The author has promised to let the reader know a bit about his experience in developing the Tibetan Dumo heat that is so overpowering. Many, including doctors, have asked such questions as whether this practice raises the body temperature. In order to understand the building of the Dumo heat, however, it is probably necessary to throw away modern scientific concepts and view it all from the standpoint of age-old practices. Only in this way will one be able to grasp the significance and possibility of the meditator progressing to a point where the Vital Force flows through the central meridian channel of the body to an extent that the physical mechanism becomes almost impervious to cold. It will be even more difficult to realize that, despite certain physical practices, such a culmination will be largely the result of thought and visualization. The theory may be difficult to grasp; the experience, be assured, is very real.
Actually, it was many years ago in the Himalayan foothills that the author’s interest was first aroused. Living among the holy men, he saw them bathing in the Ganges at 4 a.m. every morning, regardless of the freezing temperature. Monkeys, burros, other animals, even occasional elephants gathered on the narrow banks of the river at that hour and often bathed together. The holy men were included. All was peaceful, unless the roar of a tiger was heard, and then everyone scattered, with the monkeys sometimes fainting!
In spite of the cold, the holy men usually wore only a string around the loins, and few carried towels. Those who have read of Tibetan Yogis melting the snow for many feet around them with the heat of their nude bodies will not be too surprised. There is one test, in Tibetan Yogic practice, where the initiate must dry soaking-wet towels by draping them on his body.
The author saw holy men meditating while lying in water and was told that they were working with the Kundalini force. Because of the tremendous heat generated, they were forced to immerse themselves during practice so that their nervous systems would not be burned out. Such occurrences are not just idle fancy. The power of a mastery of Prana (Chi, Shakti, Kundalini) is so great that the sage, Sri Aurobindo, declared, “With complete mastery of it, one would be able to build another Universe!”
When we are sick, the body automatically generates heat (fever) which serves a very special purpose in purification. However, it is the usual modern practice not to seek the cause, but to take drugs to dissipate the heat so laboriously produced by the body; that is, lower the fever. However, in the secret Nei Kung, in the moving meditations (T’ai Chi Chih and T’ai Chi Ch’uan) and in the circulation of the Dumo heat, intense warmth is deliberately created in the body. This warmth results from the circulation of the Vital Force through the meridian channels, and it is very healing. Even in the laying on of hands and Johrei, the recipient usually notices great heat, and this heat is healing in nature.
One time the author had a student in T’ai Chi Chih, the moving meditation, who was just recovering from an auto accident. His right eye was partly closed by injury to the right side of his head. The very first night of T’ai Chi Chih class, as he began to experience the flow of the Chi, a strong fever developed in the affected side of his face. Gradually the eye began to open. By the seventh lesson (three weeks later) was reached, the eye had returned to normal. He was delighted and asked for an explanation, particularly of the sudden fever that arose as the Chi was flowing. The author explained that the Chi energy flowed freely unless there was blockage, in which case it would turn into intense heat in much the same way that electricity, flowing freely, turns into electric light when it is properly interfered with.
The heat from the flow of the Vital Force, brought on by either mental or physical activity (or both), seems capable of extraordinary healing activity. At a recent teacher accreditation course, one student with a third degree burn on her hand began to develop a pleasing warmth in the sore area, over and above the warmth of the burn itself, and the rapidity of scar-free healing was amazing. There have been numerous such incidents demonstrating the healing effects of this yin Chi, yang Chi practice. The movements and concentration have, as expected, caused heat, and the healing results have been most often observed in cases of chronic illness or injury.
INSTRUCTION
Without comment, the author will recount some of the practices he followed in developing this Dumo heat (Dumo referring to the great channel in the front of the body, known as Tummo).
Each morning, before leaving for work, the author did both his moving meditations and zazen, accompanied by chanting. Returning home in the afternoon, he again did one of the moving meditations, followed by a Hatha Yoga practice known as Uddiyana bandha, in which the Prana is forced from the lower abdomen up the central channel, aided by contraction of the anus and action of the legs. The legs were spread apart, and the trunk of the body was slightly bent over, with the two hands placed backward on the two thighs, hands and fingers spread wide.
This Yoga practice was followed by various breathing exercises: ordinary Pranayama (in which first one and then the other nostril is covered), with progressively longer times in which the breath was held, the Joyous Breath of T’ai Chi Chih, the two Reverse Meditative Breathings, and a mental routing of the Chi through the eight main channels of the body (splitting into two at the belt, going up the outside of the back, down the outer arms and across the key middle finger, up the inside of the arms from the palms). This was usually performed nine times. Certain Taoist practices with the thumbs, some massage, rubbing of the upper and lower lips, and other movements were executed, all designed to raise heat. The final few times the author took the Chi through the eight channels, he began by inhaling through the sex organ and exhaling, mentally casting off all impurities through every cell in the body.
All these were considered preliminary practices. The real work began when the author seated himself in meditation at the open door (no matter how cool the weather) and began his visualizations. The sitting posture was the one used in zazen.
The Tibetans counsel the practitioner to visualize his body as entirely empty, then to mentally see the central channel (the sushumna, red-and-white) and the two outside channels, as in the second of the Reverse Meditative Breathings. The three channels wound downward from the eyes to the spot between the legs.
Then the author rolled saliva around in the mouth (keeping the tongue pressed against the palate) and, along with the breath, swallowed the saliva, taking it sharply down to the tan t’ien below the navel, as the anus was contracted. After a pause, the air (and Chi) was forced up through the central channel in four sections, after first rolling the stomach several times in a circular manner. The air from the contracted anus was forced upward to meet the air and Prana being swallowed in the tan t’ien, where they mixed before the stomach was rotated and the mixture forced up through the central channel.
Sometimes the author varied this last practice by an invention of his own, which he called the Earth-Sky meditation. Here the yang vibration of the sky would be taken in through the head (the way the warm golden light from the waterfall is in the first part of the Great Circle Meditation) and brought down to the space below the navel; the yin vibration of the earth was brought up through the soles of the feet, and the two forces met at the tan t’ien. One can also practice this by lying nude on the earth, in the sunshine, drawing up the yin vibration through the body cells and mixing it with the yang of the sunshine soaking in above. The reader will easily understand the point-in-common with these different versions of the same practice.
Now, sitting with fists on knees, in cross-legged position, the author began his visualizing meditation. Though Tibetan instruction tells us to bring a white dot (the bindu, the essence of the semen) down from the forehead, the author instead pictured a duck’s egg on top of his head, dripping nectar down through the skull as in the first part of the Great Circle Meditation (after rising on the cloud to the base of the waterfall). This nectar was to be brought down to mingle with the fire rising from between the legs, the most important part of the practice.
First the author would mentally take the Chi around the tan t’ien, making a circle nine times; then, having circled counter-clockwise, he would reverse the circle clockwise. When finished, he would visualize a thin tongue of flame (the Tibetans say “brown flame,” but this is not important) between the legs, extending up through the center of the body (not the front or back). Then, with the anus contracting progressively tighter (in vibrating waves), the author would gradually bring this heat up (the tongue of flame lengthening) as the nectar from the duck’s egg came down to meet it at the spot below the navel. Mentally, the author repeated an Indian Mantra with ra as its base, for ra is the sound governing that part of the body and affecting the gastric heat in the lower digestive regions.
As the tongue of flame lengthened and came up to meet the descending nectar, with the author mentally repeating the Mantra and contracting the anus, the flame would grow hotter and expand to the outlying cells of the lower body. Occasionally the author would roll the stomach violently (one must not be full of food while doing these practices), still contracting the anus. At this point perspiration would usually burst forth.
Eventually the brightening flame would engulf all the cells of the body below the heart level. A real heat would be felt, but it was sporadic and would come and go quickly.
COMMENTARY
For about a year, with occasionally a few days respite, these and other practices would be faithfully carried out. Friends wondered why the author was never available for dinner invitations; his financial associates of the mornings did not suspect his double life.
Each Thursday the author attended a zazen session at the apartment of a dedicated Zen woman. At the start of the session one very cool winter Thursday evening, the author threw himself into his own practices with great energy. Soon the room began to turn warm; the author wondered if the heat had been turned on. Little by little, as joyous energy started to flood his body, he began to feel as if he was literally burning up. At the finish of the sitting, before tea was served, the author blurted out some explanation to his astonished hostess and quickly left. Arriving home, he sat on an upright chair, feeling as though all the faucets inside him had been turned on. After resting quietly for a long time, just feeling the incredible flow, he opened the windows wide (the temperature was in the 30’s) and went to bed, using just a light cover. Soon even this was too much and, lying nude under just a sheet, the author gave himself up to the joyous flows that were tumbling through his body. Burning in temperature and wide-awake from the energy, he found sleep to be impossible. Eight hours passed in this manner. The author was afraid he would be too tired to work the next day; actually, in the morning, he was flooded with energy.
What is strange is that during this time of the cascading energy, there were no psychic experiences, no visions such as he had seen at other times. There was just the joyous coursing of energy through the channels of the body, arousing heat that seemed to make one oblivious of the cold and to leave one in a euphoric condition.
The following morning, the author had to make a decision as to whether he would pay the price to continue the amazing flow (which would have made work almost impossible) or to let the energy gradually subside and, having achieved the goal briefly, not to continue the practice. The author decided on the latter course of action, confident in his ability to recapture the great flow if he decided to devote himself to it again in the future. It must be remembered that the Yogis in the Himalayas devote all their time to their practices; they do not work for a living.
Such experiments are not recommended for meditators who carry responsibilities in the modern world. Yet there is much to be learned from such experiences, and the author feels they carry the germ of great healing practices.
CLOSING COMMENTARY
In Tibetan Tantra and Chinese Taoism there is a method of recycling the sex energy. It is known as the Backward Flowing Method, and it develops a powerful healing force. The author first discovered this for himself during one of his difficult periods while practicing the Dumo heat meditation. It must be remembered that he was working every day in financial circles from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., then living the isolated life of a Yogi until almost midnight. There came a time when, beset by intermittent internal bleeding and weak from other adverse effects, his energy dropped to a level where he could barely drag himself around. At the lowest point, as though remembering something, he walked to his meditation cushion and, seating himself in zazen fashion, began to indulge in the most sensual sexual thoughts possible. This gradually brought a physical excitation, and then, eyes closed and back held straight, he took this energy from below the navel, through the legs, and up to the top of the head (as in the Great Circle Meditation, part of the Reverse Meditative Breaths). Within fifteen minutes he felt an incredible change. The sex energy was turned into a healing force, and all the fatigue and weakness of the body “magically” disappeared. This is a great secret of healing, and one that will probably be scoffed at by unthinking doubters.
One time the author instructed a young financial counselor (over the phone) in this technique. The young man was recovering from a severe case of flu, he said, and seemed unable to regain his strength. Many have had this same experience in the aftermath of illness.
Following the author’s telephone directions, using the transmuted sex energy, he was able to affect a complete recovery by the following day. In such instances a strong internal heat is generated, and that heat is certainly revivifying.
It is not advised that the average person attempt to raise this Dumo heat unless he is willing to reduce his food intake and to allow little of an extraneous nature to enter his thoughts. We must understand the meaning of the reciprocal nature of Mind and Prana (thought and energy), and also know the principles of movement that engender the flow, balancing the Chi, in order to use such methods. For the ordinary person, the moving meditations and the Nei Kung are relatively easy ways to get such results. The extraordinary person, interested in more dramatic healing effects, may be intrigued by the author’s experiences related above.
∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞
Note: It must be emphasized that the author had no teacher, no guru, on this adventure. Consequently, there may be many flaws in the methods he used, which were derived from Yogis he had met and from his reading.
One Yogi, who in particular impressed him, followed Tibetan practices that were extreme, and he had written a book about them, which nobody seemed to want. This Yogi showed the author a sequence of twenty pictures taken by an automatic camera set-up over a period of three hours while the Yogi was in deep Samadhi. By the tenth frame, light was beginning to issue from his body. From the fifteenth picture on, the body had disappeared; there was just an intense white light with no sign of any form!
Skeptical, the author asked Professor Wen-Shan Huang whether such photos could be faked. The good professor shook his head, adding that a similar incident had happened when a great T’ai Chi Ch’uan master had been photographed in Taiwan while demonstrating that moving meditation. When the pictures were developed, a light bluish stream of light was seen to be coming from the spot below the navel. The author has had similar experiences in connection with T’ai Chi, though not as startling.
Perhaps, one day, use of the Vital Force, and the related sex energy, will be truly understood and everybody will be capable of using them for healing benefits.
