SeanFeitOakes.com | 2017

Intro to the History of Yoga: Philosophy, Practice, Transformation with Dr. Sean Feit Oakes

Class 7. Haṭha Yoga: Breath, sex, & power

Haṭha (lit. “Forceful”) Yoga (HY) evolved from Tantra, emphasizing wind/energy (vāyu/prāṇā), mudrā, and the sublimation of sexual energy, in order to awaken the goddess called kuṇḍalinī (“the Coiled One”) in the body. One text, the Yogabīja, gives an esoteric definition of “Haṭha” as Sun (ha)-Moon (ṭha) that has become popular.

Although the literal definition is “Forceful,” HY texts recommend caution and gentle effort in the practice:

...just as the lion, elephant, and tiger should be tamed very gradually, just so (should) the breath be cultivated; otherwise it kills the Yogin. (Haṭhapradīpikā 2.15)

The practice must only be carried out gradually, not all at once. The body of him who tries to do it all at once is destroyed. For this reason the practice is to be carried out very gradually… (Khecarīvidyā 1.54-55)

Important early texts include the Amṛtasiddhi (11th c), Vivekamārtaṇḍa (10th c), and Goraksạśataka (10th c).

The first to teach a systematic HY method is the Dattātreyayogaśāstra (13th c), which includes the 10 mudrā of HY: mahāmudrā, mahābandha, khecarīmudrā, the 3 bandhas (jālandharabandha, uḍḍiyāṇabandha, and mūlabandha), viparītakaraṇī, vajrolī, amarolī, and sahajolī.1

Later texts, which quote the earlier ones, include the Haṭhapradīpikā/Haṭhayogapradīpikā (1450 CE) (HYP), which became the standard core text for “Classical Haṭha Yoga.” The HYP describes a set of practices that combines aspects of Patañjali’s Aṣṭāṅga with Haṭha and Laya Yoga (Dissolving) methods from earlier HY texts:

yama (10 Outer Disciplines) niyama (10 Inner Disciplines) āsana (15 Postures) ṣatkarma (“Six [Cleansing] Actions”, but the text lists 8) prāṇāyāma (Breath Discipline) kumbhaka (8 Breath Methods + 2 types of retention) mudrā (10 Energetic Gestures, including the bandha: 3 Bonds/Locks) kuṇḍalinī (The Coiled [Goddess]) samādhi (Unification of Mind) nāda (Meditation on the Subtle/Inner Sound—a Laya method)

The HYP ends with the claim that haṭha yoga and laya yoga lead to rāja yoga, which is samādhi, and that samādhi is mukti (Liberation).

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Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: disciplines

Though many HY texts do not emphasize ethical action as a basis for yoga, one version of the HYP contains lists of 10 yama and 10 niyama which are standard in many post-Patañjali systems:

10 yama (Outer Disciplines)!!10 niyama (Inner Disciplines) ahimsā (non-harming)!!tapas (austerity/heat) satya (truth)!!santoṣa (contentment) asteya (non-stealing)!!āstikya (faith) brahmacarya (continence)!!dāna (generosity) kśamā (forgiveness)!!iśvara-pujana (worship) dhṛtiḥ (endurance)!!siddhānta-vākya-śravaṇa (study) dayā (compassion)!!hrī (remorse at wrongdoing) arjava (humility)!!matī (intellect) mitahāra (moderate diet)!!japa (mantra repetition) śauca (cleanliness)!!hutam/yajña (sacrifice)

Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: āsana

15 āsana (Postures) svastikāsana (ankles crossed) paschimottanāsana (“west side”) gomukhāsana (cow face) mayūrāsana (peacock) vīrāsana (hero) śavāsana (corpse) kūrmāsana (tortoise) siddhāsana (Siddha’s)/vajrāsana/muktāsana/guptāsana kukkutāsana (rooster) padmāsana (lotus) uttānakūrmāsana (reclining tortoise) siṃhāsana (lion) dhanurāsana (bow) bhadrāsana (gracious)/gorakśāsana matsyendrāsana (Matsyendra’s pose)

Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: ṣatkarma (“6 Actions”) dhauti (internal cleansing) In addition to the standard 6, the HYP includes: basti (enema) neti (nasal cleansing) nāḍi śodhana (channel cleansing) trataka (steady gazing) gaja karani (vomiting) nauli (abdominal churning) kapālabhati (skull shining)

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Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: prāṇāyāma

The central HY practice is the lengthening and holding of the breath, which is said variously to awaken kuṇḍalinī, preserve bindu (semen) in the head, and lift bindu to the head. The HYP uses the term kumbhaka (Retention/Pot) for the standard modern prāṇāyāma (Breath Cultivation), as well as the types of Retention.

8 Kumbhaka (Retentions) surya bheda (sun-piercing) (IN R, hold, long EX L) ujjayi (victorious) sītkari (hissing) śītalī (cooling) bhastrikā (bellows) (pierces 3 granthi (Knots)) brahmāri (bee) mūrccha (swooning) plāvinī (gulping) sahita kumbhaka (breath retention) kevala kumbhaka (spontaneous retention)

Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: mudrā & bandha

The mechanism by which breath (prāna) is cultivated to the point of awakening kuṇḍalinī is the esoteric gestural language of mudrā, which includes the 3 familiar bandha. Mudrā aims to control male ejaculation in order to draw the suble energy of semen, called bindu (Drop) into the Central Column (suśumna).

10 Mudrā (Gestures) mahā mudrā (great seal) śambhāvi mudrā (midbrow gaze) mahā vedha mudrā (great piercing seal) [added to the original 10 mudrā] khecarī mudrā (space walking seal)

mahā bandha (great bond: the 3 bandha) uddiyāna bandha (upward flying bond) mūla bandha (root bond), forces kuṇḍalinī into brahma nāḍi jālandhara bandha (throat bond) viparīta karanī mudrā (inversion) vajrolī mudrā (bindu retention/sublimation [men]) sahajoli mudrā (rajas retention/sublimation [women]) amarolī mudrā (drinking urine)

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Sexual Energy in Classical Haṭha Yoga

The early HY texts teach a method to preserve bindu (lit. Drop, referring to semen) and draw it upward through the Central Column (suśumna) to the head.

The ancient tradition of the ūrdhvaretās tapasvī (the ascetic whose seed is [turned] upwards), which is closely associated with the practice of yoga in texts such as the Mahābhārata, is likely to be the source of early Haṭha Yoga, in which the preservation of bindu is paramount.2

An 11th century commentary on the Buddhist Kālacakra Tantra describes the seminal retention practice:

In this system [Haṭha Yoga], when the the undying moment does not arise because the breath is unrestrained [even] when the image is seen by means of withdrawal (pratyāhāra) and the other [Limbs of Yoga], then, having forcefully (haṭhena) made the breath flow in the central channel through the practice of nāda, which is about to be explained, [the yogi] should attain the undying moment by restraining the bindu of the bodhicitta [i.e.~semen] in the vajra [i.e.~penis] when it is in the lotus of wisdom [i.e.~vagina].3

By the time the HYP is compiled, the practice of restraining bindu has become central to HY, and the purpose of mudrā and bandha. It is the esoteric/alchemical corollary to the practice of brahmacarya (Celibacy/Continence), transmuting semen, or for women, rajas (Menstrual Fluid) into subtle life force energy.

Vajrolī mudrā (Seminal Retention or Sublimation)

Vajrolī mudrā describes the practice of using nauli to draw fluids up the urethra (held open by inserting a catheter in to the bladder) in order to recover semen accidentally lost during [ritual] sexual intercourse. The texts suggest that this is how a yogi can break Classical discipline (yama) (be un-celibate) and still keep them (be continent) — by either drawing in his accidental ejaculate, or learning to not ejaculate at all.

The Dattātreyayogaśāstra follows its teachings on vajrolī by saying that it is the only way to bring about rājayoga, and the Haṭharatnāvalī says that one becomes a rājayogī through control of semen. The implication of the name rājayoga here is that one can live like a king, indulging oneself in sensory pleasures, yet still be a yogi, i.e. one need not renounce the world and become an ascetic.4

Echoing the “union” of masculine and feminine energies celebrated in much Tantra, the early Amṛtasiddhi discusses simply the joining of the two sexual fluids.

Semen is made of [the substance of] the moon and menstrual blood, of the sun. Simply from the union of the two, the highest state arises.5

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Practices in the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā: samādhi and kuṇḍalinī

As described in the HYP, raising kuṇḍalinī through suśumna nāḍi (the central channel) to brahmarandhra (above the crown center) leads to an experience of śunya (emptiness/void), or laya (dissolution).

Grip her tail and wake the sleeping serpent. The shakti stirs and surges upwards. Inhale through the sun. Grip using paridhana. Make the still serpent below move every day for an hour and a half, morning and evening. The kanda [Bulb] is said to be twelve fingers above the anus, four fingers wide, soft, white, and like a folded cloth. Hold the feet firmly near the ankles with the hands while in Vajrasana and press the kanda. After making the kundalini move, the yogi should stay in Vajrasana and immediately do Bhastrika to quickly awaken the kundalini.6

3 Meditation (samādhi) Foci

śambhāvi mudrā (midbrow gaze, “seal of Śambho/Śiva”) nasikagra dṛṣti (nose-tip gaze), till jyoti (subtle light) appears khecarī mudrā (turning back the tongue (or awareness, in earlier models), said to be the doorway to laya)

As practice matures, turya (“the fourth” state, after waking, dreaming, & deep sleep) arises, and the body fills with amṛta (nectar). Then the awakening process unfolds:

The laya of the yogis—inhalation and exhalation ceased, grasping of objects destroyed, inactive, unchanging—is supreme. … They say “laya, laya.” What is the nature of laya? Laya is forgetting objects because vasanas [desires associated with imagination] don’t recur. … The breath, staying in the left and right nadis, goes into the middle. The Khecarimudra lives in that place, without a doubt. … Shiva’s place is between the brows. There the mind dissolves. That state is known as turya. There, time is not. … The breath of one practicing this way day and night in the path of breath is dissolved. Then the mind also dissolves. Drench the body with nectar from the head to the soles of the feet. One will definitely get a great body, and great strength and heroism. Center the mind in the shakti and the shakti in the mind. Observe the mind with the mind, then concentrate on the highest state. Center the self in space and space in the self. Make everything space, then don’t think of anything.

… The entire universe is just a creation of thought. The play of the mind is just a creation of thought. Abandon the mind which is only thought. Take refuge in the changeless, O Rama and surely find peace. As camphor in fire, like salt in water, so the mind immersed in Reality dissolves. The knowable, the known, and knowledge—all are said to be the mind. When knowledge and the knowable are lost, there is no [duality]. All this, whether mobile or immobile, is a presentation of the mind. Duality is not obtained from the mind’s state of unmani. The mind dissolves from abandoning knowable things. After the mind is dissolved, kaivalya remains. Thus are the paths to samadhi, consisting of the various sorts of methods told by the great, ancient teachers following their own correct experience. Salutations to you, Sushumna, kundalini, nectar born of the moon, manonmani, great power in the form of consciousness.7

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Esoteric Anatomy in Haṭha Yoga8

5 prāna/vāyu (Winds) body area movement practice

1 - prāna upper torso up, exhale jālandhara-bandha (press down)

2 - apāna lower torso down, inhale mūla-bandha (draw up)

3 - samāna abdomen balancing, digestion uddīyāna-bandha, agnisāra, nauli, bhastrika

4 - udāna limbs up, circulating śakti-calana (circulating, inner orbit)

5 - vyāna whole body pervading, radiating effortless prāṇāyāma, whole body breath

3 nāḍi (Channels) translation physiology associations river action

1 - ida “comfort” left side moon, feminine, apāna Ganga contraction, cooling

2 - piṅgala “tawny” right side sun, masculine, prāṇa Yamuna expansion, heating

3 - suśumna “most gracious” center ascent of kuṇḍalinī, udāna Saraswati rising, stillness

7 cakra (Wheels) location lotus petals element shape color bīja mantra

7 – sahasrāra above crown 1000

6 – ajñā center of head 2

5 – viṣuddhi throat 16 space (ākāśa) circle blackish haṃ

4 – anāhata heart 12 wind (vāyu) hexagon grey-blue yaṃ

3 – manipura belly/solar plexus 10 fire (agni) inv. triangle red raṃ

2 – svādhisthāna pelvic center 6 water (āpaḥ) crescent white vaṃ

1 – mūlādhāra perineum 4 earth (prthvī) square yellow laṃ

3 granṭhi (Knots) cakra location

3 - rudra-granthi ajña head/wisdom eye

2 - viṣṇu-granthi anāhata heart center

1 - brahma-granthi mūlādhāra root/pelvis

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Bibliography

Akers, Brian Dana. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Woodstock: Yoga Vidya, 2002.

Birch, Jason. "The Meaning of Hatha in Early Hathayoga." Journal of the American Oriental Society 131, no. 4 (2011).

Mallinson, James. "Hatha Yoga." In Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, Helene Basu, Angelika Malinar and Vasudha Narayanan. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

———. "Yoga and Sex: What Is the Purpose of VajrolīMudrā?" In Yoga in Transformation. Vienna, 2013.

Mallinson, James, and Mark Singleton. Roots of Yoga. NY: Penguin, 2016.

Notes 1 Much of this history is drawn from James Mallinson, "Hatha Yoga," in Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism, ed. Knut A. Jacobsen, et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 771. See also James Mallinson and Mark Singleton, Roots of Yoga (NY: Penguin, 2016).

2 Mallinson, "Hatha Yoga," 779.

3 From the Vimalaprabhā, Puṇḍarīka’s 11th c. commentary on the Kālacakratantra. 4.119, Jim Mallinson, unpublished. Used with permission of author.

4 "Yoga and Sex: What Is the Purpose of VajrolīMudrā?," in Yoga in Transformation (Vienna2013), 9.

5 Jason Birch, "The Meaning of Hatha in Early Hathayoga," Journal of the American Oriental Society 131, no. 4 (2011): 537.

6 HYP 3.111-115 in Brian Dana Akers, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika (Woodstock: Yoga Vidya, 2002), 79-80.

7 HYP 4.31-64 in Ibid., 91-100.

8 Some modern systems use the 7 colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV) for the cakras, and associate psychological qualities (grounding, creativity, will, love, communication, wisdom, union) with them, but these may be Western inventions, even though they resonate well with some of the traditional concepts and may be very useful for contemporary practitioners.

A more traditional system from Śaiva Tantra called tattva śuddhi (Purification of the Elements) uses the set of 5 Elements, with colors, shapes, and seed syllables that correspond. Tantric cakra systems in both Śaiva and Buddhist lineages often use a set of 5 cakra instead of 7, with the root and pelvic cakra combined into one, and the top cakra in the head rather than above the crown. There are many other cakra systems, with other numbers and descriptions of cakra.

In general, the common Western idea of yogic subtle anatomy is that these structures — nāḍi, cakra, granṭhi — describe always already existing features of the subtle body: we think there is a cakra there in the body to tune in to. Historically, it may be more accurate to think of the subtle body descriptions as instructions for visualization and esoteric embodiment. One would “install” a certain deity in certain places in the body using mantra and imagination. This practice is still central in some Tantric systems but is not taught in most globalized yoga lineages.

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