Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche

Yantra Yoga, Discovering our Real Condition

(Excerpted from a talk on Yantra Yoga given by Rinpoche in New Delhi India on November 23, 1993*)

I would like to give a little information about Yantra Yoga, a Tibetan tradition. The word Yantra is a Sanskrit word, but in Tibetan has different meanings. Yantra can mean geometrical form, like a mandala, or it can mean movement of the body. In Tibetan we say trulkhor, which means movement. We use movement to coordinate or guide our prana, or vital energy.
The Yantra Yoga that I teach is called Nyida Khajor. In Tibetan nyida means sun and moon and khajor means union. That is the title of the original teaching taught by Vairocana, who was one of the most important students of Guru Padmasambhava and a great translator.
Vairocana received the transmission of this Yantra Yoga teaching from Guru Padmasambhava, who received it from a great Mahasiddha called Humkara. This is the lineage of this teaching and then it was transmitted from Vairocana to Yudra Nyingpo and various other masters.
Besides this text there is an oral transmission of Yantra Yoga. It is very difficult to understand Yantra Yoga only by reading the original text and not having a teacher. Practitioners of Dzogchen have applied these methods for centuries. I learned them principally from one of my uncles who was a yogi and an excellent practitioner of Yantra.
In the practice of Yantra Yoga we use our body, voice and mind. With the body we do positions and movements, with the voice there are many techniques of pranayamas or breathing practices and with the mind there are many ways to concentrate and visualize. The aim is to go beyond judging and thinking with our mind and we call this contemplation. When we apply all these three aspects together, we have the possibility to arrive at our real knowledge or the understanding of our primordial state, our original condition. That is the real meaning of 'yoga' in Yantra Yoga.

*From The Mirror, the international newspaper of the Dzogchen Community of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, issue 28, Sept/Oct 1994.
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