Inner Heat Meditation

EXERCISE ROUTINES FOR KAYAKERS - TUMMO MEDITATION
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Inner Heat Meditation (tum-mo)

From How to Meditate: A Practical Guide by Kathleen
McDonald (Wisdom Publications).
Sit comfortably in your meditation place and generate
a strong positive motivation for doing this inner heat
practice. Determine to keep your mind relaxed,
concentrated and free of expectations for the entire
session.
Start by visualizing the central channel (shushuma) as
a transparent, hollow tube, a fingers breadth in
diameter. It runs straight down through the center of
the body, just in front of the spinal column, from the
crown of your head to the base of your spine.
Next, visualize the right and left lateral channels
(nadis), slightly thinner than the central one. They start
from the right and left nostrils respectively, travel
upwards to the top of\ the head and then curve over to
run downwards on either side of the central channel.
They curve inwards and join the central channel at a
point approximately four fingers breadth below the
level of the navel.
Take as long as you like to construct this visualization.
Once it is stable, imagine a redhot ember the size of a
tiny seed inside the central channel at the level of the
navel. To strengthen this visualization, imagine
reaching into a fire, taking out a tiny glowing ember
and placing it in your central channel. Once it is there,
really feel its intense heat.
Now, in order to increase the heat, gently contract the
muscles of the pelvic floor, concentrating on the
internal rather than the external muscles, and in this
way bring air energy up from the lowest chakra
(energy wheel or center) to the ember.
Next, gently take a full breath through the nostrils. The
air travels from the nostrils through the right and left
channels to where they enter the central channel just
below the level of the navel. The air joins with the heat
there and with energy brought up from below.
As you stop inhaling, immediately swallow and push
down gently with your diaphragm in order to firmly
compress the energy brought down from above: now
the air energy is completely locked in, compressed
from above and below.
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Now, hold your breath as long as it is comfortable to

do so. Concentrate completely on the ember in the
navel area, whose heat is increasing and spreading as a
result of the compressed air energy.
When you are ready, relax your lightly tensed muscles
and exhale gently and completely. Although the air
leaves through the nostrils, visualize that it rises up
through the central channel and dissolves there. The
heat emanating from the burning ember at the navel
continually increases and spreads and starts to burn
away the blockages at each chakra and starts also to
warm the concentration of silvery blissful energy
found at the crown chakra.
However, the focal point of your concentration is
always the heat of the burning ember in the navel area.
Once your first exhalation is complete, again tighten
the lower muscles, inhale a second time, swallow and
push down with diaphragm, thus again compressing
the air on the heat, then exhale, releasing the air up the
central channel once again.
Repeat the entire cycle rhythmically seven times
altogether, the intensity of the heat growing with each
breath.
At the seventh exhalation, imagine that the now
burning-hot ember explodes into flames. They shoot
up the central channel, completely consuming and
purifying the delude energy at each chakra. At the
crown, the flames finally melt and release the silvery
blissful energy, which pours down the purified central
channel giving pleasure at each chakra it passes.
Finally, when it meets the blazing ember at the navel
chakra, there is an explosion of bliss. This blissful heat
flows our to every atom and cell of your body,
completely filling you, making your mind very happy.
Concentrate on this pleasure without tension or
expectation, without clinging to it or analyzing it. Just
relax and enjoy it.
You will notice that, no matter how strong the pleasure
is, your mind and body are calm and controlled, unlike
our usual experiences of physical pleasure when the
mind is excited and uncontrolled.
If your mind should wander from its concentration to
other objects the past or future, objects of attachment
12/27/2010
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or aversion- focus your attention on the subject of the

thought, the mind that perceives the distracting object,
the thinker. Watch the subject until the distracting
thought disappears, then concentrate again on the
blissful feeling.
Analysis of feeling: Having reached a state of clarity, it
is good to use it to discover the nature of your mind.
After concentrating on your feeling, being absorbed in
it for some time, analyze it by contemplating each of
the following questions. Take as long as you like.
Is the feeling permanent or impermanent? How? Why?
Is the feeling blissful or suffering? How? Why?
Is the feeling related or unrelated to the nervous system
and in the mind? How?Why?
Does the feeling exist inherently, from it own side,
without depending on anything else, or not? How?
Why?
Examine each point from every angle. Finish the
session by summing up your conclusion, and then
dedicate any positive energy and insight gained during
the meditation to your speedy enlightenment for the
sake of all living beings.
12/27/2010

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What is the purpose of visualizing the central and lateral channels?

What happens during each cycle of breathing in the meditation?

EXERCISE ROUTINES FOR KAYAKERS - TUMMO MEDITATION

Inner Heat Meditation (tum-mo)

EXERCISE ROUTINES FOR KAYAKERS - TUMMO MEDITATION

Now, hold your breath as long as it is comfortable to

EXERCISE ROUTINES FOR KAYAKERS - TUMMO MEDITATION

or aversion- focus your attention on the subject of the

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