Inner Healing through Tibetan Yoga @ Nyingma

By Gena Fawns

This summer I traveled to the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley from my home in Australia. I came with seven friends who practice yoga together regularly to attend a two-week Tibetan Yoga retreat. We were hoping to deepen our yoga practice and take the opportunity for personal healing and rejuvenation.

	NYINGMA INSTITUTE'S YOGA: Tibetan Yoga practices taught at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute blend slow movement with meditative awareness, grounding participants in a deep process of healing and renewal. The photograph above was taken during a Tibetan Yoga retreat session.

I found in Tibetan Yoga (Kum Nye) a wonderful vehicle for getting in touch with inner life and cultivating positive states of being. The practice used breath and awareness to show me how to go within and enliven what is stagnant, release what is negative, and increase what is truly healing.

Once I was connected with my inner experience, the gentle rhythm of the Tibetan Yoga practices merging with my own breath and movement seemed to melt blockages away and fill me with nurturing, positive energy. It was easier than I thought it would be to do this – it happened by slowing down, tuning in with the breath, and taking awareness into the body.

The slow pace of the movement practices helped me sense the energy inside my body. Deep, easy breathing through both nose and mouth mobilized this energy and helped it flow around the body. In order for this to happen, I had to be prepared to feel the sensations which arose, whether these were warmth, pleasure, cold, tingling, tension, pain, or some emotional state. This was daunting at first, but the more I allowed the sensations to flow, the more I found them transforming into energy itself, with no need for a label.

The approach taken was one of gentle kindness toward oneself. This was especially important when dealing with areas of chronic pain or tension, as only with patience did they begin to open up. As old tensions eased, an expanded state of relaxation emerged that I can best describe as a pervasive feeling of joy. The pace at which this occurred varied daily, as I found the right way for my own body to move, breathe, and rest.

The practices naturally led me to drop below the level of thinking into a more open awareness. This was particularly valuable for someone like me who has a busy mind. Over the two weeks I was on retreat, I discovered greater compassion for myself and other people, along with greater acceptance of things as they are. Rather than trying to impose these qualities, I found them arising spontaneously out of the deeper states of being I was experiencing.

During the retreat, we worked with expanding and enlivening all five senses (as well as the sixth sense - mind), and discovered greater depth within sound, sight, feeling, and taste. Sometimes we practiced outdoors in the Nyingma meditation garden with its roses, trees, and squirrels or on the deck overlooking the San Francisco Bay, basking in its beauty.

I learned that as the pathway connecting the breath to the deeper levels of the body becomes established, it becomes easier to use the process of nose-and-mouth breathing to bring nourishing energy into the body. This strengthening base of inner peace promoted the capacity to experience deeper meditative states. My body-mind truly felt more integrated, deepening a spacious sense of ease and joy.

It was clear that Tibetan Yoga requires perseverance and commitment and I was glad that I could immerse myself in its practice at the Nyingma Institute. I found the practices adaptable to whatever state of mind, body, or life circumstance happened to be going on at the moment. It is a wonderful tool for healing and for exploring one's inner world.

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