TibetanYoga

03/07/2025

A blog that offers the simplest account of the subtle body and we one needs to work with it that I could muster. Thanks to Lama Kalsang Nyima for the beautiful artwork!

Last night I taught the third session of a four session course on the nine breaths and tsa lung. It’s been really interesting to teach as the grou...

13/06/2025

I published a new blog yesterday at TibetanYoga.com. It is, admittedly, not my most polished. I wrote it in one sitting as a response to an article in Wired magazine on dark retreats as a form of “spiritual conquest”. Believe it or not, there is a dark retreat center in Oregon that offers 3 day dark retreats. They have a 3 year waiting list there is so much demand. But people are going in to “conquer” the dark, so to speak. The blog isn’t really about dark retreats, but about the motivation that drives us toward practice, and the consequences of wrong motivation.

https://www.tibetanyoga.com/blog/107788-spiritual-conquest

A reflection on the purpose of practice and the imporatnace of right motivation.

19/03/2025

It took me a lot longer than I anticipated to write the second part of my blog on Dzogchen and being a Dzogchenpa. I am happy to say that today it is finished. It's really very much about the structure of the foundational practices, and at what stages of our practice Tibetan yoga can benefit us.

Always excited to get feedback. Writing is as much an act of self-discovery as it is a public conversation.

This post builds on my previous post about the challenges most of us practitioners face in trying both to recognize the nature state and build stab...

20/02/2025

The Life Force Tsa Lung Exercise focuses on the heart chakra, the life force wind, and helps us to balanace the space element within us. When we balance the space element the others elements instinctively come into greater balance. This Saturday, at 9:00 AM NY time (EST) I invite you to join me and The Jaguar Path for a free masterclass focused on bringing balance, clarity and power into our hearts. The Life Force Tsa Lung is one of the practices we will bring into our toolbox during this time.

This event is free and open to all. Learn more and register at:
https://www.jaguarpath.com/tibetan-shamanism-yungdrung-b%C3%B6n

16/02/2025

This beautiful image is the Tibetan letter "Hung" above a lotus flower within a crystal sphere. Hung represents the dynamic energy and blessings of enlightened mind in the Bön tradition. When we visualize receiving blessings from enlightened beings, from Buddhas, this image helps us to feel and stabilize the energy of that blessing.

It's a complex image, but is good for establishing concentration. When we are newer to these kinds of practices, we can simply visualize radiant, deep sky blue energy flowing into and expanding in the space of our heart.

Come join me on Feb 22 at 9 AM NY time (EST) for a free masterclass online . All are welcome and no experience is needed. We will be exploring the how our intention, awareness, breath and movement can change not only our perceptions but our realty.

Learn more at https:https://www.jaguarpath.com/tibetan-shamanism-yungdrung-b%C3%B6n

15/02/2025

An open invitation to join me online with The Jaguar Path on February 22 at 9:00 am NY time (EST) for a free 90 minute workshop. We'll touch on the five elements and five winds, with a focus on the life force wind and space element. These practices come from the ancient tradition of Bön from Tibet and are simple but powerful tools for personal transformation.

Learn more and register at https://www.jaguarpath.com/tibetan-shamanism-yungdrung-b%C3%B6n

14/02/2025

Chakras (Tibetan: Khorlo) are the energetic centers of our body. They are the homes of the five winds and the five elements within us as well. When we fully connect to their power, and rest, then we start to become one with the universe.

Join me online on Feb 22 at 9 AM NY time (EST) for an free masterclass at . We will talk about the elements and winds, how we can work with them to clear obstacles and negativity in our lives, and connect to joy. Our focus will be how to use breath, movement and attentiveness in the space of the heart - home of the life force wind and the space element.

Learn more and register: https://www.jaguarpath.com/tibetan-shamanism-yungdrung-b%C3%B6n

12/02/2025

The five elements - Space, Air, Fire, Water, & Earth are the building blocks of all that is. This is not only at the physical but at the energetic and spiritual levels of reality as well. When we work with the qualities of the elements within ourselves and balance them, we discover a greater sense of balance and harmony.

I invite you to join me for a free online masterclass for school of shamanism on February 22nd at 9am New York time (EST). We will be discussing and working specifically with the space element and the heart chakra, for when we bring this element into balance, the others start to follow.

Learn more and register at: https://www.jaguarpath.com/tibetan-shamanism-yungdrung-bon

10/02/2025

On February 22 at 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time I'll be sharing aspects of the ancient Bön tradition of Tibet with my friends at The Jaguar Path. If you don't know them, Ray and Nina Crist have been sharing the practices of Yoga, Tai Chi and the wisdom of their teachers from the Q'ero of Peru for many years in ways that are at once authentic and modern.

Bon is the indigenous spiritual tradition of Tibet and shares many qualities with other "shamanic" traditions, which is to say, traditions with a deep regard for and connection to nature and to the world's. more than physical nature.

I'll discuss a bit about the tradition, and then we'll focus on the energy body (channels and chakras), exploring practices for clearing the channels and balances the elements and winds of the central channel. I invite you to join me.

Learn more and register here:

Step into one of the world’s oldest spiritual traditions—Yungdrung Bön, the ancient, shamanic lineage of Tibet. Dating back over 3,000 years (and a...

05/01/2025

My latest blog at Tibetanyoga.com is on the difference between Dzogchen and the dzogchenpa, or practitioner. Dzogchen, or the great perfection, is an extraordinary practice, but it is also one in which one must be extremely self-observant. The subtle aspects of ego and mind can so easily cop-opt our practice. The next blog will come back to tsa lung trul khor and how it creates aporias, opening in which we can come to experience naked awareness.
https://www.tibetanyoga.com/blog/102460-dzogchenpa-not-dzogchen

A blog about why we are "Dzogchenpa" and not "Dzogchen," and the risks invovled if we don't recognize the ways in which our ego can overtake our pr...

19/10/2024

I love this image! In keeping with the conversation from my last post about the potential complexities of the subtle body, please see this image of a cow from India. This early 20th c. image shows the many principle chakras of the cow. All the major gods of India are represented as abiding in the cow's sacred body. We are equally complex!

But, when practicing, simplifying can add power if our focus is on either clearing obstacles or enhancing positive qualities. Devotional activity, on the other hand, is often magnified by the intensity and detail of the visualization. And ultimately, all abstractions and maps must fall away as we move into and toward the natural state, where nothing is missing or lacking but we are complete in ourselves.

This is also a funny image. It is rather political if you read the text and observe the Englishman at the bottom demanding more tea!

17/10/2024

The subtle body is, well, subtle! How we visualize it has far less to do than the reality of its shape, forms or colors, but rather the map that guides us to deeper inner experience and truth. Here are a few images that I like, from complex to very simple. In the first, the yoga has deities throughout the body. The second reduces this to the three main channels and the basic colors and shapes of the main chakras. Then Just the channels, then just the chakras. Finally, as Tapihritsa, we are just a body of light!

The important part of how you visualize is consistency. As you deepen your connection, your inner energy body will come forward in your awareness. You will gain more control over how energy moves in you and through you. You will find improvements in you day to day and moment to moment awareness. But, jumping from map to map will lead more to confusion and doubt than clarity. My advice is, choose one, or start simple and expand if the need arises.