Tummo

Tummo (Tibetan: gtum-mo; Sanskrit: cal ) is a form

of breathing, found in the Six Yogas of Naropa, Lamdre,
Kalachakra and Anuyoga teachings of Tibetan Vajrayana.
Tummo originally derives from Indian Vajrayana tradition, including the instruction of the Mahasiddha Krishnacarya and the Hevajra Tantra. The purpose of tummo is
to gain control over body processes during the completion
stage of 'highest yoga tantra' (Anuttarayoga Tantra) or
Anuyoga.

to longevity. Ojas itself has two stores within the body

the heart and brain.[5] Thus there is the visualization of
blazing and dripping.[5] When the vyu moves very little,
that is considered subtle mind. This is because the mind
is inexorably linked to the winds, or even considered synonymous with the winds. Sutrayana has no comparable
methods to reduce the movement of vyu to a signicant
extent.

3 Kundalini and tummo

1

Nomenclature, orthography and

etymology

Miranda Shaw claries:

Kualin-yoga oered a range of techniques to harness the powerful psycho-physical
energy coursing through the body... Most people simply allow the energy to churn in a cauldron of chaotic thoughts and emotions or dissipate the energy in a supercial pursuit of pleasure, but a yogi or yogini consciously accumulates and then directs it for specied purposes. This energy generates warmth as it accumulates and becomes an inner re or inner
heat (candl ) that [potentially] burns away the
dross of ignorance and ego-clinging.[6]

Tummo (gTum mo in Wylie transliteration, also spelled

Tumo, or Tum-mo; Sanskrit cal ) is a Tibetan word,
literally meaning erce [woman]. Tummo is a Tibetan
word for inner re.[1]

1.1

Orthography

Tummo may also be rendered in English approximating

its phonemic enunciation as 'Dumo'.[2]

Practice

Numerous non-buddhist tantras of the Shakta and Shaiva

traditions (generally termed Hindu by westerners) speak
The channels do not exist in the way they are visualized of Kundalini, which is generally described as a coiled en[7][8][9]
at the rst chakra.
during Vajrayana practice. For example, during a deity ergy at the base of the spine,
visualization, the physical human body is visualized as
completely hollow, made of light and has no internal organs. Furthermore dierent systems have dierent visu- 4 Overview
alizations. In actuality, the center channel (dbu ma or
avadhuti) is the whole arterial system, or more speci- Kurt Keutzer (2002) discusses the Kundalini yoga,
cally the aorta.[3] The two side channels are the venous Vajrayana, Nath Sampradaya, Mahasiddha and Milarepa:
system (roma or rasan) and the spinal column and nervous system (rkyang ma or lalan).[4] A chakra is any
Kundalini yoga in the Natha Sampradaya
place in the body where there are clusters of arteries,
and Vajrayana in Tibetan Buddhism both take
veins and nerves.
their origin from the Mahasiddhas who were
After familiarity in trul khor, there is the practice of
tummo. In the practice of tummo, the visualization of
lower ends to the three channels is primarily used to focus body awareness in the subnavel area.[5] Breath retention, mulabandha and uddiyana bandha force vyu (wind,
air) and ojas into the arterial system.[5] The heart rate
slows, the karmic winds suspend and the venous blood
returns less impurities into the blood stream. This leads

active in India from the 8th century to the 12th

century. Kundalini yoga practices formed the
core of the teachings of a number of these Mahasiddhas and are strongly represented in both
Tibetan Buddhist practices and contemporary
kundalini yoga practices. Kundalini yoga was
spoken of as Candali yoga by these Mahasiddhas and became known as gTummo rnal 'byor
1

7
in Tibet. Candali yoga was a key practice of the
famous Tibetan yogin Milarepa.[10]

Modern western witnesses of this practice include the

adventurer Alexandra David-Nel (David-Nel, 1971),
Lama Anagarika Govinda (Govinda, 1988), and anthropologist Dr. John Crook. Dr Arya (2006) in discussing
the winds (Tibetan: rLung) states that historically: The
rLung practitioner (yogi) uses special colors of clothes to
improve the power of the Tummo re.[11]
Dr Arya (2006) also states:
The psychic heat Drod is produced by
the space particles and the heat manifested
from the friction of the wind element. This
is another fundamental element as it supports
and gives power to the consciousness, like the
power of the re that can launch rockets to
space. The power is called medrod or 'digestion re' in medicine and Tummo in yoga
tantra. The heat (re) sustains life and protects
the body/mind. The psychic re increases the
wisdom, burns the ignorant mind of the brain
and gives realization and liberation from the
darkness of unawareness. That is why yoga describes Tummo as the aggressive re which ignites from below navel, pierces the chakras one
by one and reaches the sky of the crown chakra.
The tummo burning arrow married with the
celestial bride leads to enjoy the life of transformation of samsara. They give birth to the
son of awareness from the blissful garden of
Vajrayogini.[11]

4.1

Scientic investigation

REFERENCES

6 Notes
[1] Yeshe, Lama Thubten (1998). The Bliss of Inner Fire:
Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa. Boston: Wisdom Publications. p. 22. ISBN 0-86171-136-X.
[2] Chang, G.C.C. (1993). Tibetan Yoga. New Jersey: Carol
Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8065-1453-1, p.7
[3] Gyatso, Janet (2004). The Authority of Empiricism and
the Empiricism of Authority: Medicine and Buddhism in
Tibet on the Eve of Modernity. Comparative Studies of
South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24 (2).
[4] Gyatso, Janet (2004). The Authority of Empiricism and
the Empiricism of Authority: Medicine and Buddhism in
Tibet on the Eve of Modernity. Comparative Studies of
South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 24 (2).
[5] Lama Yeshe. The Bliss of Inner Fire. Wisdom Publications. 1998, pg.135-141.
[6] Shaw, Miranda (1995).
Passionate Enlightenment::Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton University
Press. p. 31. ISBN 0-691-01090-0.
[7] Flood, Gavin. An Introduction to Hinduism. (Cambridge
University Press: Cambridge, 1996). ISBN 0-521-438780), p. 99.
[8] Harper, Katherine Anne; Brown, Robert L. (2002). The
Roots of Tantra. Albany, New York: State University of
New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-5306-5., p. 94
[9] McDaniel, June (2004). Oering Flowers, Feeding Skulls
Popular Goddess Worship in West Bengal. Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 0-19-516790-2.
[10] Keutzer, Kurt. kundalini-faq Kundalini: Frequently
Asked Questions and Selected References. Retrieved
2007-12-27.
[11] Arya, Pasang Yonten (2009). Tibetan Tantric Yoga.
Source: (accessed: January 8, 2012)

A 1982 study[12] of the physiological eects of Tummo [12] Benson, Herbert (1982). Body temperature changes during the practice of g Tum-mo yoga. Nature 295 (5846):
has been made by Benson and colleagues, who studied
234235.
doi:10.1038/295234a0. PMID 7035966.
Indo-Tibetan Yogis in the Himalayas and in India in the
1980s. Conducted in Upper Dharamsala in India, it found [13] Cromie, William. Meditation changes temperatures:
that the subjects, three monks, exhibited the capacity
Mind controls body in extreme experiments, Harvard
to increase the temperature of their ngers and toes by
Gazette, 2002-04-18. Retrieved on 2013-04-13.
as much as 8.3 C. In a 2002 experiment reported by
the Harvard Gazette,[13] conducted in Normandy, France, [14] Kozhevnikov, Elliot (2013). Neurocognitive and Somatic Components of Temperature Increases during gtwo monks from the Buddhist tradition wore sensors that
Tummo Meditation: Legend and Reality. PLOS ONE.
recorded changes in heat production and metabolism. A
2013 study[14] by Kozhevnikov and colleagues showed increases in core body temperature in both expert medita7 References
tors from eastern Tibet and Western non-meditators.

See also
Chakra
Kundalini energy

David-Neel, Alexandra (1971) Magic and Mystery

in Tibet. Dover Publications
Ding-E Young, John and Taylor, Eugene (1998)
Meditation as a Voluntary Hypometabolic State of
Biological Estivation . News in Physiological Sciences, Vol. 13, No. 3, 149-153, June 1998

3
Evans-Wentz, W. Y. Editor (2000) Tibets Great
Yogi Milarepa: A Biography from the Tibetan being the Jetsn-Kabbum or Biographical History of
Jetsn-Milarepa, According to the Late Lama Kazi
Dawa-Samdups English Rendering. USA:Oxford
University Press
Govinda, Lama Anagarika (1988) Way Of White
Clouds. Shambhala Publications
Mullin, Glen H. (2006) The Practice of the Six Yogas
of Naropa, Snow Lion Publications.
Mullin, Glen H. (2005) The Six Yogas of Naropa:
Tsongkhapas Commentary, Snow Lion Publications.
Turner, Robert P.; Luko, David; Barnhouse, Ruth
Tiany & Lu, Francis G. (1995) Religious or Spiritual Problem. A Culturally Sensitive Diagnostic
Category in the DSM-IV. Journal of Nervous and
Mental Disease,Vol.183, No. 7 435-444
Yeshe, Lama Thubten (1995) The Bliss of Inner
Fire: Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa, Wisdom Publications.

Further reading
Mullin, Glen H. (2006) The Practice of the Six Yogas
of Naropa, Snow Lion Publications.
Mullin, Glen H. (2005) The Six Yogas of Naropa:
Tsongkhapas Commentary, Snow Lion Publications.
Yeshe, Lama Thubten (1995) The Bliss of Inner
Fire: Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa, Wisdom Publications.

External links
Harvard University Gazette - Meditation Changes
Temperature
Chapter 5: The Art of Gtum-Mo or Heat Yoga,
Esoteric Teachings of the Tibetan Tantra, by C.A.
Muss, (1961), at sacred-texts.com
Literature from the Tibetan Tradition Relevant to
Six Yogas of Naropa Practitioners - An Annotated
Bibliography and Selected Excerpts

10

10
10.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Tummo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo?oldid=648933930 Contributors: Shantavira, Alan Liefting, Kelson, Sysy, Jiy,
Horkana, Dbachmann, CanisRufus, Mairi, Hawol, Hanuman Das, Wiki-uk, Sfacets, Netkinetic, Shreevatsa, Pkuczynski, Tabletop,
Dbutler1986, Rjwilmsi, TheRingess, FlaBot, Rudyh01, ENeville, Dforest, Ninly, RDF, SmackBot, Roberto Cruz, Bluebot, Csbodine,
Frap, Tummo1, Tdudkowski, WkpdTed, CmdrObot, Hakluyt bean, Cydebot, Ekabhishek, MastCell, Boob, B9 hummingbird hovering, Adavidb, Abidagus, VolkovBot, Davin, Orjanlothe, Its Evans-Wentz, Vanished user ojwejuerijaksk344d, Leushenko, Dakinijones,
Mild Bill Hiccup, William Ortiz, Jmj5g, Simon D M, Addbot, Tassedethe, OlEnglish, Yobot, K2709, AnomieBOT, Jim1138, Citation
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Anonymous: 64

10.2

Images

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10.3

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