Journal of Yoga Studies

Yoga and the Traditional Physical Practices of South Asia • 2023 | 441 – 488
Published: 10th April 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34000/JoYS.2020.V4.013
ISSN: 2664–1739

13
TRACKING THE ILLUSORY MAGICAL WHEEL:
PHYSICAL YOGA IN TIBETAN TANTRA AND
DZOGCHEN

Ian A. Baker

Abstract

In Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Bön, yoga refers to expedient means (thabs, S.
upāya) for liberating oneself and others from the wheel of cyclic existence (kor ba,
S. saṃsāra). Central to that agenda is mastery of a subtle physiology of energy
channels (rtsa, S. nāḍī) and their nodal points at radiant “wheels” (’khor lo, S.
cakra) along the body’s central axis. The method whereby subtle energy (rlung, S.
prāṇa), and corresponding mental states, are brought under conscious control are
known in Tibetan as Tsalung Trulkhor (rtsa rlung ’khrul ’khor), literally “illusory”
or “magical” “wheel of subtle channels and vital energies.” This chapter traces
the development and trajectory of the Magical Wheel in so-called Perfection
(rdzogs rim) and Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) practices that Tibetan Buddhism
and Bön uphold as progressively efficacious means for freeing oneself from
conditioned existence through realisation of the illusory, and therefore mutable,
nature of self-identity (bdag med, S. anātman).

KEYWORDS
Tantra, Tsalung, Trulkhor, Kalācakra, Tummo, Karmamudrā, Dzogchen.
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Introduction

In his first sermon, Buddha Śākyamuni invoked a chariot wheel to indicate the ways in
which liberating awareness (vidyā, T. rig pa) and misapprehension (avidyā, T. ma rig pa)
determine our experience during moment to moment change and the posited
successions of death and rebirth within the Wheel of Life (bhāvacakra, T. srid pa’i ’khor lo).
The dharmacakra, or “Wheel of Truth” (chos kyi ’khor lo), with its eight spokes
representing branches of the Noble Eight-Fold Path (āryāṣṭāṅgamārga), its rim
concentration and mindfulness, and its hub moral discipline, thus became a defining
symbol of the Buddhist path to nirvāṇa, or intrinsic freedom, while positioning the
Buddha himself as a dharmacakrapravartayati, one “who set the Wheel of Truth in
motion.”1 The Buddhist teachings have thus traditionally been divided into “wheels,”
from the “First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma” at the Deer Park near Varanasi to the
“Second Turning of the Wheel” at the Vulture Peak at Rajgir, where the Buddha
revealed that all phenomena are without self-nature, to the “Third Turning of the
Wheel” connected with Mahāyāna, or “Great Vehicle,” teachings on Buddha Nature
(tathagatagarbha) (Ray 2002: 18).

With the “Fourth Turning of the Wheel” the eight-spoked dharmacakra provided a visual
template for depictions of Tantric maṇḍalas (dkyil ’khor) based on Buddhist texts called
Tantras fundamental to an emergent “Adamantine Vehicle” (Vajrayāna) for assuming
the qualities of envisioned, all-compassionate deities (yidam, S. iṣṭadevatā). The
dharmacakra also served as a model for the radiant “wheels” (cakra, T. ’khor lo) along the
body’s cerebrospinal axis on which such practices of self-transformation rely. The
Buddhist Tantras thus transposed the Wheel of Truth to the heart cakra as the focal
point of a psychophysical “adamantine body maṇḍala” (rdo rje lus kyi dkyil ’khor)
encoding an emancipatory praxis for liberating and perfecting human experience.
Central to that existential process are the haṭhayoga-like practices of Tsalung Trulkhor2
whereby initiates seek to embody and express the self-transcendent wisdom and
ecstatic anatomy of sensuously entangled Tantric Buddhist deities (Figs. 9, 10).3

When Tantric Buddhist techniques were introduced from India to Tibet between the 8th
and 13th centuries, Tibetan translators rendered the Sanskrit term yoga as neljor (rnal
’byor), or “union with the natural state” of existence. In Tibetan contexts, yoga signifies

1The concept of Cakravartin, a virtuous ruler “who turns the wheel” and whose chariot reaches every-
where without obstruction, originated during the Maurya Empire (4th–3rd centuries BCE).

2 Trulkhor (’khrul ’khor) is alternatively spelled ’phrul ’khor (see footnote 6).

3 For an extensive overview of Trulkhor in Tibetan Buddhism, see Baker 2019: 113–145.

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a wide variety of practices ranging from ritual visualisation in the form of Deity Yoga
(lha’i rnal ’byor, S. devatā-yoga)4 to Supreme Yoga (shin tu rnal ’byor, S. atiyoga),
characterised by self-liberating realisation of a noetic numinosity antecedent to
discursive, self-referential forms of consciousness. While such Creation (bskyed rim) and
Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) approaches do not depend on bodily practices, the
physical yogas of Tsalung Trulkhor are prominent in an intermediary Perfection Stage
(rdzogs rim) of Tantric Buddhist practice in which adepts cultivate interoceptive
awareness of a subtle anatomy of “channels, winds, and vital essences” (rtsa, rlung,
thig le, S. nāḍī, prāṇa, bindu) as a basis for self-transcendence as an imaginal, nondual
dyadic divinity. As a Magical Wheel, Trulkhor refers to visualisation-supported, breath-
coordinated exercises associated both with an “illusory body” (sgyu lus) and “magical
rebirth” (sprul sku).5 As discussed below, Tsalung Trulkhor has been translated in
contemporary western practice contexts as Yantra Yoga6 in reference to the ways in
which syncretic configurations of body, breath, and mental attention function as a
transformative methodology for actualising a posited metaphysical substrate of mind
and physiology while freeing consciousness from habitual self-referential awareness.

The Magical Wheel functions within Tibetan tradition as a means for removing
psychophysical impediments to liberating awareness of the nondual union of bliss and
emptiness (de tong zung jug)7 posited as the natural, enlightened state of existence which
itself is characterised as “illusory.”8 Integrating movement and meaning, the gyroscopic

4Deity Yoga is the principal method in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra and relies on imagination to consecrate
oneself as a Buddha-figure (yidam) so as to creatively alter subjective experience.

5 The Tibetan word ’phrul signifies creative generation through the cognate word sprul, as in the Tibetan
word tulku (sprul sku) which refers etymologically to the reputed ability of early Tibetan monarchs, and
later prominent spiritual preceptors (“reincarnate lamas”), to volitionally “emanate” as human
manifestations of Tantric Buddhas and to assume successive rebirths for the benefit of human and non-
human beings. See Tucci 1950: 77–78, as noted in Kingsley 2018 (2010): 137–138, n. 24. See also
Stein 1973: 415–422.

6 The Sanskrit word yantra refers to a magical diagram or mechanical tool or device that aids mental
concentration. In Hindu and Buddhist Tantra, yantras, usually of a geometrical nature, are employed to
direct psychospiritual energies. Trulkhor was first translated into English as Yantra Yoga by Chögyal
Namkhai Norbu (2008). See “The Wheel of Yantra” at the end of this chapter.

7 “Emptiness” (śūnyatā) in Mahayāna and Vajrayāna Buddhism refers to the theory that phenomenal reality
and mental events lack independent existence, a realisation held to be inseparable from supreme, self-
transcendent bliss (mahāsukha), symbolised by Tantric Buddhist deities.

8As explained in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, phenomena neither exist, because they vanish, nor don’t exist,
because they appear.

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motions of the Magical Wheel transcend objective existence while simultaneously

affecting psychophysical processes, from self-healing to “milking” the “cow of
Heaven” (nam mkhai ba) (Evans-Wentz 2000: 193), a euphemism for activating subtle,
ambrosial essences (amṛta) in the brain, as explored below in the section “Wheel of
Nectar.” Trulkhor also specifically supports the cultivation of Tummo (gtum mo,
S. caṇḍālī), or “Fierce Heat,” which releases amṛta, as discussed below in the section
“Wheel of Fire” (see also Baker 2019: 147–163). Tummo’s incandescent fire is further
enhanced through partnered sexual yoga (Karmamudrā) and associated Trulkhor
practices, as explored in the section “Wheel of Bliss” (ibid.: 165–175). Trulkhor and
isometric yoga postures also support Great Perfection (Dzogchen) practices, as
investigated in the subsequent section “Wheel of Light” (ibid.: 243–277).

This chapter thus tracks Trulkhor, the “illusory” or “magical” wheel, through external,
internal, secret, and very secret (yang gsang) stages of Tantric Buddhist practice and
demonstrates the ways in which Trulkhor continues to evolve through cross-
fertilisation of methods and techniques within the larger history of physical yoga in
Asia and associated ideas of self-transformation. In Tibet, the Magical Wheel developed
during a period of rapid change and religious innovation at the intersection of pre-
existing traditions of Bön, Vajrayāna Yoginī Tantras from India, analogous Śākta
practices in Tantric Śaivism, as well as antecedent Chinese traditions of therapeutic
exercise (daoyin) and internal alchemy (neidan), as discussed by Dominic Steavu and
Dolly Yang in this volume.9

Trulkhor in Tibetan Bön

Tibet’s indigenous tradition of Bön maintains that the Magical Wheel was part of its
oral heritage prior to the 8th-century introduction of Vajrayāna (rdo rje theg pa), or
Tantric Buddhism, into Tibet, and that its practices originate in a semi-legendary land
known as Zhang Zhung. However, written evidence of Trulkhor in the Bön tradition
does not appear until the 11th century, when diverse techniques of body-mind
cultivation were being introduced from Nepal, Kashmir, and Pāla Dynasty Bengal
through yogic lineages connected with Buddhist Yoginī Tantras (rnal ’byor ma’i rgyud)
such as the Hevajra, Cakrasaṃvara, and Kālacakra. As in Tibetan Buddhism, Bön presents

9Yang provides textual evidence of systemised forms of daoyin, including extended and inverted postures,
dating to the 6th and 7th centuries. See also Yang 2018: 405 for practices analogous to gtum mo involving
the visualisation of “thunder and lightning” in the dantien region of the lower abdomen. See also Samuel
2008: 278–80, and Mitchell 2016. Chinese martial arts (wǔshù) also share similar forms with Tibetan
Trulkhor.

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Trulkhor as supportive of Perfection Stage (rdzog rim) practices based on a subtle

anatomy of channels, winds, and vital essences which, when optimised, restore a
primordial state of awareness endowed with compassion and omniscience. Bön
similarly holds that the movements of the Magical Wheel of Tsalung Trulkhor dispel
obstacles (’gegs sel)10 and enhance meditative realisation (bog ’don).

Trulkhor practices in Bön first appear in written form in a chapter of the Bön Mother
Tantra (ma rgyud)11 entitled “Elemental Essences” (Byung ba’i thig le) that describes
foundational exercises for balancing the body’s five elements, and the qualities related
to them, in support of meditative realisation (Wangyal 2011a, 2011b). More elaborate
Trulkhor exercises are described in the Atri (A khrid) section of the Great Completion, in
the Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung: Instructions on the Miraculous Wheel of Yogic
Movements (rDzogs pa chen po zhang zhung snyan rgyud las ’khrul khor man ngag) (Chaoul
2007: 141). Alejandro Chaoul explains that although the Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung
appeared in written form in the 8th century, “the magical movement chapter, which is
the last one, would be more accurately placed around the late eleventh or early twelfth
century” (ibid.), during the same period that lineages of Tantric Buddhist yoga were
being introduced to Tibet from India.12

As in Tibetan Buddhism, the Bön Mother Tantra uses the metaphor of a wild horse to
refer to the vital breath (rlung, S. prāṇa) and a rider to refer to consciousness. As the
wild horse is blind and the rider lame, they depend on each other for navigating the
paths of the subtle channels. Tsalung practices focus the mind on the breath and
energetic pathways within the body, while the dynamic movements and postures of
Trulkhor alter the flow of vital energy (prāṇa) by manipulating the subtle channels and
drawing vitality and awareness into the central channel, thus dissolving psycho-
energetic impediments and awakening consciousness to its natural state of self-
liberating wisdom.

10 ’Geg sel, or “clearing obstacles,” is also the primary objective of Tibetan shamanism. See, for example,
Eliade 1962: 43, and Kingsley 2010: 103, n. 9.

11The Mother Tantras (ma rgyud) represent an esoteric tradition among the Nine Ways of Bön (theg pa rim
dgu), based on practices of transformation (bsgyur ba). Whereas the Father Tantras (pha rgyud) emphasise
the Creation Stage (bskyed rim), including intricate visualisations of deities and their maṇḍalas, the Mother
Tantras are based on Perfection Stage (rdzogs rim) practices involving the body’s subtle anatomy of
channels, winds, and vital essences.

12According to Bön sources, the yogic practices of Yungdrung Bön have been transmitted orally for 15,000
years, i.e., from a period before the last Ice Age. While such claims can’t categorically be discounted, textual
evidence of haṭhayoga-like practices in Tibet date only to the 11th century with the introduction of
Buddhist Yoginī Tantras from India, concurrent with the rise of Śākta traditions within Hinduism.

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A Bön scholar and Dzogchen master named Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (Shar rdza bKra’ shis
rGyal mtshan, 1859–1934 CE) wrote an extensive commentary on the Bön tradition of
Trulkhor entitled Profound Treasury of Space Revealing the Miraculous Wheel of Channels and
Winds (Byang zab nam mkha’ mdzod chen las snyan rgyud rtsa rlung ’khrul ’khor) (Shar rdza
2019). The text provides detailed Trulkhor instructions applied to both Tummo (gtum
mo) and Karmamudrā (las kyi phyag rgya), as well as in support of the Great Perfection
(rdzog chen) practices of Trekchö (khregs chod) and Thögal (thod rgal), as discussed below
in the section “Wheel of Light.”

In Book Nine of his compendium (2019: 554), Shardza describes a sequence of forty
yogic exercises for clearing hindrances (’gegs sel) and maximising the benefits of inner
fire meditation (gtum mo).13 He characterises the exercises as a form of “illusory
play” (sgu ma’i rol mo) and enumerates seven foundational exercises for opening the
upper torso (see Fig. 1), such as “drawing the bow and shooting the arrow” (ibid.: 558).14

Figure 1: “Drawing the bow and shooting the arrow.” Photograph by Ian Baker.

13 The Trulkhor exercises are specifically from the Bön “Instructions of the Primordial Āh (A ’khrid).”

14The movement of “shooting the bow” recurs in almost all cycles of Trulkhor. Apart from its association
with single-minded focus, it recalls the prominence of “magical arrows” in Tibetan shamanism for
accessing ecstatic states. For extensive references, see Kingsley 2010: 14, 103, 107, n. 11. Additional exercises
for the upper body including “bucking like a young wild yak” and “the flapping wings of a vulture” are
followed by six practices related to the head (Shardza 2019: 558) and eleven body practices with evocative

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Shardza also recounts fifteen “golden spoon” (gSer gyi thur ma) yogic exercises
condensed from the original forty. These include ritual movements (see Fig. 2) such as
shooting an arrow, hurling an imaginary stone, performing vigorous swimming
movements, flying like a vulture, tossing one’s hair, casting a lasso, and lying on one’s
back while flailing one’s limbs (ibid.: 568).15 Shardza claims that a yogi or yoginī “who
practices these [exercises] will attain a body of bliss, a tranquil mind, and will eradicate
negative spirits and illnesses” (ibid.: 565). He further asserts that the practices “open
the mouth of the [central] channel of awakened awareness,” giving rise to “divine eyes
and paranormal abilities” (siddhi). According to Shardza, the “magical display and signs
of accomplishment will manifest without obstruction,” including “bliss, luminosity, and
non-conceptual awareness” (ibid). The final result is restoration of “original
purity” (ibid.: 568) and recognition of the liberative opportunities amidst “the playful
dance of the magical display of illusion” (ibid.: 570).16

The Magical Wheel yogic exercises based on channels, winds, and vital essences, as
presented in the Mother Tantra (ma rgyud) of Yungdrung Bön and the Yoginī Tantras of
Vajrayāna Buddhism, share techniques with Kaula Śaivism and reflect the extensive
exchanges of knowledge and practice between diverse Tantric traditions in India and
Tibet as well as self-cultivation techniques in China, a process that Kurtis Schaeffer
terms “inter-traditional appropriation” (2002: 524). Yet one specific practice of physical
yoga in Tibet may well have predated the arrival of Buddhism and is known in both Bön
and Tantric Buddhism as Swift Footedness (rkang mgyogs), a skill that allowed adepts to
cover vast distances in an ecstatic state in terrain without wheeled vehicles.17

names such as “the play of a lion” and “a squealing pig with an axe” (ibid.: 561). Shardza also describes
practices for the lower torso, including “the way of a jumping tiger” and “gathering the power of the
energy drops” (ibid.: 564). These are followed by movements related to the legs (ibid.: 565).

15In the colophon, Shardza states that he draws these specific yogic exercises from Shes rab Rin chen, who
described a set of twenty yogic exercises for removing hindrances, including physical illness. In his own
series, Shes rab Rin chen includes four postures in conjunction with uttering specific sounds to eliminate
disease. These include an elephant with hiccups, the sound of a smiling tigress, the sound of a vomiting
carnivore, and the sound of a sniffing fox. See Shardza 2019: 138–139.

16 Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen’s teachings on Trulkhor are the basis for contemporary, transnational present-
ations of Bön (See Wangyal 2011a, 2011b and Tenzin, Ermakova, and Ermakov 2018).

17Early accounts of ecstatic “wind walkers” include those of David-Néel 1936: 186, 207–209, Evans-Wentz
1954: 37, and the diaries of Sir Charles Bell and Heinrich Harrer, author of Seven Years in Tibet. For additional
references to ecstatic trance walking in Tibet, see Kingsley 2010: 20–21, 25–27, 94, 111–112 and 1999: 112,
245. See also Baker 2019: 34–36.

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In the context of the Bön Mother Tantras, Trulkhor supports realisation of mind and
body as radiant, noetic luminosity, an orientation it shares with Vajrayāna Buddhism.
Both traditions present the Magical Wheel as a vehicle of radical transformation
whereby imagination and embodiment are experienced as creative dimensions of
energy and delight. With their shared emphasis on an internal anatomy of psychic
energy channels, the Bön Mother Tantras and the Buddhist Yoginī Tantras developed in
parallel in Tibet, serving both worldly and otherworldly ends. As Geoffrey Samuel
observes, the Bön religion, at least in recent centuries, “is best regarded as a variant
form of Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism,” operating in the same ideological and pragmatic
terrain (2008: 194, n. 2). Out of deference to the sanctity of the dharmacakra as a symbol
of the Buddhist path, wheels were never used for terrestrial transport in Tibet (yaks
fulfilled the purpose better) and, with the exception of prayer wheels, were internalised
as a mechanism of psychophysical transformation. In the process, the dharmacakra was
turned on its axis and transposed to the human heart, the basis in both Tibetan Bön and
Buddhism for the Great Perfection (rdzogchen) practices leading to the body’s apotheosis
as noetic light (’od sku, ’ja’ lus).

Figure 2: “Illusory magical movements” (’phrul ’khor/’khrul ’khor) connected with the Oral Dzogchen
Transmission of Zhang Zhung on the left and from the Dzogchen Tradition of the Primordial Āh (rdzogchen
A ’khrid) on the right. Image courtesy of Akarpa Lobsang Rinpoche and Jiayi Li.

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Kālacakra: The Wheel of Time

The Kālacakra Tantra (Laghukālacakratantra) is a syncretic, encyclopaedic culmination of

preceding Buddhist Yoginī Tantras which was introduced in Tibet in 1042, after its
composition in northern India between 1027 and 1036 CE.18 The word haṭhayoga first
appears in its primary commentary, the Vimalaprabhā, written between 1036 and 1039
CE. At 4.119, it describes how the practice of nāda (subtle sonic vibration perceived at
the heart) can be performed forcefully (haṭhena) by drawing prāṇa, or vital energy, into
the central channel (madyanāḍī, avadhūti)19 while restraining the bodhicitta (“semen”)20
in the vajra (“penis”) as it rests in the “lotus of wisdom” (“vagina”), thus arousing the
“unaltering moment” (akṣarasukhakṣaṇa).21 The Vimalaprabhā refers to this process as
haṭhayoga.22

As evidenced, in the first comprehensive translation of its five extensive chapters, the
Kālacakra Tantra offers the first known account of named yoga postures and anticipates
many aspects of the later Amṛtasiddhi Tantra, as discussed in the following section.23
Niraj Kumar explains that verse 119 in the fourth chapter of the Kālacakra Tantra
describes a process whereby “lower and upper winds” (apāṇavāyu, prāṇavāyu),
concentrated below and behind the navel, in combination with the restraint of semen

18 The Kālacakra teachings were reputedly introduced in Tibet by the Bengali master Atīśa Dīpaṃkara
Śrījñāna (982–1054) in 1042. According to the Blue Annals, the texts of the Kālacakra corpus were brought
later by the Tibetan scholar Gyi jo Lo tsā ba Zla ba’i ’od zer. According to Niraj Kumar, only around 1076 was
the Kālacakra Tantra translated into Tibetan by a team headed by the Kashmiri master Somanātha—a
student of Nāropā’s disciple Bodhibhadra—and a Tibetan translator named ’Bro lotsawa (See Kumar 2022).
The Kālacakra maṇḍala encompasses a pantheon of seven hundred and twenty-two deities, of which five
hundred and sixty-two are female, forty-eight are male, and the remainder genderless personifications of
universal elements.

19Kumar clarifies that, in males, the middle channel above the navel is called avadhūti and śaṅkhiṇī below
the navel. In women, the middle channel is called caṇḍālī above the navel and ḍombī below the navel
(personal communication).

20Bodhicitta refers to awakened (bodhi) consciousness (citta), but also, in Tantric Buddhism, to a state of
enlightened, or altruistically inclined, arousal. The Kālacakra uses the terms bodhicitta, bindu, and bijā
interchangeably (see, for example, at 5.125 and 126).

21 Vimalaprabha and Laghukālacakratantra (4.119). See Birch 2011: 536.

22Kumar 2022. Vimalaprabhā, 4.119. The Tantra itself refers to the process as haṭhena and elsewhere as
hathatya (2.120 and 4.196). Forceful (haṭhena) methods are also referred to in Chapter 18 of the earlier
Guhyasamāja Tantra, although the chapter in question is widely held to have been added in the 11th century
and is thus contemporary with the Kālacakra Tantra. See Birch 2011.

23 See Mallinson 2020.

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within the śaṅkhiṇī, a “conch shaped” nāḍī below the navel, cause the “blazing goddess”
Caṇḍālī to rise through the body’s central channel and melt the “moon” at the forehead
(lalāṭa), releasing the flow of noetic nectar (amṛta, T. bdud rtsi).24 When complemented
by an actual or envisioned consort, the internal combustion causes the ambrosial
essence of the white bindu to drip downwards until it reaches the tip of the male’s vajra
(5.75) or the female’s cervix. The Kālacakra Tantra further describes a set of Six Vajra
Yogas (vajrasaḍaṅgayoga, T. rdo rje’i rnal ’byor drug) that differ from the earlier set of Six
Perfection Stage (rdzogs rim, S. sampannakrama) practices that the 10th-century
Mahāsiddha Tilopā famously transmitted to Nāropā, and that the Tibetan translator
Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (1012–1097) subsequently introduced into Tibet as the Six Dharmas
of Nāropa (see section “Wheel of Fire”).25

The Six Vajra Yogas in the Kālacakra Tantra are based on a hypostatised subtle-body
system of channels, wheels, winds, and essences and build upon the stages of practice
designated in both the Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path and the Eight-Limbed Yoga of the
Pātañjalayogaśāstra. Based on a body maṇḍala of Tantric deities, the Six Vajra Yogas
consist sequentially of pratyāhāra, dhyāna, prāṇāyāma, dhāraṇā, anusmṛti, and samādhi.
Each yoga is associated with a specific cakra.26 In Tibet’s Jonangpa tradition, the
Kalācakra practice of “sensory withdrawal” (pratyāhāra, T. so sor sdud pa) is facilitated by

24Kumar explains that further accounts of physical yoga are discussed in verses 192–197 in Chapter 4, and
that the same set of six verses is repeated in verses 116–121 in Chapter 2 (2022).

25The Six Vajra Yogas notably do not include “dream yoga” (rmi lam rnal ’byor), powa (’pho ba, S. utkrānti), or
“bardo (S. antarābhava) yoga,” which are the final three of the Six Yogas of Tilopā/Nāropā. However, the Six
Vajra Yogas do account for visionary signs that appear at the time of death, as well as in conjunction with
sky gazing practices similar to Dzogchen Thögal, as discussed below. Sky gazing with the sun at one’s back,
as well as contemplating the shadows of trees, is associated in the Kālacakra Tantra with “illusory body
(sgyu lus) yoga.” As in the Nāropā system, Clear Light (’od gsal, S. prabhāsvara) in Kālacakra refers to the
unobstructed clarity and luminosity of consciousness (citta) when emptied of discursive thought.

26Pratyāhāra is associated in the Kālacakra with Vajrasattva, who is positioned with his consort at the crown
cakra (uṣṇīṣa). Dhyāna is linked with Buddha Akṣobhya, the “immovable one,” located at the brow cakra and
associated with the elements of space and water. In a further departure from the body maṇḍala described in
the earlier Guhyasamāja Tantra, prāṇāyāma is connected with Buddha Amoghasiddhi who resides at the
heart cakra in union with the goddess Tārā and together representing the wind element. Dhāraṇā is
represented by Ratnasaṃbhava, associated with the throat cakra and the element fire. Anusmṛti,
“recollection,” is connected with Buddha Amitābha as well as with the goddess Ḍombī, the revealer of
knowledge, who dwells at the “secret” cakra at the lower end of the central channel. Samādhi is linked with
both the navel cakra and Buddha Vairocana, signifying the midpoint of the body and the stability of the
earth element. When the wheel of the navel is activated, it begins to rotate the entire cakra system like an
oil mill, transforming the seeds of bodhicitta at the brow cakra into nectar (amṛta) (4.115). For more details,
see Kumar 2022.

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Trulkhor exercises and ultimately practised in dark retreat until specified visionary
signs arise in one’s field of perception.27 The “yoga of contemplation” (dhyāna,
T. bsam gtan) focuses on these “empty [visionary] forms” (stong gzugs), stilling the flow
of prāṇāvayū in the body’s lateral channels. The “yoga of breath expansion” (prāṇāyāma,
T. srog rtsol) uses vigorous methods for drawing vital energy into the body’s central
channel and energetic centres (cakra), while the “yoga of focused attention” (dhāraṇā,
T. ’dzin pa) merges the previously cultivated perceptual forms with vital energies to
generate indestructible seminal essences (bindu, T. thig le) within the cakras. In
conjunction with the inner fire of Tummo, the “yoga of recollection” (anusmṛti,
T. rjes dran) fuses subtle essences with the seminal spheres within the central channel,
giving rise to sixteen successive stages of meditative bliss–each associated with a phase
of the moon. The culminating “yoga of unitary absorption” (samādhi, T. ting nge ’dzin) is
based upon coalescence with the supreme immutable joy represented by the
enlightened form of Kālacakra in divine connubium with his female partner,
Viśvamātā.28

As a system of internal alchemy meant to eliminate disease and culminate in

“unchanging bliss” (paramacala sukha), yogic exercises in the Kālacakra Tantra include
paryaṅkāsana,29 a posture in which the practitioner stretches out his or her body while
inhaling through closed teeth and drawing prāṇa towards the navel cakra, eliminating
hunger and thirst and initiating the release of the white bindu (bodhicitta) at the
forehead (lalāṭa) (2.117).30 In another posture known in later haṭhayoga works as
śīrṣāsana, the feet are inverted above the head. Kumar notes that the Kālacakra
describes numerous, unnamed yogic postures with therapeutic and spiritual benefits,
including optimised prāṇa circulation, meditative stabilisation, and arousal of internal
power referred to varyingly as either Śakti, Caṇḍālī, or Ḍombī.31

27 Personal communication, Shar Khentrul Jamphel Lodrö, September 2018.

28 For more detail on the six-fold yoga within Kālacakra see Kumar 2022 and Kilty 2004.

29Laghukālacakratantra (2.117). In the Kālacakra Tantra, paryaṅkāsana is described as a sitting position in

which the right leg is placed over the left leg with the soles of both feet visible. In later haṭhayoga tradition,
paryaṅkāsana, or “couch pose,” refers to lying supine on the back, placing the palms of the hands and the
soles of the feet on the floor, and extending the middle portion of the body upwards.

30In later yogic traditions the site of the white bindu shifts to the crown cakra, which is termed uṣṇīṣa in the
Kālacakra Tantra and located twelve and a half finger widths above the lalāṭa cakra (5.171).

31 Personal correspondence, 2020.

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In a process that comes to define the pneumo-hydraulic mysticism of Perfection Stage

practices in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, paryaṅkāsana is associated in the Kālacakra Tantra
with the release of amṛta from the white bindu located at the brow cakra, caused by the
awakening of Śakti, or primordial cosmic energy, at the navel cakra. Through a
combination of respiratory compression, yogic binding (bandha), and active
imagination, Śakti rises like lightening and, “erect like a staff ” (daṇḍa), pierces one cakra
after another along the central channel (madhyanāḍī) with playful motions (lalitagati)
until reaching the crown of the head where she penetrates the cranium and produces a
needling sensation (suchivada) on the scalp (bahya carma).32 Elsewhere in the Kālacakra
corpus Śakti is referred to as the incandescent goddess Caṇḍālī, as presented in the
Hevajra Tantra (4.110). According to the Kālacakra 4.197, once the primordial energy of
Śakti-Caṇḍālī reaches the crown cakra, by raising the phallus one obtains the siddhi of
magical flight (khecaratvam). Specific instructions for the raising process are notably left
to the imagination.

Many scholars have observed that the forceful and magico-erotic techniques of
haṭhayoga represent, in the context of Tantric Buddhism, auxiliary methods for
achieving both relative and ultimate yogic powers (siddhi) by drawing inner “winds”
through the central channel in conjunction with reversing the ejaculatory impulse so as
to occasion “immutable joy” (samarasa).33 As a compendium of yogic knowledge, the
Kālacakra Tantra provided both a textual and practical resource that influenced
subsequent yogic traditions in India and Tibet (see Samuel 2008: 335, 341).34 Central to
its liberative efficacy were “forceful” physical exercises for realising a divinised human
state—depicted as intersecting trigonometric wheels representing the continuum of
human embodiment and universal processes (see Fig. 3)—with the ultimate objective of
transcending dissipative temporality and transforming procreative instinct into
timeless rapture.35

32Laghukālacakratantra (2.120), repeated at 4.196. The description is nearly identical to the presentation of
Kuṇḍalinī in Śaiva Kaula sources.

33 See, for example, White 2003.

34Trulkhor in the Kālacakra Tantra was elaborated within the Jonangpa school of Tibetan Buddhism, and it is
taught today by Jonangpa masters such as Tulku Jamyang Lodrö.

35According to the Kālacakra Tantra, dissipation ceases by establishing oneself in a state of equilibrium. By
restraining the “lunar phase,” the yogin obtains non-dissipation of delight. By restraining the “solar
phase,” non-dissipation of prāṇa is obtained. The result is “indestructible, eternal delight” (See Kumar
2022).

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Optimising the flow of bodhicitta (thig le) through breath control and transmuted desire
features centrally in the practice of the Six Vajra Yogas of the Kālacakra Tantra. However,
a more accessible system of physical yoga known as Néchen Jangwa (gnas chen sbyangs
ba), abbreviated as Nejang (gnas sbyangs), also emerged from the Wheel of Time
teachings. Nejang, or “purifying the great sites,” is sometimes also referred to as Lujong
(lus sbyong), or “bodily training,” and focuses on the optimal functioning of twenty-four
vital points on the human body, achieved through a series of twenty-four breath-led
exercises for opening the channels (rsta, S. nāḍī), balancing internal energies, relaxing
the mind, and improving health and vitality as a support for spiritual practice
(Chenagtsang 2020). In a text entitled Magical Wheel of the Six-Limbed Yoga (sbyor ba yan
lag drug’i ’phrul ’khor), the renowned 13th-century monk-scholar Butön Rinchen Drup
(Bu ston rin chen grub, 1290–1364 CE) provides the first reference to Nejang as
preliminary physical training for more advanced Tantric yoga (ibid.: 26).36 The twenty-
four exercises correspond with vital points on the body as well as twenty-four sacred
sites (né chen) connected with the Hevajra and Cakrasaṃvara Tantras.37 A contemporary
Tibetan teacher of Nejang, Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, offers valuable perspectives on the
inner meaning of such Magical Wheel practices (ibid.: 19–20):

Trulkhor ultimately refers to our own human potential to become

something extraordinary. The “magical wheel” or “machine” in question
is the microcosm of our own gross and subtle body, which in tantric
Buddhism is the source of enlightenment itself. Our body arises from out
of a miraculous set of moving, automated systems. These dynamic
systems are impermanent and constantly changing. They appear as if by
magic, seemingly from nowhere, yet they work together to make up our
solid and stable seeming forms. Unlike some other spiritual traditions,
tantric Buddhism does not claim that spiritual realization or freedom
from suffering is found through denying or transcending the body.
Instead, tantric yoga shows us how we can realize our ultimate nature
through the here-and-now of our embodied human condition, through
maximizing our potential.

36 See also Baker 2018: 342, n. 17 and Baker 2019: 119.

37Kumar 2022 notes that, in distinction to the Hevajra and Cakrasaṃvara Tantras, the Kālacakra Tantra refers
consistently to forty-eight sacred points in the body, thus indicating Nejang’s reliance on earlier Yoginī
Tantra sources. However, the Kālacakra deity notably has twenty-four arms.

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Chenagtsang thus presents Trulkhor as a practice that can maximise human beings’
natural capacities: “Tantric yoga practices are thus ‘magical machines’ because they
enhance and refine the magical potential of our human body, energy, and mind” (ibid.).

Figure 3: An 18th-century cosmological scroll illustrating correspondences between the universe and the
human body as described in the Kālacakra Tantra. Rubin Museum of Art, New York (Item no. 61201).

Amṛtasiddhi: The Wheel of Nectar

Commentaries to the Kālacakra Tantra reveal the inner meaning of Śambhala

(Bde’byung), the legendary heterotopia where the Kālacakra teachings reputedly
originated, as a coded reference to the flow of delight (śambha) resulting from the
secretion of the white lunar drop at the forehead (bhala) in association with physical
and mental exercises supporting realisation of the nonduality of inner experience and
phenomenal reality.38 An explicit presentation of how forceful, physical practices
encourage the release of inner ambrosia (amṛta) is found in the Amṛtasiddhi (Attainment
of Immortality) a corpus of works known in Tibet in written form by the middle of the
12th century, roughly a century after the Tibetan translation of the Kālacakra Tantra.39 A
bilingual Sanskrit and Tibetan manuscript of the Amṛtasiddhi, dated 1160, combines

38Niraj Kumar, personal communication. The capital city of Śambhala, Kalapa, plays on the Sanskrit word
for skull, kapāla.

39Mallinson notes that the colophon of the 1160 bilingual Amṛtasiddhi manuscript states that the original
text was translated into Tibetan by a monk named Pad ma ’od zer, “who worked towards the end of the
eleventh century [and] which provides us with an earlier terminus ante quem for the text than the date of
the manuscript itself ” (2016: 2, n. 3).

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Śaivite soteriology with Vajrayāna terminology and provides an account of the yogic
body similar to that presented in the Kālacakra Tantra.40 It describes three postural
techniques for impelling vital essence (bindu, bīja) to flow upward through the central
channel, a process that earlier Chinese texts concerned with longevity refer to as
“returning the semen/essence to nourish the brain” (huanjing bunao).41 Both Schaeffer
and Mallinson indicate that the Amṛtasiddhi’s postural techniques of mahāmudrā,
mahābandha, and mahāvedha refer to fundamental methods described in later haṭhayoga
works, such as the Haṭhayogapradīpikā, even though the Amṛtasiddhi itself does not
employ the term haṭhayoga.42

James Mallinson observes that, “the use of the word bindu for semen (bīja), its
identification with the amṛta dripping from the moon, its preservation being essential
for life and its division into male and female are all innovations of the Amṛtasiddhi
Tantra which are widely adopted in later haṭhayoga texts” (2020: 413–14). Yet prior to
the appearance of the Amṛtasiddhi, the Kālacakra corpus had introduced the terms
haṭhena and haṭhayoga and referred to semen interchangeably as bindu, bīja, and
bodhicitta43 in the context of a transformational process involving secretion of ambrosial
nectar (amṛta) from the “moon” at the forehead in connection with an inner sun
rotating at the navel cakra (Kumar 2022).

Furthermore, named yoga postures were described in Tibet prior to the 1160
Amṛtasiddhi text attributed to Avadhūtacandra. For example, a Kagyu and Sakya master
named Phagmo Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (Phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110–1170 CE)
compiled a treatise entitled The Path of Fruition’s Thirty-two Auspicious Actions (Lam ’bras
kyi ’phrin las sum bcu so gnyis), using Sanskrit and pseudo-Sanskrit names to describe
sequential yogic movements (Wang-Toutain 2009: 29). Also, in 1157, Sumtön Yeshe Zung

40The text was authored by one Avadhūtacandra who attributes the Amṛtasiddhi teachings to an Indian
Siddha named Vīrūpākṣanātha, or simply Virūpa. Schaeffer notes, however, that the Virūpa associated with
the transmission of Amṛtasiddhiyoga is not the Virūpa connected with the Tibetan tradition of Path and
Fruit (Lam ’bras), nor the Virūpa associated with either the cārya songs of Bengal or the songs and stories of
the Life Stories of the Eighty-Four Siddhas corpus (See Schaeffer 2002: 527, n. 12.) As per the colophon, the
manuscript was composed in 1160 by a Tibetan scholar named Padma Özer (Bya ban de Pad ma ’od zer),
based on Avadhūtacandra’s Sanskrit original (See Schaeffer 2002, Mallinson 2020).

41 See Yang in this volume. See also White 1996: 63.

42See Mallinson 2020: 409–10. In the Kālacakra teachings, mahāmudra, as the “great consort,” refers to the
meditative practice of joining pure consciousness with self-arising empty forms. See also Dolly Yang in this
volume.

43The Kālacakra Tantra uses the terms bodhicitta, sukra, and bindu interchangeably (Niraj Kumar, personal
communication).

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(Sum ston ye shes gzungs) compiled teachings on Trulkhor based on writings by Yuthok
Yönten Gönpo (Gyu thog yon tan mgon po, 1126–1202 CE), the Tibetan physician and
yogic adept credited with the compilation of the earlier Four Medical Tantras (rGyud bzhi),
which consolidate Tibetan medicine’s approach to the prevention, diagnosis, and
treatment of disease (Chenagtsang 2013). As reviewed in the sections “Wheel of Fire”
and “Wheel of Bliss,” the Yuthok Heart Essence (gYu thog snying thig) describes a sequence
of eighteen Trulkhor exercises for refining the body’s subtle energy channels in
preparation for practices of Tummo and Karmamudrā, drawing on pre-existing material
from the Kālacakra Tantra (ibid.).

Like the works and practices they inspired, the Kālacakra and Amṛtasiddhi Tantras share
additional features of solar and lunar channels, a metaphorical framing of
“piercing” (vedhan), as well as blazing goddesses (Caṇḍālī and the headless
Chinnamastā, respectively) whose incandescent energy, rising through the central
channel, is central to the activation of life-prolonging nectar at the crown cakra. Both
texts also refer to named physical postures for alleviating disease and attaining
liberation.44 As Kumar writes in a personal communication, “Two major concepts of the
later tantric discourse on Haṭha Yoga, viz. internal awakening of Śakti in the central
channel through breath control and bodily postures and the tasting of the ambrosia
that produces eternal delight, are fully and systematically dealt with in the Kālacakra
Tantra.” Kumar further notes that the Kālacakra also postulates linkages between
various standing and seated postures and the movements of prāṇa associated with the
elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space within the internal cosmos of the yogic
body. He also discusses how adepts manipulate these prāṇa maṇḍalas to transcend
universal processes of entropy and dissipation using eroto-yogic techniques that
reverse the energetic flow of semen (bīja, bodhicitta, bindu).

Kumar explains that, according to the Kālacakra Tantra (Laghukālacakratantra, 5.93), prāṇa
circulates prominently within the female uterus.

Thus, if a yogi can suspend the circulation of prāṇa at the female’s “secret
place” through yogic techniques and the principle of Evam,45 he can also
block the circulation of prāṇavayū elsewhere. During the phase changes

44Kumar notes that the method in the Kālacakra Tantra for “binding” prāṇavāyu was named one hundred
years later in the Amṛtasiddhi Tantra as mahābandha, which, as per later accounts, combines
mūladharabandha, uḍḍiyānabandha, and jālandhārabandha at the perineum, abdomen, and throat.

45 Evam refers to the union of the letter E with the syllable vam, in reference to wisdom and method, the
female red element and the male white element, and the nonduality of emptiness and self-transcendent
bliss, as generated through the noetic union of Lotus and Vajra [female and male sexual organs].

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between prāṇa maṇḍalas, there is dissipation.46 When this process is

blocked, no phase change occurs, and the yogi can move beyond the
universal process of dissipation. This is how unchangingness,
immutability, and indestructibility function within the Wheel of Time
and it is the basis of sexual yoga in Kālacakra which relies on penetration
(vedhan) and seminal retention (Kumar, personal communication).

Although the Amṛtasiddhi does not teach partnered sexual practices, it maintains that
union of the “lunar” male bindu and the “solar” female bindu within the yogic body
constitutes the “highest dharma and the best yoga,”47 culminating in supreme and
complete awakening (samyaksaṃbodhi). Mallinson (2020) has shown the profound
influence that the Amṛtasiddhi has had on subsequent haṭhayoga traditions in India, and
its core methodology, building on innovations in the Kālacakra and the Śaivite Kaula
Tantras, clearly influenced the development of physical yoga practices in Tibet (ibid.:
415). Although the Kālacakra Tantra also refers to red bindu, it locates it in the throat48
rather than linking it, as in the Amṛtasiddhi, with female generative fluids and solar fire
ascending from the perineal region (ibid.) As the Amṛtasiddhi states: “Know bindu to be
of two kinds, male and female. Semen (bīja) is said to be the male [bindu] and rajas
(female generative fluid) is female. Humans are created from their external union.
When they are united internally, one becomes a yogi” (ibid.: 415).

As in the Kālacakra Tantra and Hevajra Tantra before it, the Amṛtasiddhi refers to four
successive stages of bliss (caturānanda, T. dga’ ba bzhi) that remain central to Tibetan
expositions of Tummo and Karmamudrā, as explored in following sections. With its
clear description of solar fire in the lower abdomen rising through the core of the body
and piercing energetic “knots” (granthi) through a combination of breath control and
yogic postures, the Amṛtasiddhi is traditionally held to have been introduced in Tibet by
the Tantric Buddhist adept Sangyé Nyentön Chökyi Sherab (Sangs rgyas gnyan ston
Chos kyi shes rab), although his presumed lifespan from 1175 until 1255 places his birth
fifteen years after the date given for the composition of the Sanskrit-Tibetan edition of
the Amṛtasiddhi by Avadhūtacandra, discussed above. According to his autobiography,
Sangyé Nyentön, a Shangpa Kagyu (Shangs pa Bka’ brgyud) lineage master, received

46Prāṇavāyu, as presented in the Kālacakra corpus, is regulated by correspondences between the macro-
cosm and the microcosm of the human body (see Fig. 3).

47 Amṛtasiddhi 7.13 (paro dharma […] yogaḥ paro mataḥ), quoted in Burns 2017.

48In the Kālacakra system, the red bindu in the throat refers to the secretion of an elemental seed (bīja)
associated with the fire element (Niraj Kumar, personal correspondence).

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direct instruction in the “Attainment of Immortality” teachings from the female

Mahāsiddha Sukhasiddhi (Kongtrol 2003: 285). Sangyé Nyentön is also said to have
learned a series of “immortal body” exercises connected with the Amṛtasiddhi from an
adept named Latö Gönpo (La stod mgon po) who had travelled to Tibet from
northwestern India (ibid.: 285, 287).49 Sangyé Nyentön writes in his autobiography that
the Magical Wheel of Immortality (’chi med kyi ’phrul ’khor) “untied a knot in his secret
[genital] area” that had persisted from a previous life (Kongtrol 2003: 285, 287). As per
the precedent of his lineage, Sangyé Nyentön transmitted the cycle of Trulkhor to a
single disciple, a visionary monk named Sangyé Tönpa (Sangs rgyas ston pa, 1207–
1278 CE), who subsequently codified the yogic exercises (yantras) in a work that drew
heavily from Amṛtasiddhi teachings attributed to Virūpa (Kongtrol 2003: 285). But
perhaps due in part to Sangyé Tönpa’s meta-hereditary infirmity (and consequent
predilection for “dream yoga” and the “clear light of deep sleep”) the transmission of
the Magical Wheel of Immortality was lost, although the text exists.50

The Amṛtasiddhi was rendered in Tibetan language as ’Chi med grub pa, literally the
“Attainment of Deathlessness,” although as Avadhūtacandra clarified in the conclusion
to his version of the teachings, “the ‘immortality’ of which I speak is that of the seminal
nectar (sukrasyāmṛtaṃ, T. bdud rtsi thig le), as well as that of living liberation (jīvanmukti,
T. thar pa’i srog ldan)” with “a wisdom body, magnificent, indestructible, unchanging,
and pervasive.”51 The perceived efficacy of the Amṛtasiddhi teachings and its associated
physical practices were emphasised by the Tibetan lineage holder Jamyang Khyentse
Wangchuk (’Jam dbyangs Mkhyen brtse’i dbang phyug, 1524–1568 CE), who wrote from
Shalu (Zhwa lu) Monastery in Central Tibet that, “If one meditates through these steps
for six months” one becomes an amṛtasiddha, “an adept of immortal nectar.” He related
that, “My master from Western [India], meditated just so for six months and thereupon
achieved an excellent magical body which was impervious to fire and water. I myself, of
feeble mind and little diligence, practiced for just seven days, and thereupon many
wonderful signs arose” (Schaeffer 2002: 524). Central to the Amṛtasiddhi’s perceived

49 See also Schaeffer 2002: 520.

50Ibid.: 285, 291. Schaeffer (2002) notes that the Tibetan canon contains approximately twenty-one texts on
Amṛtasiddhi, all claiming to be translations of Indic works, and with the majority of the translations into
Tibetan made by an Indian master named Amoghavajra, with the exception of the work cited above by
Avadhūtacandra (ibid.: 520). Whether any of these texts include yantras named specifically as mahāmudrā,
mahābandha, and mahāvedha is a question worthy of research.

51 Schaeffer 2002: 523 and 529, n. 44.

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efficacy in attaining a divinised state of “liberation while living” was the activation of
inner fire.52

Tummo: The Wheel of Fire

As a Tantra emphasising the Perfection Stage of Tantric Buddhist practice, the

Amṛtasiddhi states that consecrating oneself as a deity (svādhiṣṭhānayoga), as commonly
performed during the Creation Stage (utpattikrama, T. bskyed rim), is as ineffective as
chewing on a rock to relieve hunger or, when thirsty, trying to drink the sky
(Mallinson 2020: 420). As explored above, greater efficacy is ascribed to activating the
psychophysical network of channels, winds, and vital essences that represent Tantric
deities’, and thus one’s own, metaphysical anatomy. The practice of Tummo (caṇḍālī,
fierce wisdom goddess) is prominent in Bön and the Kālacakra Tantra, but it is best
known as the experiential foundation of the Six Yogas of Nāropa (ṣaḍdharma, T. na ro’i
chos drug)53 which Nāropa famously received from the Bengali Mahāsiddha Tilopā (988–
1069 CE) and transmitted to his Tibetan disciple Marpa Chökyi Lodrö (Mar pa chos kyi
blo gros, 1012–1097 CE). Marpa brought Tilopā’s teachings on inner fire to Tibet and
transmitted them to his foremost disciple, Jetsun Milarepa (Rje btsun mi la ras pa), who
declared in one of his songs of realisation that, “Meditation on the essence of mind is
good. But for immediate results nothing compares with the blissful Yoga of Fierce Heat
(Tummo).”54

Tilopā’s instructions on Tummo derive from the Hevajra Tantra, which appeared in
Eastern India around the year 900 (Davidson 2005: 41). As the Hevajra Tantra states,
“Caṇḍālī [the incandescent goddess] blazes upward from the navel. She incinerates the
Five Buddhas [five aggregates of phenomenal awareness located at the five cakras] [...]
Ahaṃ [‘I’] is burnt and the Moon [at the crown] flows down” (Farrow and
Menon 1992: 21). Tilopā clarified the core practice of ecstatic heat in a text entitled Oral

52The flow of nectar from the crown cakra, associated with the practice of inner fire (gtum mo), is said to
increase by applying khecarī mudrā, in which the tongue is folded back into the nasal cavity so as to contact
the nasal septum.

53The Six Yogas consist of: caṇḍālī (T. gtum mo), the “yoga of inner heat”; māyākāyā (T. sgyu lus), the “yoga of
the illusory body”; prabhasvara (T. od gsal), the “yoga of luminosity”; svapnadarśana (T. rmi lam), “yoga of the
dream state”; antarābhava (T. bar do), the “yoga of the intermediate state”; and saṃkrānti (T. pho ba), the
“yoga of the transference of consciousness to a Buddhafield.” Karmamudrā (T. las kyi phyag rgya), the
Tantric yoga involving sexual union with a physical partner, either real or imagined, is viewed as a means
for enhancing the practice for Tummo.

54 See Chang 1977. See also Yeshe 1998: 24.

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Instruction of the Six Yogas (ṣaḍdharma upadesa nama, T. Chos drug gi man ngag zhes): “The
yogic body, a network of energy channels, coarse and subtle, intersecting at the cakras,
should be brought under control. The method begins with physical exercises. The winds
and vital energies are drawn inward, expanded, retained and dissolved. There are two
side channels, the central channel avadhūti, and four cakras. Flames rise from Caṇḍālī at
the navel (see Fig. 4) and a stream of nectar flows from the syllable haṃ at the crown [of
the head], inducing the Four Joys” (Mullin 1997: 154).55

Figure 4: “The yoga of fierce heat” (gtum mo), depicted on a mural in a private meditation chamber of
Tibet’s Sixth Dalai Lama (Tshangs dbyangs rgyamtsho, 1683–1706/1746). The Dzogchen practice of Thögal
(thod rgal) is also pictured. Photograh by Ian Baker.

Tilopā explains that the practice of Tummo begins with physical exercises for purifying
and expanding the internal energy system. One of the earliest presentations of what
became known as the Six Yogas of Naropā was outlined by the Tibetan adept Phagmo

55The Four Joys (caturānanda, T. dga’ ba bzhi) are four increasingly subtle experiences of bliss-emptiness that
transcend ordinary feelings of joy or pleasure and are connected with the movement of the white bindu
(bodhicitta) between the “secret” cakra to the navel, heart, throat, and crown cakra. They are described
sequentially as joy (ānanda, T. dga’ ba), supreme joy (paramānanda, T. mchog dga’), special joy (viramānanda, T.
khyad dga), and co-emergent, innate or endless joy (sahajānanda, T. lhan skyes kyi dga’ ba). For an overview of
the four stages of bliss in the Hevajra Tantra, see Stenzel 2015: 193–214.

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Drupa Dorje Gyalpo (Phag mo gru pa rdo rje rgyal po, 1110–1170 CE) in a text entitled
Supplementary Verses on the Path of Method (Thabs lam tshigs bcad ma’i lhan thabs). Phagmo
Drupa defines the sequence of six exercises as “filling like a vase,” “circling like a
wheel,” “hooking like a hook,” “displaying the mudra of vajra binding,” “lifting upward
toward the sky, and pressing downwards,” “straightening like an arrow and expelling
the breath like a heaving dog” and, in order to energise the body’s subtle channels and
increase blood circulation, “shaking the head and body and flexing the
muscles” (Mullin 2005: 134–136). At all stages, the body is to be imagined as empty of
material substance and appearing either as a Tantric deity or as a radiant display of
intangible energies, “appearing in the mind like a rainbow in the sky” (ibid.: 61).

Phagmo Drupa’s account of six named exercises is traditionally elaborated in the

context of oral transmission through physical demonstrations. “Filling like a vase”
refers to retaining the breath in kumbhaka (T. rlung bum pa can). “Circling like a wheel”
involves rotating the upper waist and stomach, while “hooking like a hook” means
forming the hands into vajra fists (with the thumbs pressed into the base of the ring
fingers) and stretching the arms from the chest in a variety of directions. In the fourth
exercise, one extends one’s hands and fingers upwards and downwards as if they were
metal hooks. The fifth exercise, as implied by the description, is performed on hands
and knees and culminates with expelling one’s breath “like a dog heaving.” The final
movement involves shaking one’s limbs and head.56 The exercises are performed
sequentially and forcefully at the outset of a session of Tummo meditation to activate
the subtle energy system and again at the end to distribute heat and bliss throughout
the body (see Fig. 5).57 In a commentary on the six preliminary exercises, the Tibetan
teacher and philosopher Je Tsongkhapa (Tsong kha pa, 1357–1419 CE) stated that “the
practice allows one to feel much joy, and also helps to prevent injuries that might result
from the changing flow of vital winds connected with the practice of the Six
Yogas” (Mullin 2005: 6).

One of the clearest accounts of the physical exercises that support the experiential
cultivation of inner fire is found in the already-mentioned Yuthok Heart Essence (Yuthok
Nyingthig), revealed in 1157 CE and based on teachings by Yuthok Yönten Gönpo (1126–
1202 CE).58 The Yuthok Heart Essence contains an extensive chapter on eighteen Trulkhor
exercises, the first five of which support Tummo, while the remaining thirteen support

56 For a fuller description of the six exercises, see Mullin 2005: 61, and Evans-Wentz 1958: 207–208.

57 For a comprehensive overview of Tummo practice, see Baker 2019: 147–163.

58 The date precedes by three years the first known text on Amṛtasiddhi in Tibet.

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Figure 5: Preliminary yogic exercises from the Magical Wheel of Wisdom Holders (rig ’dzin ’khrul ’khor),
demonstrated by Lama Tshewang Sitar in Ura, Bhutan. Photograph by Ian Baker.

Karmamudrā, the auxiliary yoga of partnered sexual union discussed in the following
section. As presented in the Yuthok Nyingthig, the practice of Tummo begins with
“instructions for training and purifying the subtle channels so that one’s physical body
may arise as the enlightened body of the deity (lha sku)” in connection with the
cultivation of Fierce Heat (gtum mo).59 As per Yuthok Yönten Gönpo’s explanation, the
practitioner first envisions themself as the female deity Vajravārāhī (T. Dorje Phagmo,
rdo rje phag mo), empty of essence yet with clear awareness of the deity’s subtle
channels, five energy wheels (cakra, T. ’khor lo), and a luminous central channel
extending from the “secret” cakra at the genitals to the crown of the head amidst a
blazing mass of fire.60 Prior to engaging in the initial physical exercises, one also
visualises the red vital essence (thig le) of fire and the white, vital essence of bliss at the

59The account that follows about Tummo practice according to the Yuthok Nyingthig is based on Manusch
2015, supplemented by oral commentary by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang. See also Manusch 2015a.

60Two lateral channels are also visualised at either side of the central channel, with their upper ends
reaching the wheel of great bliss below the crown of the head and curving downwards to terminate at the
nostrils. Their lower ends intersect with the central channel four finger-widths beneath the navel.

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lower and upper ends of the central channel (1.3.4). The white essence (khams dkar po)
below the crown cakra appears as either a bead of mercury or as a luminous pearl, while
the red element below the navel, where the three channels merge, is perceived as the
incandescent fire of the “fierce goddess” (Caṇḍālī), burning “like molten iron yet as thin
as a flickering copper needle” (1.3.4).

The practitioner then engages in an initial cycle of Tummo practice, inhaling through
the two lateral channels, which inflate “like empty intestines” (2.1) while drawing the
upper and lower vital energies downwards to their meeting point below the navel
where they combust in flames. Through successive rounds of forceful breathing, the
internal heat increases and rises to the wheel of great bliss beneath the crown of the
head. Then, as stated in the text, the vital energy of śuklabodhicitta begins to melt “like
butter in the sun” and to drip downwards into the fire in the pelvic cavity (2.2). As the
nectar-like essences descend, one experiences “pleasurable sensations flowing and
vibrating within oneself to the point of overflowing bliss” (2.2). The recommended
posture involves sitting with the knees raised and the legs crossed, the neck bent
slightly forwards, and the shoulders rolled back (see Fig. 6). The tongue lightly touches
the palette and the eyes gaze into the space in front of one. The hands are held below

Figure 6: Mahāsiddha Kucipa (ltag lba can) meditating in the Tummo posture of the “six-cornered hearth”
(me thab drug chings). Lukhang Mural. Photograph by Ian Baker.

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the navel and press against the lower abdomen (2.3) while the vital energies are held
together with the breath through a forceful form of “vase breathing” (kumbhaka, T.
rlung bum pa can) known as khadjor (kha sbyor), “uniting the mouths” (2.4, 2.5).

The Yuthok Nyingthig states that it is important to practise “illusory magical

movements” (’phrul ’khor) at the end of each practice session to release knots in the
subtle channels so as to remove hindrances and progress in one’s practice of
Tummo (2.5.1). The text presents an initial set of six exercises similar to those found in
the Six Yogas of Naropā. While holding the breath and pressing the upper winds (rlung)
downwards and pulling the lower winds upwards at the navel cakra, the practitioner is
advised to repeatedly apply a rubbing massage all over the body, rotate the waist to the
right and to the left, twist the upper torso to both sides, rotate the head, shake the
arms, and extend and contract the legs. Following this sequence of movements, the

Figure 7: Lama Tshewang Sitar performing chigo bebs, also known as “adamantine
drops” (rdo rje dkyil dkrung ’bebs), at Gaden Lhakhang in Ura, Bhutan. Photograph by Ian Baker.

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breath is expelled vigorously, and the exercises are repeated in order to tame and
control the body’s vital energies (2.5.1). The result is a contemplative state in which
pleasurable sensations are experienced together with clarity and non-discursive
awareness (2.5.1.1). Such enhancing exercises are known as bogdön trulkhor (bogs don
’khrul ’khor).

The text continues with descriptions of “illusory movements to remove obstacles,

hindrances, diseases, and pain (’gegs sel)” (2.5.2).61 It explains that while holding the
vital energies and breath as before, one should perform small, controlled jumps and
falls known as bebchung (’bebs chung). More intensive “falls” (’bebs chen) are performed
from a standing position, raising both hands towards the sky, and then repeatedly
dropping down [in lotus posture] from the level of the crown of the head (spyi ’go ‘bebs),
producing a powerful clapping sound [as the buttocks and backs of the thighs hit the
ground] (see Fig. 7). “When you exert yourself and repeat as many bebs as possible in
one practice session, the virtuous qualities of the ‘path of methods’ (thabs lam) will arise
in their entirety” (5 2.5.2.1).62

Further Trulkhor exercises and forceful breath holds (drag rlung) are prescribed for
increasing bodily heat and circulating vital essences (thig le ’dren pa) within the subtle
channels (2.5.2.3).63 One exercise termed “the liberating lion” (seng ge rnam grol) is
performed while retaining the breath in a “vase” beneath the navel, extending the
elbows to the sides of the body, covering the eyes with the index fingers, blocking the
ears with the thumbs, obstructing the nostrils with the two middle fingers, and closing
the lips with the ring fingers and little fingers (see Fig. 8). The head and upper body are
then rotated in both directions, followed by forcefully expelling the breath with the
sound “Ha” and shaking out one’s limbs. Following this exercise of “the liberating lion,”
the text specifies that a rubbing massage should be applied over all parts of the body,
with ingredients including red pepper, liquor, and aged butter “so that the body and the
limbs blaze with heat” (1.2).

61See Manusch 2015b for an extensive explanation of Trulkhor in a section of the Yuthok Nyingthig entitled
“The Accomplishing of the Master by Dispelling the Darkness of Suffering” (bla sgrub sdug bsngal mun sel gyi
’khrul ’khor gyi rtsa tshig bzhugs so).

62The “Path of Methods” (thabs lam) refers generally to sexual practices, as discussed in the following
section. For an overview of “yogic drops” (’beb), see Baker 2019: 138–141.

63The text also mentions supportive medicinal substances for increasing bodily heat and vital energy, such
as the gall bladder of a wild black yak combined with other ingredients including Tibetan ginger, long
pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, the blue flower of the ginger plant, as well as leaves of the blue
clematis bush, hellebore seeds, and the flesh of a bearded vulture (1.2).

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Figure 8: The “Yantra of the Liberating Lion” (seng ge rnam grol ’phrul ’khor), as illustrated on a mural in the
Lukhang temple in Tibet. Exercise sixteen in a series of twenty-one movements. See Fig. 12 for the entire
series. Photograph by Ian Baker.

The Yuthok Nyingthig instructions on Tummo practice continue with further methods
“for training and purifying the subtle channels so that one’s physical body may arise as
the enlightened body of the deity,” while emphasising the Vajrayāna Buddhist maxim
that “although you practise with your physical body, realisation arises in the
mind” (2.6.4). This same approach is central to the enhancing practice of Karmamudrā,
as presented in the following section. The Yuthok Nyingthig teachings on Tummo state,
“As all the knots of the subtle channels naturally loosen [...] they fill with the nectar of
suklabodhicitta (T. byang sems kyi bdud rtis) [i.e., the pure essence of seminal fluid
(khams dkar po) or its female equivalent]. All conceptual thoughts based on dualistic
perception of grasping an object and remaining as a subject resolve in a state of
uncontrived bliss” (2.6.4). It’s in this context that the Wheel of Fire is enhanced through
the practices of the Wheel of Bliss, as expounded prominently in Buddhist Tantras.

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Figure 9: Hevajra and Nairātmyā at the centre of an eight-petalled maṇḍala palace. The eight encompass-
ing yoginīs signify the activation of subtle channels and ambrosial essences associated with the Tantra’s
inner yogic practices. Tibetan scroll painting, 15th century, Rubin Museum of Art. Himalayan Resources
Number 65123.

Karmamudrā: The Wheel of Bliss

In addition to Trulkhor’s role in arousing the “blazing goddess” of Tummo and

spreading her heat, Tibetan texts and oral sources often refer to Trulkhor as
preparation for partnered sexual yoga (karmamudrā, T. las kyi phyag rgya) by enhancing
the body’s subtle energy system.64 Early Indian Buddhist texts such as the 9th-to-10th-

64For an extensive account of “sexual yoga” (sbyor ba) in Bön, see Shardza 2019: 569–613. In regard to the
historical link between the “subtle hydraulics” of haṭhayoga and “the symbolic significance of ritualized
sex,” see Joseph Alter 2011: 130.

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century Caṇdamahāroṣaṇa Tantra65 offer detailed descriptions of dynamic sexual

postures for cultivating the nondual gnosis of emptiness (śūnyatā, T. stong pa nyid), or
open dimension of being, and self-transcendent rapture (ānanda, T. bde ba). As the
Caṇdamahāroṣaṇa Tantra proclaims, “Merit is acquired through passionate affection [...]
one should therefore focus one’s mind on the pleasure arising from desire” (2019, 6.90–
6–91). Visualising oneself and one’s partner as Tantric deities—Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa, the
Great Fierce One, and Vajradhātvīśvarī, Goddess of the Vajra Realm—the couple should
“honour each other by uniting the vajra and the lotus” (10.9) and assume dynamic,
erotic postures such as “rocking a swing” (6.41), the “honeycomb” (6.43), the “tortoise
position” (6.43), the “half-moon posture” (6.64), and the “bow posture” (6.85).66 As per
the Hevajra Tantra, such practices can give rise to “the supreme great bliss where there
is neither self nor other” (Farrow and Menon 1992: 259) (see Fig. 9). Central to that
process is control of the ejaculatory impulse to reach progressively heightened states of
awareness, as also described in Chinese yangsheng (“nourishing life”) texts dating to
the 3rd century.67

In the Yuthok Heart Essence, introduced above, thirteen out of eighteen Trulkhor
exercises are specifically designed to develop the inner network of channels, winds, and
vital essences (rtsa rlung thig le) in the context of sexual practices (sbyor ba) for
transforming ordinary passion into the basis for the experience of Great Bliss
(mahāsukha, T. bde ba chen po), a synonym for the wisdom of enlightenment.68 In the
context of training and purifying one’s subtle channels and vital essences so that one’s
physical body (lus) may arise as the enlightened body of the deity (lha sku) and one’s
mind as the body of truth (dharmakaya, T. cho sku), teleological eroticism in the Yuthok
Nyingthig begins with solo mastery of vajrolī mudrā69—reversing the flow of sexual fluids

65 The Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra is recognised as drawing on earlier Buddhist Highest Yoga Tantras
(anuttarayogatantra), including the Guhyasamāja Tantra, the Hevajra Tantra, the Siddhaikavīra Tantra, and the
Cittaviśuddhiprakaraṇa of Āryadeva, as referenced by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, 2019: 1.

66 A further method called “churning” (manthānayoga, T. srub pa’i sbyor ba) combines physical movement
with visualisation to generate a Tantric deity from mingled male and female sexual fluids. In the event of
ejaculation, the male is advised to consume the conjoined substances directly from the partner’s lotus so as
to restore potency (Caṇḍamahāroṣaṇa Tantra, 6.74–77).

67 See Yang and Steavu in this volume.

68 For descriptions of the eighteen Trulkhor exercises, see Manusch 2015c.

69Vajrolī mudrā refers to methods of Tantric yoga that developed between the 9th and 14th centuries for
redirecting the flow of sexual fluids and vital essences through the body’s central channel in connection
with the awakening of kuṇḍalinī and the cultivation of expanded states of consciousness. See
Mallinson, 2018: 181–222.

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—and proceeds to practices of the “lower doors” of “another’s body” (’og sgo’i nyams len),
conceived as the congress of dyadic Tantric divinities (1.33) (Figs. 9, 10).

Figure 10: Union of Hayangrīva and Vajravārāhī (T. rta phag), as visualised in the Yuthok Nyingthig and the
Rigdzin Trulkhor. Bhutanese wall painting. Photograph by Ian Baker.

Fundamental to the transformation of desire is the retention and internal circulation of

sexual fluids through mastery of vase breathing (kumbhaka, T. bum pa can), in
combination with “magical movements” for distributing vital essences through the
body’s subtle channels.70 Sexual yoga involving Trulkhor is extensively described in a
19th-century kāmaśāstra (’dod pa’i bstan bcos) work by the Tibetan polymath Mipham
Jamyang Namgyal Gyamtso (Mi pham rnam rgyal rgya mtsho, 1846–1912 CE). In his
Treatise on Passion: The Treasure Bringing Joy to All the World (’dod pa’i bstan bcos ’jig rten kun
tu dga’ ba’i gter), Mipham refers to Trulkhor as a prerequisite for the practice of

70The Yuthok Heart Essence describes enhancing practices such as inserting a well-lubricated leg bone of a
peacock or vulture, or in their absence a bamboo tube, into one’s anal sphincter (1.3.2), as well as the
acquired skill of chu ’thung, internally circulating one’s partner’s sexual secretions, which, combined with
the male yogi’s bodhicitta, “pours down again into one’s consort” (1.2.4.7.1).

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Karmamudrā and the basis for the resultant experience of nondual joy (dga’ba gnyis
med) (1969: 104).71 He explains that, through the practice of Trulkhor, “the channels,
winds, and mind become fluent, facilitating the blissful state of One Taste (ekarāsa, T. ro
gcig),” a key Vajrayāna term connoting unchanging mental equipoise (ibid.: 108).
Mipham describes erotic activity involving “squeezing,” “pressing,” and “twining” as
Tsalung Trulkhor, while noting that marks left on a consort’s lips can resemble thig le
(bindu) and extend to garlands of such auspicious marks (thig le’i phreng ba) and “cloud
maṇḍalas” appearing across the body (ibid.: 113). He emphasises that one should
experience such blissful union as “being in an illusory state” (ibid.: 115), one of the Six
Yogas of the Perfection Stage (sampannakrama, T. rdzogs rim) of Tantric Buddhist
practice.

In further references to Trulkhor, Mipham explains that when a male partner is tired
his consort can rekindle his passion using active “rotating” movements as performed in
“Trulkhor cakra exercises” (ibidem).72 Mipham explains that there are formally sixty-
four postures and positions for increasing bliss and that one should “become an expert”
in the ultimately “innumerable subdivisions and varieties” (ibid.: 116). He observes that
synchronising the practice with the phases of the moon leads to “overwhelming
presence of boundless supreme bliss,” experienced as longevity-bestowing revitalising
nectar (ibid.: 119). Mipham’s treatise also refers to Trulkhor in the context of “pressing”
(gtem ba) with the “eye of the jewel” (male organ) the “basis of bliss” inside a yoginī’s
“lotus” to open the “celestial gate” (ibid.: 123). As Mipham summarises, “with perfect
signs of flaming bliss fully engage in the postures of action (las kyi ’phrul khor) with their
variety of names and enumerations” (ibid.: 124).

71See also Erokhin 2019. In the work’s colophon, Mipham alludes to sources including “treatises” (gzhung, S.
śāstra), tantras (rgyud), and [tantric] commentaries (dgongs ’grel) (Jacoby 2017: 331, n. 59). Tibetan
antecedents for Mipham’s literary effort to integrate secular arts of sensual pleasure with religious goals of
spiritual liberation include instructional texts by Lelung Shepé Dorje (Sle lung bzhad pa’i rdo rje, 1697–
1740) for bringing sexual desire onto the path (’dod chags lam du khyer), while later works encompassing
kāmaśāstra include erotic treatises by Gendün Chöpel (dge ’dun chos ’phel, 1903–1951 CE). See, for example,
Chöpel and Hopkins 1992.

72 On the other hand, if desire becomes too overwhelming, Mipham advises meditating on ambrosial nectar
flowing from the seed syllable āh within the heart and permeating the body so that grasping dissolves “like
a rainbow in space” (ibid.: 118).

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Supine, seated, and standing postures are central to the coital rites of Karmamudrā.73 As
mirrored in Tibetan Buddhist iconography, Mipham explains that standing union is the
“way of the fierce protector deities” (ibid.) (see Figs. 9,10), whereas yogis and yoginīs
more commonly join in cross-legged seated posture like a “wavering palanquin” (do li
am ’khyogs) (ibid.: 126). He describes other postures referenced in the Caṇdamahāroṣaṇa
Tantra such as the “half moon” (zla ba phyed pa), the “honeycomb” (bung ba’i dra ba can),
the “tortoise embrace” (rus sbal bcing ba), and the “bow seat” (gzhu yi gdan), in addition
to a position “famous as the ‘riding Trulkhor’” (’phrul ’khor zhon pa), in which the female
partner places the backs of her knees over her consort’s shoulders and “churns [her]
muscles (tdza mkhen) like a wheel” (ibid.: 129). Mipham clarifies that such vigorous
positions lead to the “highest level of joy” (ibid.: 132).

Towards the end of his treatise, Mipham states that, “There are many good teachings
pertaining to a variety of passionate activities. Bodies should be very flexible [so as] to
experience the highest pleasure. Channels are controlled, winds are conquered, [and]
the wisdom of bliss [is fully realised]” (ibid.: 133). He further observes that “by applying
key points of method knots in the channels will be undone,” whereas intercourse in
absence of such knowledge will lead to imbalances in the internal elements. He
emphasises the importance of retaining semen (thig le) to “partake” (zhu ba) of the
nectar that Karmamudrā elicits (ibid.: 133), while stating that “without passion
liberation is incomplete since passion is the very cause of supreme bliss (mchog gi bde ba
med)” (ibid.: 134). Mipham states in his colophon that, “Those liberated by passion [are
liberated] more quickly than all others” (ibid.: 135), and he advises all who encounter
his treatise to embrace the Clear Light of Mahāmudrā (phyag rgya chen po), the
unconditional presence and compassion that perfected sexual yoga reveals (ibid.: 135).
Lest it be mistaken that Wheel of Bliss practices are only written by and for men, the
early 11th-century female Mahāsiddha Niguma, who instructed disciples in the path of
desire (chags lam; sbyor lam), clarifies that, “Those who know the nature of mind enjoy
the pleasures of the five senses [...] the pure expanse of emptiness and
delight” (Kongtrul 2003: 48, 42).74 By such means, the disjointed wheels of saṃsāra
realign as a liberative “wheel of joy” (dga’ ’khyil).

73Many of the coital positions that Mipham describes are nearly identical to those found in Chapter 6 of the
Caṇdamahāroṣaṇa Tantra. Analogously, the third chapter of the Kālacakra Tantra and the Vimalaprabhā
commentary advise yogins to master kāmaśāstra “in order to worship yoginīs properly” and to fully realise
the primordial awakened state (Jacoby 2017: 334–335).

74 See also the Teaching Song of Sera Khandro Kunzang Dekyong Wangmo (1892–1940 CE), in
Chenagtsang 2018: 305–311.

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Figure 11: The illusory, magical wheel of the illuminated bodymind, as presented in a 13th-century Bön
manuscript illustrating Thögal practices and related visions. Private Collection.

Dzogchen: The Wheel of Light

The earliest use of the term Dzogchen (rdzog chen), or “Great Perfection,” in Tibetan
Buddhist tradition refers to it as the culminating nondual awareness that arises in the
context of ritualised sexual intercourse.75 A 15th-century Dzogchen master from Bhutan
named Orgyen Pema Lingpa (O rgyan pad ma gling pa) revealed a treatise entitled
Churning the Depths of Saṃsāra (’khor ba dong sprugs ma) that elucidates the meaning of
the Tantric “wisdom-consort initiation” (shes rab ye shes kyi dbang, S. prajñājñānābhiṣeka)
from the point of view of Dzogchen, the culmination of preceding Perfection Stage
(rdzog rim) practices involving unpartnered and partnered cultivation of blissful heat
(gtum mo, S. caṇḍālī).76 In the second chapter of his treatise, Pema Lingpa emphasises the
importance of Trulkhor for developing the body’s subtle channels, through which

75Dalton 2004: 8, 17–20, 56; Van Schaik 2004: 167–168. As presented in Chapters 13 and 14 of the circa 8th-
century Guhyagarbha Tantra, “Great Perfection” (rdzogs chen) signifies the liberating insight and “sublime
ecstasy connected to sexual yoga” (Tiso 2016: 212). See also, Samuel 2008: 488.

76The text is part of Pema Lingpa’s Great Perfection Compendium of Samantabhadra’s Wisdom Knowledge (rDzogs
chen kun bzang dgongs ’dus: 88–92), which he claimed to have revealed from its place of concealment in a
stūpa at Samyé Chimpuk, in Central Tibet.

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refined sexual energy (thig le) spreads and expands. He provides explicit instructions for
physical practices to be undertaken prior to and during sexual union in the larger
context of realising Great Perfection (rdzog chen). Initial exercises for purifying the
energy channels (nāḍī, T. rtsa) include abdominal rotations and stretching out and
retracting one’s arms as if shooting an arrow (see Fig. 1). He further clarifies that one
should “use whatever physical yogic movements are appropriate from those explained
in the ‘Secret Key to the Channels and Winds’ (rTsa rlung gsang ba’i lde mig),” a further
treatise in his revealed treasure, as discussed below (see Fig. 12). To gain mastery in
circulating internal essences, he emphasises visualising the white bindu rising upward
through the cakras “like water drawn up through a bamboo tube,”77 while engaging in
Trulkhor exercises likened to a pouncing tiger, a lion, a dog, a swallow, and a recumbent
elephant. These are followed by lying on one’s back and “rolling back and forth like a
fox.” Pema Lingpa clarifies that, in combination with the six movements related to
different animals, one uses the seed-syllable hūṃ to draw the bindu upward until it
meets the haṃ in the crown cakra. Then, in order to draw it up more strongly, one rolls
one’s eyes upwards in their sockets, retracts the anus, pulls the stomach towards the
spine, curls one’s tongue backwards [in khecarī mudrā], squeezes one’s toes and fingers,
and, extending the upper body, unites the two prāṇas while conceiving of the mind as a
black hūṃ.

These preliminary physical practices associated with Karmamudrā are followed in Pema
Lingpa’s treatise by extended descriptions of consort practice whereby the third Tantric
empowerment is realised as spontaneously achieved illumination, i.e., Dzogchen, the
“Great Perfection.” If at any point the bindu is about to be lost, Pema Lingpa councels
that one should temporarily withdraw the vajra from the lotus and, while in a state of
contemplative coitus interruptus, perform the “root and branch movements of the
Magical Wheel,” while joining the seed syllable hūṃ at the genitals with haṃ at the
crown cakra while abiding in a state of nonconceptual illumination in which the red and
white bindus pervade one’s entire body. “Through the increase of bindu,” Pema Lingpa
states, “primordial wisdom and great bliss naturally expand and all siddhis without
exception are spontaneously accomplished,” an effusive reference to conscious
awareness of normally subconscious psychophysical processes.

77The descriptions of postures in Pema Lingpa’s Churning the Depths of Saṃsāra are based on unpublished
translations provided by David Christensen 2015.

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Figure 12: “The secret key to the channels and winds” (Rtsa rlung gsang ba’i lde mig) and associated Thögal
practices, illustrated on the walls of the Lukhang temple around 1700. Photograph by Ian Baker.

Beyond its advocacy for Karmamudrā, Pema Lingpa’s compendium on the Great
Perfection includes the aforementioned “Secret Key to the Channels and Winds”78 that
presents a sequence of twenty-three yogic exercises (see Fig. 12) in support of physical
and mental health and to clear hindrances (’gegs sel) in the visionary Dzogchen practice
of Lhündrup Thögal (lhun grub thod rgal), literally “leaping beyond the skull into a
spontaneous state of natural perfection” (Baker 2019: 254–277) (see Figs. 11, 12, 13).
Pema Lingpa explains that the exercises balance the three humours of wind, bile and
phlegm (rlung, mkhris pa, bad kan) and open the body’s subtle energy pathways so as to
establish non-conceptual awareness and self-transcendent compassion
(Baker 2018: 421). Reminiscent of earlier expositions of the Magical Wheel, the
movements include abdominal churning, throwing an imaginary rock, head rotations,

78The chapter forms part of Pema Lingpa’s Great Perfection Compendium of Enlightened Spontaneity (Rdzogs chen
kun bzang dgongs’dus), KZGD, vol. 2: 453–460. See Baker 2018: 418–419 and Baker 2019: 256–275. For detailed
descriptions of each of the twenty-three yogic movements (’khrul ’khor), see Baker 2018: 421–426. For an
account of the creation and content of the murals, see Baker 2017: 403–428 and Baker 2012: 225–264. See
also Baker and Laird 2011.

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drawing a bow, the “liberating lion,” and “yogic drops” (’bebs). Yet they also introduced
new procedures such as activating the navel cakra by striking it with the fists. Pema
Lingpa’s “Secret Key” continues with instructions for “igniting blissful heat to enhance
awareness” (Baker 2018: 424–425) as well as practices to be undertaken during sleep,
although the primary stated function of the physical exercises is to prepare the body
for the visionary practices of Thögal. As Pema Lingpa concludes his treatise, “When the
sun is shining focus [your attention] on [the naturally arising visions of] thod rgal (see
Figs. 13, 14) [and] spend your days and nights united with ultimate reality. An
instruction of this type cannot be found [elsewhere] in Tibet or India” (ibid.: 426).79

Figure 13: The “posture of a seated lion”, the principal position used in Thögal practice to open energy
channels between the heart and eyes, as demonstrated by Karma Lhatrul Rinpoche. Photograph by Ian
Baker.

Three primary bodily postures are indicated for the practice of Thögal, combined with
specific breathing techniques and yogic gazes (dṛṣṭi). As described in Pema Lingpa’s
treasure text as well as pre-existing sources, the “posture of a seated lion” (Figs. 13, 14)

79Pema Lingpa’s cycle of Trulkhor and Thögal are primarily taught today by the Eleventh Gangteng Tulku,
Kunzang Rigdzin Pema Namgyal, in Bhutan (see Yeshe Khorlo International).

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involves sitting on the ground with the soles of the feet together and the hands resting
on the ground in vajra fists, with the tips of the thumbs touching the base of the ring
fingers. The upper body is extended upwards with the chin tucked slightly inward and
the spine and back of the neck straightened so as to allow the free flow of vital energies.
With the breath extended outwards and the abdomen pulled slightly inwards, the eyes
are rolled upwards past an imagined protuberance at the crown of the head into the
limitless expanse of inner and outer sky, signifying dharmakāya, the ultimate,
unmanifested “body” of reality.

Figure 14: Three postures for Thögal practice, and associated visions, as illustrated on a folio of an
instruction manual. Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen.

In the “posture of a reposing elephant” (see Fig. 14), signifying the sambhogakāya, or
“enjoyment body,” one lies prone with the knees drawn towards one’s chest, one’s feet
extended behind, the lower arms on the ground and one’s hands placed either in front
as vajra fists or supporting the chin as the spine elongates and the eyes gaze with soft
focus to the sides and ahead into visions reflecting the recursive activity of conscious
perception. In the nirmāṇakāya, or “manifested posture of a sage” (ṛṣi) (Fig. 14), one
squats with one’s ankles together, knees pressed against the chest, and one’s arms
crossed in front with elbows resting on the knees and the hands optionally tucked into
the armpits. The gaze is directed slightly downward through half-closed eyes to control
the body’s vital energies and quiet the mind.80 As Pema Lingpa’s text maintains, pristine
awareness “dwells like a lamp in a vase at the heart” of the physical body but only
manifests as direct experience by maintaining the key points of posture, “just as the
limbs of a snake only become apparent when it is squeezed.”81

A highly strenuous standing position known as the “posture of the vajra” (rdo rje’i ’dug
stang) (Fig. 15) is also employed in the preliminary Dzogchen practice of Kordé Rushen
(’khor ’das ru shan) as a support for “cutting through [discursive mind] to primordially

80 For further clarification, see Baker 2018: 419, and Baker 2019: 259.

81The text states that a practitioner may freely shift between the three positions while maintaining “three-
fold motionlessness of body, eyes, and consciousness.”

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pure awareness” (ka dag khregs chod). The position is described in one of Dzogchen’s
earliest texts, the “reverberation of sound” (Sgra thal ’gyur), as a means for “purifying
the body and benefiting the mind” and predisposing consciousness to recognise its
innate, nondual nature (Baker 2019: 244–253). The posture involves visualising oneself
as an indestructible, five-pronged, flaming blue vajra while adopting a corresponding
position with one’s body: After joining one’s palms, both hands are placed above the
crown of one’s head while lifting up both heels and balancing on one’s toes. The
position is held until the body physically collapses and then is continued while sitting
on the ground. Then, with forceful exclamation of the seed-syllable phat, one lies down
in a state of unconditional, concept-free awareness, “like a corpse in a charnel ground.”
When thoughts arise, one repeats the initial position in continuing cycles of effort and
repose. The Fifth Dalai Lama (Ngag dbang blo bzang rgya mtsho, 1617–1682) described
envisioning one’s body as a five-pronged vajra of “blazing clear light” as a
psychographic means for incinerating disease, pacifying hindrances, and abiding in a

Figure 15: The “posture of the vajra” (rdo rje’i ’dug stang).
Photograph by Ian Baker.

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state of non-conceptual awareness. “[It] liberates one’s body,” the Fifth Dalai Lama
wrote, “ultimately causing it to pass beyond suffering into the adamantine (vajra)
expanse” (in Chenagtsang 2016: 107).

The Wheel of Yantra

In a Dzogchen instruction manual entitled Tri Yeshé Lama (khrid ye shes bla ma), Rigdzin
Jigme Lingpa (’Jigs med gling pa, 1730–1798 CE) explains that “exhausting the physical
body exhausts the discursive tendencies of the mind” (2014: 15). The same approach
informs a tradition of Trulkhor that was introduced to the Western world during the
1970s by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (Chos rGyal Nam mkha’i Nor bu, 1938–2018 CE) as
“Yantra Yoga.” In his foreword to the first English-language translation of The Union of
Sun and Moon Yantra (’Phrul ’khor nyi zla kha sbyor), Adriano Clemente writes that the
lineage of Yantra Yoga originates with the Nepalese Mahāsiddha Hūṃkāra who taught
the series of breath-synchronised movements “to the great master Padmasambhava,
who then transmitted the Trulkhor to Vairocana in Tibet in the eighth
century” (2008: 1). Recognising that the seventy-five postures (altogether one hundred
and eight postures are described) of Yantra Yoga “correspond to as many āsanas of the
Haṭhayoga tradition,” Clemente suggests that the [Union of Sun and Moon Trulkhor] text
could be regarded as the most ancient to describe such poses” (ibid.: 1, 12).

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu published a detailed Tibetan commentary on The Union of Sun
and Moon Yantra in 1982. Drawing on Norbu’s interpretation, Giuseppe Baroetto
observed that the words yantra and trulkhor both refer to “engines” or “machines,” with
the understanding that “the body is comparable to a natural machine whose function is
to produce a particular effect by setting it in motion” (1986: 51). He further noted the
meaning of yantra as a “physical movement performed to arrive at the goal of Yoga,”
but he maintained that, as the practice was part of an esoteric Tantric tradition
transmitted through initiation, knowledge of Yantra Yoga had remained limited.82 That
situation changed in 1999 with Namkhai Norbu’s release of a video and booklet entitled
The Eight Movements of Yantra Yoga: An Ancient Tibetan Tradition as “a practical and simple
guide for learning and practicing this precious discipline [...] in preparation to the more
complex teaching of Yantra Yoga” (Norbu, Fontana, and Andrico 1999: 1). This was

82 Although proficiency in Tsalung Trulkhor traditionally depends on a Tantric precept (dam tshig, S.
samaya) of secrecy, H. H. the Dalai Lama has taught such “open secrets,” including Karmamudrā, publicly.
See, for example, “Tengyur Translation: The Tradition of the Seventeen Pandits of Nalanda,” an
international conference organised by the Central University of Tibetan Studies, Sarnath, Varanasi, and
American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, New York, January 8–11, 2011.

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followed with the publication of Yantra Yoga: The Tibetan Yoga of Movement in 2008. Norbu
states in the book’s preface that the “system of Yantra or Trulkhor called The Union of
the Sun and Moon [is] very probably the most ancient among the various Yantra systems
defused in Tibet and [...] constitutes a marvelous ancillary practice of the oral
transmission of the Vajra Bridge” (syan brgyud rdo rje zam pa), a part of the Longdé (kLong
sde) series of Dzogchen teachings (2008: 3). Departing from tradition, Norbu further
writes that, “The Yantra exercises, which engage all three aspects of body, voice and
mind, comprise an exceptional means to enable relaxation. Consequently, they should
not be deemed solely a secondary means for secret practices such as Tummo, but rather
as something indispensable for the achievement of authentic relaxation of the body,
voice, and mind of every individual, a preliminary to any kind of practice” (ibid.: 4). He
further states, “the mind finds its natural condition only when the prāṇa is in its natural
condition,” and that the practice of Yantra Yoga is therefore relevant “whether or not
[an individual] is a practitioner of Mantrayāna” (ibid.: 5). Norbu thus presents his
detailed commentary on The Union of the Sun and Moon [Nyida Khajor] with “the wish that
this might become the cause of supreme happiness, both provisional and definitive, for
all beings” (ibid.: 7).

While the benefits of Yantra Yoga are undisputed (see Guarisco and Wangmo 2016;
Chaoul 2018), questions arise regarding the origin of the movements, many of which, as
Clemente noted, resemble those of modern postural yoga (Singleton 2010). Norbu and
Clemente state that the Trulkhor instructions of Yantra Yoga are part of a larger cycle
of teachings known as “The Oral Transmission of Vairocana” (Vai ro snyan brgyud), the
renowned Tibetan translator credited with introducing Dzogchen scriptures in Tibet in
the 8th century (ibid.: 10). However, the manuscript of The Union of Sun and Moon, which
cites Vairocana as the author in the colophon, was never included in any compilation of
Vairocana’s writings. Clemente recounts that the text had been passed down in Eastern
Tibet for generations.83 As copies of such manuscripts were frequently revised and
updated, it is difficult to determine categorically that the Trulkhor exercises were
actually taught by Vairocana, rather than being a later attribution.

The fact that many of the positions presented in the English-language translation of The
Union of Sun and Moon are well known within modern postural yoga suggests the ways in

83Adriano Clemente, personal communication, 2020. Clemente further clarified that the original text of the
Nyida Khajor includes one hundred and eight yantras, or breath-sequenced movements, twenty-three of
which culminate with a ’beb, or “yogic drop.” Traditionally, the twenty-three movements are repeated at
least three times, thus involving sixty-nine yogic drops. However, due to the expertise required to perform
breath holdings and yogic drops safely, these aspects of the original Yantra Yoga transmission were omitted
from recently published instructional books for non-initiates.

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which the Magical Wheel continues to evolve through its interactions and exchanges
with analogous traditions.84 Chaoul notes that the Magical Wheel of the Union of Sun
and Moon, as introduced by Namkhai Norbu, shares similarities with the Trulkhor
practices of the Oral Transmission of Zhang Zhung in the way that the breath is held
throughout the movements and exhaled with sounds, even though the sounds
differ (2018). Loseries-Leick further points out that whereas āsanas, or fixed postures, in
haṭhayoga are held over short intervals with full or empty breath retention, Trulkhor
are performed in motion with rhythmical breathing and breath retention (1997).
Perhaps most revealingly, Fabio Andrico, one of the primary exponents and teachers of
Yantra Yoga, has noted in personal communication that several of the “seven lotus
poses” (See Norbu 2008: 331–347) described in The Union of Sun and Moon are identical to
qigong movements taught at Shaolin Monastery in China.

In both Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Trulkhor and Yantra represent a “magical
conveyance” leading, in the context of Dzogchen, to an illuminated state of being, or
“primordial knowing,” commensurate with the Tibetan definition of yoga (rnal ’byor), as
discussed in the introduction to this chapter. The Magical Wheel thus represents a
methodology or device whereby practitioners rediscover their original nature.85 As a
body-mind discipline with relevance beyond its traditional cultural contexts, it’s
nonetheless useful to keep in mind the words of the 14th-century Dzogchen master
Longchen Rabjampa (Klong chen rab ’byams pa dri med ’od zer) who counsels in his
Precious Treasury of Natural Perfection (Gnad lugs mdzod) that, “Exhausting exercises
involving struggle and strain are of short-lived benefit [...] we strive in meditation
because we desire excellence, but any striving precludes attainment [...] remaining
constantly at ease in uncontrived spontaneity [...] non-action is revealed as supreme
activity” (2014: 23). The female Mahāsiddha Sahajayoginī Cinta (circa 765 CE) presented
her own perspective in a treatise entitled Realisation of Reality through its Bodily
Expressions: “Spontaneous movements of the body are all sacred gestures. Whether
graceful, heroic, terrifying, compassionate, fierce, or peaceful, they are all without

84 Chögyal Namkhai Norbu also introduced a “mind treasure” (dgongs gter) called Vajra Dance that
resembles the practice of Paneurythmy, as developed in the 1930s by the Bulgarian master (Beinsa) Peter
Deunov, who drew on the sacred dance forms of George Ivanovich Gurdjieff. Paneurythmy involves a
codified choreography of twenty-eight rhythmic exercises performed in interpenetrating circles to a
specific sequence of music in order to cultivate balance, harmony, and flow (see Lorimer 1991).

85Contemporary presentations of Trulkhor other than Yantra Yoga include practices taught by Tenzin
Wangyal (2011a, 2011b), Akarpa Lobsang (see Baker 2019: 154), Tulku Lobsang (nangtenmenlang.org), and
Nida Chenagtsang (2020). Apart from these authoritative Tibetan sources, the popular yogic exercises
known as the “Five Tibetan Rites” are a notable example of creative, heuristic branding (see Kelder 1939).

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exception naturally perfected expressions of enlightened awareness” (Shaw 1994: 189).

Her words recall those in the Sanskrit-Tibetan version of the Amṛtasiddhi in which
Avadhūtacandra writes, “Such a yogin is made of everything, composed of all elements,
always dwelling in omniscience [...] Delighted, he liberates the world” (Schaeffer 2002:
522).

Conclusion: Rediscovering the Wheel

This chapter has proposed that the Buddha’s “Turning of the Wheel of Truth” reaches
its apotheosis in the Bön and Vajrayāna Buddhist practice of Tsalung Trulkhor, the
“Illusory, Magical Wheel of Channels, Winds, and Subtle Essences” representing an
experiential substrate of human anatomy. The Magical Wheel refers both to practice, as
sequential “magical movements,” as well as to the meta-physiology, or “magical
machine,” on which Tsalung Trulkhor practices are based in their intent of impelling
mind and body beyond ordinary human limitations and attaining the nondual nature of
a Tantric Buddha. Although Buddhism is more typically associated with mindfulness of
thinking and feeling, as well as nondiscursive awareness and compassion, Buddha
Śākyamuni himself emphasised the importance of bodily practice, as clearly expressed
in the Mahāsaccaka Sūtra: “If the body is not mastered, the mind cannot be mastered. If
the body is mastered, the mind is mastered” (36.7–9, in Bodhi 1995: 334). This
investigation of “illusory, magical movements” in the context of Tibetan Tantra and
Dzogchen has hoped to reveal the ways in which vigorous body-based practices,
combined with sustained awareness of the rising and dissolving of thoughts and
sensations, reflect Tantric Buddhism’s exaltation of human embodiment as a vehicle of
transpersonal transformation and ultimate existential freedom.

When the Wheel of Dharma was set in motion in the 5th-century BCE, it was said that
nothing could ever stop it and that a measureless radiance suffused the earth. Do the
integral practices of the Magical Wheel bring a comparable release from systemic
suffering (duḥkha) and the collective dissatisfactions of cyclic existence? The Buddha
reputedly stated that all structures (sankhāra), including his own “wheel of doctrine,”
are impermanent. But inherent in the etymology of the Tibetan word Trul (’phrul) is the
implication of a continuum of wisdom, love, and joy. As clarified in the Kālacakra, the
Wheel of Time, which offers the first account of “forceful” (haṭhena) physical practices
in Tantric Buddhism, only a yogin who has attained an ecstatic “adamantine” body
(vajradeha, T. rdo rje lus) can pierce the illusory, relative world and transmute ephemeral
existence into an abiding expression of enlightenment (buddhakṣetra).

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As a subtle wheel of indeterminable potential, Trulkhor reflects the Tantric Buddhist

view that all phenomena, including human beings, are mutable processes, arising
dependently on prior conditions. In tracking Tsalung Trulkhor across time and
traditions, this chapter has presented provisional perspectives on the function of
physical yoga in Bön, Tibetan Buddhism, and Dzogchen, while alluding to analogous
traditions of self-cultivation in China.86 For a practitioner of the Magical Wheel, the
forceful breath-led movements reveal synergetic processes of body, mind, and nature in
the cultivation of self-transforming Fire, Bliss, and Luminosity (Tummo, Karmamudrā,
Thögal), in association with enigmatic, endocrinal Nectar (bdud rtsi, thig le, S. amṛta,
bindu).87 Just as the invention of the wheel transformed humanity on an external level,
this chapter has argued that the magical wheel of the fully integrated human mind and
body can carry us further still. And as physical activity in general has been shown to
positively impact important structures in the brain (and thus psychology), it is possible
that the Magical Wheel may continue to evolve across geographical domains in accord
with altering cultural and historical circumstances.88

In summary, this chapter suggests that the Magical Wheel represents the quintessence
of Buddhist Tantra as a vehicle for transcending restrictive oppositions between reality
and illusion and realising an expanded human condition in harmony with nature and
the cosmos. As discussed, the completion stages of Vajrayāna Buddhism approach that
goal by envisioning one’s innermost anatomy as an apparent yet insubstantial display
of rotating wheels, channels, and intangible energies. The French scientist and
theologian Blaise Pascal (1623–1662 CE) speculated that “perhaps universal history is
the history of the various intonations of a few metaphors,” and the Magical Wheel may
be one such incisive psychogram, or visualised concept. Pascal is also known for
“Pascal’s Wager” that asserts the value of believing in Divinity even if God’s existence
cannot be proved or disproved through reason (Pensées, Section III: 233). Applying the
same thought experiment to the Magical Wheel—as optimally imagined flowing
wholeness—enlarges our sensibilities, reconfiguring mind and body on the basis that

86See Yang in this volume. Yang also notes Chinese references to the “navel-wheel” (qilun) in Tang Dynasty
texts concerning self-cultivation (yangsheng). See also Phillips and Mroz 2016.

87For the relationship of amṛta and pineal melatonin, a serotonin-derived hormone, see Bushell 1995 and
Bushell et al. 2020.

88 It is notable, for example, that, rather than Trulkhor, nuns studying under the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa
train in Kung Fu, while Vidyādhara Ācārya Mahāyogi Sridhar Rana, a master of the Hevajra Tantra and
Dzogchen, urges his students to practice Chi-Lel Qigong. Similarly, yoginīs in Terdrom, Tibet, practice
therapeutic movements derived from Chinese Falun Gong, because their own lineage of Tsalung Trulkhor
(Yang zab rdzogs chen) has died out.

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what the mind identifies as real can become real experientially, and also become the
existential basis of Tantric Buddhism’s foundational Creation Stage (bskyed rim).

In its historical context in Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, the Magical Wheel—and the
“triple wheel” of teaching, teacher, and recipient—provided an inner technology
beyond what physical wheels could offer in a land where wheeled vehicles were
unknown until the twentieth century.89 Tracking the Magical Wheel’s trajectory in and
beyond Tibet offers multiple perspectives on the role of the body, as well as
constructivist “magical thinking,” in advancing humanity’s highest ideals. In this
context, it is worth recalling the Hevajra Tantra’s vitalising insistence that “the yogin
must always sing and dance.”90 Such prescient council—overturning early Buddhist
admonishment of sensual movement—places the Illusory Magical Wheel in illuminating
perspective, reminding us of its ultimate intent in transforming ourselves and others
through the liberating union of self-transcendent wisdom and elevated passion. By such
means, we align ourselves with the intelligence, sympathetic joy, and innate creativity
by which the proverbial wheel was first discovered, while realising, as stated in an early
text on Dzogchen, that the “wheel of wisdom has no periphery or center [ . . .] beyond
all subject or object [. . .] [it arises as] a blazing wheel of jewels” (Wilkinson 2019: 109).

References

Achard, J. L. 2008. Enlightened Rainbows: The Life and Works of Shardza Tashi Gyeltsen.
Leiden: Brill.

Alter, J. S. 2011. Moral Materialism: Sex and Masculinity in Modern India. Penguin Books
India.

Anālayo. 2011. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-Nikāya, vol. 1. Taipei: Dharma Drum
Publishing.

Avadhūtacandra (Madhavacandra, Dbu ma zla ba). Amrtasiddhi (’Chi med grub pa).
Beijing: China Nationalities Library of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities,
catalogue number 005125 (21). ff. 38 folios. Photocopy of microfilm (abbrev.
AAS).

89Prior to the Chinese occupation of Tibet in the 1950s, the only wheeled vehicles were reputedly three
dismantled cars owned by the Dalai Lama, including two Peugeots and a blue-coloured Baby Austin (Wren
1983, Singh 2018). The cars had been carried over the Himalayas using bamboo poles.

90In the context of the Hevajra Tantra, song signifies mantra and dance the emanation of the deity; together
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Influence, Entanglement and Confrontation, Eds. Daniela Bevilacqua and Mark
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