intellectual concept of the Winds but you have to have some experience in feeling them and making them work differently from mundane consciousness.

If you can do that, then you can play for the Lions.

[Luke Holiday]

I discovered this book 10 years ago and adopted the exercise routine into my preworkout weight training workouts ever since. I find it to be a tremendous warm up and have tested to see if it had any affect on strength and found that I was 5-10% stronger on my common exercises when performing this pre -workout routine.


Blessings Luke

[Michael Moewes]

Be cautious.
Everything related to Tibet, Buddhism, Dzogchen, Yoga etc. should not be practiced without guidance of a master.
Because done wrong can bring you much more harm than benefit.
Tashi Delek Mangalam

[Anchor]

I have been practicing the Tibetan 5 rites ever since I learned about them from the book written by Peter Kelder

I wrote a bit about my experience here.

[Clear Light]

Posted by Michael Moewes (here)
Be cautious.
Everything related to Tibet, Buddhism, Dzogchen, Yoga etc. should not be practiced without guidance of a master.
Because done wrong can bring you much more harm than benefit.
Tashi Delek Mangalam

Oh, yes, indeed so, but why ? Because, I'd say, even after having resolved ALL your doubts about what is being "pointed out", I'd suggest it is still very likely the case that there is some "remainder" of Intellectual and Emotional Obscurations that require "self-liberation" as it's impossible to see your own "Blind Spots" eh ?

Dzogchen is said to have great advantage but also great danger. Why is this? Because all the teachings are ultimately and finally resolved within the system of Dzogchen. This can be divided into two parts, resolving the teachings through intellectual understanding and through experience. To resolve through experience is the great advantage or benefit in the sense that having pointed out and recognizing directly naked knowing you simply take that as the main part of practice. That is the incredible great benefit because it is the very direct and swift path to enlightenment.

On the other hand, the great danger is when you just leave naked knowing as an intellectual understanding, that “In Dzogchen there is no thing to meditate upon. There is no thing to view. There is nothing to carry out as an action.” That becomes a nihilistic concept and is completely detrimental to progress, because the final point of the teaching is conceptlessness, being beyond intellectual thinking. Yet, what has happened is that you have created an intellectual idea of Dzogchen and hold on to that idea very tightly. This is a major mistake but it can happen. So, it is very important to bring the instruction into personal experience through the oral guidance of a teacher. Otherwise, simply to have the idea: I am meditating on Dzogchen, is to completely miss the point.

From : MIXING FIRE AND WATER – AN INTERVIEW WITH TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE

Ah, but in some respects, I'd say it's probably more worthwhile in the long run, to get to grips, fully, with one of the founding principles, "Anatta", because unless it is firmly taken-to-heart (so to say), there won't be the self-arising "foundation" upon which I suggest ALL the higher teachings are "reliant" eh ?

[shaberon]

Posted by Michael Moewes (here)
Everything related to Tibet, Buddhism, Dzogchen, Yoga etc. should not be practiced without guidance of a master.

I will say for Sutra-based Buddhism that this is not the case.

To make this perhaps a bit more vivid, the Tibetan institutions are rather small, whereas it is mainly Indian Sutras that are followed by hundreds of millions in China, Japan, across the southeast out to Malaysia, and so forth.

The first Tibetan branch was brought in by Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra, but, it was soon mostly shrugged off; a few centuries later, Mahaguru Rinchen Zangpo had the major hand in re-vitalizing Buddhism in Tibet. However he is found to have done basically the same across all the trans-Himalayan Indian provinces; even the Hindus are willing to call him the father of culture in Ladakh, as with
Tabo Monastery, the oldest continuous Buddhist facility. Swayambhunath in Nepal is older, but, in a physical sense, the property is managed by Hindus.

In that Padmasambhava's branch is largely based on Guhyagarbha Tantra, it should be said that this is not by any means the Indian death rite, but is a system of meditation related to death. And if so, according to one commentary on the Tantra its first step is a set of Gatekeepers which are not related to the base of the spine as in most Hindu Yoga. It is more like Sri Yantra in Shaktism. And so this is the core of the body, abdominal or solar plexus and it uses Animals:

Cuckoo means hears the heartbeat and decides to restrain the Life Winds from outer dissipation and answer the Heart's Call

Goat ruminates over the field of experience and browses for the best parts to take

Lion is Purified Speech or Mantra which brings Life Winds from the core to the throat

Snake is an initiation or seal of Wisdom

So the full Tantra is not something one should just try and do by any means, but, that rhythm is like an energetic seed. The word Garbha refers to a Womb; Guhya is Secret; and so this practice is like a Womb of Secrets because it is an intricate subtle process that changes the nature of a human being.

However the Sutra basis is freely available for anyone to use. And so if we look at the doctrine of Tathagata Garbha--Buddha Womb--it means a mainly mental version of what is expanded in the Tantra. This is utterly and completely necessary for Grounding. It comes from the relatively short

Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala Devi

which is described in a review as:

"In the Srimala Devi Sutra the Tathagata-garbha is explained in terms of Emptiness; empty of defilements, but not ultimately empty, because it still possess the Buddha dharmas which are said to be nondiscrete and inconceivable.

The srimaladevi sutra is one of the main early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts that teaches the doctrines of Tathāgatagarbha and the One Vehicle . The srmaladevi Sūtra teaches the reality of an ultimate, immaculate Consciousness within each living being, which is the Buddhic Dharmakāya (essence of Truth), which is yet temporarily sheathed in obscuring defilement. This Dharmakāya, when viewed as intrinsically free from spiritual ignorance, is said to constitute Eternity, Bliss, the Self, and Purity in their perfect state.

The use of the word "Self" in this sutra is in a way unique to this class of sutra; the Dharmakāya of the Buddha has the perfection of permanence, the perfection of pleasure, the perfection of Self, the perfection of purity. Whatever sentient beings see the Dharmakāya of the Tathagāta that way, see correctly. Whoever see correctly are called the sons of the Lord born from his heart, born from his mouth, born from the Dharma, who behave as manifestation of Dharma and as heirs of Dharma In the epilogue the Buddha says to keep this discourse as 'Teaching the hidden purport of the meaning of voidness' and as 'Teaching the hidden purport that the mind is intrinsically pure', thus underlining the main message of the sutra; that living beings have an intrinsic purity, the Tathagata-garbha, which is non-empty, unchanging and eternal. I think the process described in the Srimala Devi Sutra is a process of uncovering an already pre-existent Buddhahood, rather than a development towards enlightenment."

The whole Sutra is not much longer than that.

Buddhism does not really use the common chakra system, and the meditations on no-self are more or less a preliminary. It perhaps is more accurate to describe Lion's Roar as the removal of ego or personal self "as we know ourselves" and replacing it with something else.

Based on Sutra it is easily possible to learn basic Buddhist meditation, and, if during that process, you let that little cuckoo bird come down and land right in the middle of your body, and really listen, you will be fine.

If pieces of Buddhist techniques are done without actually being a Buddhist, it isn't real. Yet it is fairly easy to make a Mahayana Commitment at a Sutra level. I would not call that a religion. It is not exactly the same thing. Any Buddhist is still free to go to a church or temple or do whatever they want. What we are doing could perhaps be called a system of Samadhi, which is valid and effective to the extent it is followed as closely as possible. As you can see, the Lion is going to bar your way in the Sutra and in the Tantra. If there is something to "get", it would be this.

One could also say it perhaps is "modified" into the Snow Lion of Tibet, and the thing to respect about Tibet is that a lot of their practices deal with local guardians and protector beings that have no relevance outside their habitat. Their material is a mixture of "universals" with particular entities, the major category of which were hostiles that Padmasambhava dominated. And so it is not really appropriate to meditate in what we might call their "personal arena" unless we really do have the connection. But the universal aspects are the same. The Tathagata Garbha doctrine as from Srimala Devi is encoded into the Nyingma-based common Tibetan Seven Line National Prayer. So as a non-Tibetan I do not really use this, because it is an additional "step" which makes it fuzzy and less clear how it gives the same meaning. Or in other words I can summarize the whole doctrine in seven lines, but it is a Sutra, not an individual or localized version. Either way is Refuge of One expressed as Seven Elements:

Buddha
Dharma
Sangha
Dhatu
Bodhi
Guna
Karma

And so these are like our sun rays, we are wanting to shine them brightly and perfectly; is the subject of any and all Tantra. All of the performers become Lion aspected: Buddha, Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and so on, but this is not just a theme or image, is a state of being.

[Clear Light]

Posted by shaberon (here)

Posted by Michael Moewes (here)
Everything related to Tibet, Buddhism, Dzogchen, Yoga etc. should not be practiced without guidance of a master.

[/SNIP]

Buddhism does not really use the common chakra system, and the meditations on no-self are more or less a preliminary. It perhaps is more accurate to describe Lion's Roar as the removal of ego or personal self "as we know ourselves" and replacing it with something else.

[/SNIP]

Oh, I don't wish to take your words "out of context" as there are many ways to practice the Dharma but I'd say "no self" really cuts-to-the-bone inasmuch as it's actually pointing to the whole (illusory) selfing-dynamic as ultimately being our single source of apparent suffering eh ?

My thoughts, my concepts, my ideas, my possessions, my money, my friends, my enemies ... in other words "I" don't agree that it should be considered merely as a Provisional (or Preliminary) Axiom / Aphorism but that in reality it is, I suggest, a fundamental Principle underpinning the entire Buddhist Philosophy or Metaphysics eh ?

Throughout Ramana Maharshi's teaching is the theme that since the ego has no real existence of its own, it disappears or vanishes when the light of inquiry is brought to it. What you are left with when the falseness of the ego vanishes, is truth. It's that simple. That's what waking up is. "Reality is simply loss of the ego."

From : David Carse's Perfect Brilliant Stillness

[shaberon]

Posted by Clear Light (here)

Posted by shaberon (here)

Buddhism does not really use the common chakra system, and the meditations on no-self are more or less a preliminary. It perhaps is more accurate to describe Lion's Roar as the removal of ego or personal self "as we know ourselves" and replacing it with something else.

Oh, I don't wish to take your words "out of context" as there are many ways to practice the Dharma but I'd say "no self" really cuts-to-the-bone inasmuch as it's actually pointing to the whole (illusory) selfing-dynamic as ultimately being our single source of apparent suffering eh ?

My thoughts, my concepts, my ideas, my possessions, my money, my friends, my enemies ... in other words "I" don't agree that it should be considered merely as a Provisional (or Preliminary) Axiom / Aphorism but that in reality it is, I suggest, a fundamental Principle underpinning the entire Buddhist Philosophy or Metaphysics eh ?

Those are not my words: meditations on no-self are a preliminary.

Within Buddhism, within certain parameters, different beliefs, philosophies, and practices are allowed.

And so yes, there is a type of schism here, more or less based on Emptiness.

So for example, one of the first Jesuits that entered Tibet was able to copy and learn almost all of their system, but, he stopped because he could not figure out Emptiness. However this concept is not even Buddhist but is common in other Indian philosophy. I can meditate ego-less emptiness without ever touching Buddha Dharma.

In Tibet, one of the first Buddhist missionaries was Padmasambhava, and if he was just a meditator, he might not have gained notice, but he is considered to have used his magic powers to subjugate all kinds of evil spirits that roamed about.

His system did not flourish there very long, but, itself, was a thread of a much larger Indian system that remained intact for another five hundred years.

Now if we see Nepal is in the middle of the two, is the historical origin of Sita and Buddha, the destination of Manjushri, another revelation site of Padmasambhava, and the source of Chakrasamvara, it may make sense that it sort of has its own system, which is closest to that of India, and has almost nothing from Tibet.

It definitely arises in a progression. The beginning characteristic part could perhaps be called Mantra Yoga. Any Hinduism also uses mantra, and, some of these we have in common, but, most of the particular mantras become specifically Buddhist. The tier above this is Deity Yoga. Many or almost all of the deities are still Hindu, and are simply being changed or re-worked in a Buddhist manner. And then you have major Buddhist meditational deities, such as Chakrasamvara or Vajrabhairava, which are all taught as conducive to Full Enlightenment.

In the complete Nepalese system, these--any Buddhist meditation or deity carried to its full potential--is a preliminary to Agni (Fire).

By "Nepalese", it really means the entire Indian system as shared with Nepal but exterminated in India by invaders. In Tibet, this was more or less directly translated by Sakya, Kagyu, and Jonang. It is the Samputa system as taught by Abhayakaragupta and transmitted through Vajravali and the main tantric corpus upon which these schools rely.

In Tibet, I am not sure that they continue to emphasize Agni in the same way, but, that is how it is supposed to work. It has many meanings, but again, is based in Ayurveda: Agni being the animating heat of the body. Now since we know it is not literally from burning like a match, and there are other energies and mechanisms. it forms the concept of Pitha. This marks it as sacred and considers it to have alternate forms, such as fire of earth and the like, which becomes the categories of Life Winds and Buddha Families. In any tantra, Pitha is a sacred site where by some means, the goddess merged into the earth itself. Or, esoterically, is how divinity enters the physical body.

This is also spread all across Japan and other places. In any of these schools and transmissions, bits and pieces may be found, but the whole original is most clearly Nepalese. In Nepal, there is no such thing as non-Tantric Buddhism; there is not a Mahayana or any kind of transitional ground. There is only this Buddhist Agni system. Any Hindu would be able to recognize almost all of it, since it is only a slight refinement of what he knows. Buddha was raised in a Ganesh temple. He never went around to radically discard it; he recommended a few changes, and perhaps most importantly, he recommended doing an Inner Homa. Well, the Homa means the Agni rite that might be done ritually by a temple or a whole town. So he is saying to find its inner meaning and meditate mostly mentally.

One can do it with Rangtong Philosophy or Shentong. It would be accurate to say that Shentong is minor and generally only found in Sakya, Kagyu, and Jonang. However it does have an Indian original, Parasunya. It means Empty of Other. Nothing that is not its own nature exists in that state; there are no defilements, skandhas, etc. What it does have are what we call Perfections or Paramitas and is Dharmakaya or condition of a Buddha. Whether we look in Ratna Gotra Vibhaga at the Seven Mysteries, or, the Seven Line Prayer of Tibet, they are talking about the presence of something found in the absence of the self of skandhas. This is the same as Buddha Nature in Lion's Roar. It is the Absolute, or Nirakara, unchanging and concept-free.

So yes, what I am emphasizing is really only a portion of Buddhism. However it is present in the most ancient materials, and continues to be represented to a degree in many cultures, but, moreover, it tells us something about the entire tantric system and Buddhism as a whole: the goal is not quiescent Nirvana, but masterful use of Agni.

It is difficult to see from some of the Tibetan tantras which have translated Heruka as "Blood Drinker". The Indian original Heruka refers to the state of Sahaja or co-emergent bliss, which happens to also have a wrathful aspect, but is basically peaceful. Generally it is described that a disciple must gain Heruka Yoga before doing the restrictive initiatory practices.

[Ernie Nemeth]

I would still recommend a teacher or better yet a master if one is considering deep practice.

This is because there are energies that will be released, some of which requires a perspective beyond the reach of the pupil at that stage to deal with effectively.

It can lead to disastrous or should I say earth-shattering, life changing, events that are only possible to tame with guidance.

[shaberon]

Somewhat true, but also difficult for outsiders.

My difficulty was like this:

As a teenager, with a sort of random smattering of western magic and eastern mysticism, just from having a natural or instinctual tendency towards Pranayama, I rapidly experienced everything described in Yoga up to the tantric Completion Stage. And so I found books and started learning about it after the fact. Something like Gopi Krishna, if you read his biography called Kundalini, I was just a few steps short of him. He had to stay in the second story of his house and could barely move.

After a few years of this, it was a jumble, and everything has been really messed up ever since then.

Or, I would say, outer karmic life is. The actual Yoga is no mystery to me whatsoever. It is all very clear, I have put a lot of time into examining all sorts of literature, and if nothing else, there certainly is a Guide.

This is Buddha. That is exactly what it means. The only type of vow I have ever made publicly is Refuge Vow, and what that means is, Buddha and Buddha Dharma are the best and most reliable guide.

And this can be taken canonicliy. Anyone may pick up a Sutra. It is called 84,000 because there are about as many outer teachings as branches in the subtle body. This is pyramidal, and all goes the same way, but what it means is, there is reliable guidance beginning from a textbook.

If one is a Tirtha, in other words if you are not serious and think that jumping in a river while saying certain words is salvation, you will be handcuffed, you will just have books and words or other ritual things that are basically inert.

If you really try, then you will find you are able to penetrate the Dharma to some extent, and will fall into place somewhere in its arrangement.

In my experience of trying to learn it, I have tried either Guru Rinpoche or Avalokiteshvara--H. H. D. L. Guru Yoga, neither one of which worked, because I don't have the connection.

The bulk of my--I guess you might call it basic training--is Kagyu, which is not all that unusual, since it has become world-wide. And it turns out this works for a person like me who is "in the wilderness" in no kind of position to be regularly monitored by any earthly teacher. Our Guru Yoga works transcendentally--if you have the connection to H. H. Karmapa, you can use it, or you can use anything you have, but if you don't have anything, then it works without having a human involved.

So just from examining the world, I will say that there is a safer, better way to do it than when I was younger. When I was in the Kagyu meditation halls, I was, in some way, still trying to aggrandize it with western systems and my own innovations. This does not work. If you take it cleanly and consistently, it does.

The important thing is, not to take bits of Buddhist stuff and use it out of context. Make it streamline into the Dharma as closely as possible. This does not strictly prohibit you from other things. Some of the most important medieval Buddhist masters were also major lineage holders in Nath. So it more or less means, when you are in a Nath audience, you use that method, and in Buddha lands it is Buddhism.

All of the modern Buddhist teachers say the main difficulty with western students is we come in launching pre-conceptions at it. But really, once we get the proper Grounding, a lot of material becomes available, roughly comparable to an educational system with post-doctorate degrees.