One’s Own Body of Pure Channels and Elements: The Teaching and Practice of Tibetan Yoga at Namdroling

The Tibetan yoga practice known as “winds, channels, and inner heat” (rtsa rlung gtum mo) isphysically challenging, and yet is intentionally designed to transform the mind. This chapter exploresthe relationship between Buddhist doctrine and this physical practice aimed at enlightenmentthrough the teachings of a contemporary yoga master at Namdroling Tibetan Buddhist Monasteryand Nunnery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, South India. This ethnographic profile exemplifies therole of a modern Tibetan lama who teaches a postural yoga practice and interprets the text andtechniques for practitioners. While many modern postural yoga systems are divorced from religiousdoctrine, Tibetan Buddhist yoga is not. This essay highlights three key areas of Buddhist doctrinesupport the practice of Sky Dharma (gNam chos) yoga at Namdroling: (1) The history and legacy thataccompany the practice, which identify the deity of Tibetan yoga as a wrathful form of Avalokites´vara,the Buddha of compassion; (2) The role of deity yoga in the practice of Tibetan yoga, where thepractitioner arises as the deity during yoga practice, an all-consuming inner contemplation; and(3) The framing of Tibetan yoga within the wider philosophy of karma theory and its relationship toBuddhist cosmology. Practitioners of Tibetan yoga endeavor to burn up karmic seeds that fuel the¯cycle of rebirth in the six realms of samsara. In Tibetan yoga, the body acts in service of the text, the.ꢀꢁꢂꢀꢃꢄꢅꢆꢇphilosophy, and the mind to increasingly link the logic of texts to experience in meaningful ways