Re: [INDOLOGY] prāṇāyāma query

Sun Mar 29 20:28:05 UTC 2020

actually, though, the Tibetan yogic practice of fleet-footedness is called
rkang-mgyogs (pronounced kang-gyok). I am not familar  with the details of the breathing involved,
however. In any case, the technique is associated with the yakSas and hence is often referred to in the literature as gnod-sbyin-rkang-mgyogs, "yakSa fleetfootedness."

I recall that Alexandra David-Neel was particularly fascinated with this, though I do not remember in which of her many works she mentions it. Based on her depictions, it became a constant theme of popular occultist writing on Tibet, e.g. in the books of Lobsang "Tuesday" Rampa.

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études, émérite
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago
________________________________
From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2020 2:33 PM
To: Dean Michael Anderson <eastwestcultural at yahoo.com>
Cc: Indology List <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] prāṇāyāma query

The practice in the Tibetan tradition that Dean referred to is called lung-gom, and a practitioner of it is a lung-gom-pa. If you do a search for these terms you will find what little is known about it. I assume that the Tibetan spelling is rlung sgom, where rlung means prāṇa (or vāyu), and sgom means meditation or contemplation or cultivation (bhāvanā).

Best regards,

David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2020 at 5:21 AM Dean Michael Anderson via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
There is a similar well-known practice in the Tibetan tradition. I'll let our Tibetan experts elaborate.

There is also a well-known interaction going back centuries between Hindu yogis and Tibetan Buddhist yogis - they even revere some of the same adepts, especially in the Nath traditions. Among the actual yogic practitioners, the separation between Hinduism and Buddhism is not always so clear cut (the same is often true with Islamic fakirs and Sikhs as well).

So, I'd say, yes, there are similarities -- among the practitioners many would even go farther and say they are the same. I'm not aware of most of the scholarly literature on the subject. I'd be interested in what others might provide.

Best,

Dean

On Thursday, March 26, 2020, 1:57:01 PM GMT+5:30, patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:

Dear Friends,

there is a particular breath work for cultivating endurance amongst the training manuals of Ninjas and proponents of the syncretic mountain asceticism, known as shugendō, which is called the "mountaineer's breath" (登山家の呼吸, tozan-ka no kokyū). It has an interesting paradiddle-like ratio of inhalation/exhalation that supposedly can extend one's ability to stealthily run across mountains at night, as long as the individual breathed in this complicated way while running... I've recently tried it...I guess, I need more practice.
Some stories say that a high-level ninjutsu-sha could run up to 200kms in a day! These extend into the stories of the "marathon monks" that, as part of their spiritual duty would run a marathon, everyday for days on end. Life without Netflix is unbounded with potential, it seems.

Anyways, the rhythmic pattern for this breath, is:
1 round = 1-inhalation, 2-exhalations, 1-inhalation, 1-exhalation, 2-inhalations, 1-exhalation

I'm wondering if this is similar to any haṭha yogic prāṇāyāma?

I'm not implying any causal link, necessarily. I leave that to others, who, in common parlance across various social media make consonant claims. Interestingly, a re-orientalized and imagined mythical Ninja culture is framed as being able to help reduce stress and tension, make people fitter, run for the train... and generally more able to endure more of life's problems, and, also have a transformative potential related to the twins of transglobal yoga's popularity: 1) accumulate power(s) and 2) achieve moral reformation.

All the best,

パトリック　マッカートニー
Patrick McCartney, PhD
Research Affiliate - Organization for Identity and Cultural Development (OICD), Kyoto
Research Associate - Nanzan University Anthropological Institute, Nagoya, Japan
Visiting Fellow - South and South-east Asian Studies Department, Australian National University
Member - South Asia Research Institute (SARI), Australian National University

Skype / Zoom - psdmccartney
Phone + Whatsapp + Line:  +61410644259
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bodhapūrvam calema ;-)

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