The Tibetan Yoga of Breath: Breathing Practices for Healing the Body and Cultivating Wisdom (6 page)

Riding the Wind Energy of the Neurotic Mind

In philosophical terms, Tibetan scriptures refer to neurotic mind as the impure or afflicted mind. But within the context of wind energy, neurotic mind is not just caused by self-attachment. The mind is also propelled by the movement of wind energy. The Tibetan language describes this relationship between the wind and the mind as the
wind-mind
(Tib. rlung sems). This compound word describes the wind energy and the conceptual mind as always intertwined and moving together—a singular motion. Again, a metaphor is helpful to understand how the mind and the wind work together. The Tibetan Buddhist teachings compare the mind and the breath to a rider and its mount. In this metaphor, the wind energy is the mount and the mind is the rider. This metaphor illustrates how it is the wind energy that carries the mind and that influences and shapes the mind’s energy. The wind energy is the root of all of our experience, since it provides energy for the mind’s movement. So, wind energy training is a powerful tool for purifying, calming, taming, and relaxing the wind energy to impact the expression of neurotic mind.

Many of us work hard every day to deal with the neuroses that
emerge as a result of the impure wind-mind. Dealing with our difficulties and unhappiness in this way, we often look for something (or someone) outside of ourselves to blame for the way we feel. When we search for people and situations to blame, we can easily find many circumstances or people in the past who, we feel, did not meet our needs, or teach us healthy behavior, or treat us in the way that we deserved. But even if these thoughts are true, from the point of view of the Buddhist teachings, analyzing the past will not move us beyond suffering. And although we can get some relief from expressing our emotions, the simple act of expressing emotions cannot fully release us from the bonds of suffering. When we do this, it is as though we are treating the symptoms of a disease rather than the illness itself.

Some schools of modern psychology, such as cognitive therapy, recognize that looking for outer sources of emotions and emotional moods may not be helpful at alleviating mental and emotional imbalance. Rather, cognitive therapy focuses on the thoughts themselves as creating our moods. Similar to instruction given in some general meditation techniques, patients learn to recognize that the way they interpret situations around them is based on pervasive thought patterns. Because the mind often distorts, interprets, and spins events and situations, cognitive therapists teach their patients to recognize that whatever thought arises in the mind is just a thought. And thoughts often do not reflect reality.
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Learning not to grasp thoughts and feelings so hard and letting go of looking for a source—in other words, not searching for something outside of ourselves to blame for our moods and feelings—can alleviate some of our suffering.

However, wind energy training takes the purification of emotions and habitual thought patterns a step farther. Effective wind energy training, as will be taught in part 2, works with what is beneath the expression of strong emotions: the impure wind-mind. It deals with what is arising right now, at this very moment. After all, we can only deal with our mind as it is currently, in the present. When we calm the wind, we calm the mind.

P
URITY AND
I
MPURITY

Both the pure and the impure aspects of our wind energy have been with us right from the beginning. In the Tibetan texts that describe the philosophy of medicine and meditation, the body is described as having not only a physical aspect, our “physical body,” but also an energetic aspect, the “energy body.” Tibetan texts describe the energy body as being a series of channels that are either pure or impure; in other words, they can carry either pure wind energy or impure wind energy.
Purity
refers to the aspect of wisdom, and
impurity
refers to neurotic or ordinary dualistic mind.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, the two aspects of the autonomic nervous system according to Western medicine, are the closest comparison we can draw to the Tibetan idea of the channels that run throughout the body. It is not a perfect analogy, because the two medical systems do see some aspects of body and mind differently. However, the nervous system has functions that resemble the concept of the channels. For example, like the channels, the nervous system carries the body’s energy and impulses to the tissues and organs in different parts of the body. And as we have seen, working with the breath can regulate the sympathetic nervous system to reduce agitation and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system to invite relaxation. The breath brings the energy of our entire system into balance.

From the point of view of Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, the channels carry the wind energy throughout the body to all of the tissues and organs, including the brain. We tend to live in our neurotic mind, which, as explained above, always has at least some trace of impurity, agitation, and imbalance. Because we tend to be habituated to the impure aspect of wind-mind, however, it can dominate both our mind-set and the body’s energy.

Pure wind energy naturally resides within the body and some of the energy channels. However, pure wind energy is overpowered and weak because the impure wind energy is the primary traveler through our channels. Although pure wind energy is
present within the body and mind, it cannot express itself. We cannot see or feel it. So our experience is dominated by the aspect of impure wind-mind. As we have already seen, this impure wind energy is not only the basis for improper behavioral breathing; it is also perpetuated by improper breathing. The relationship between unhealthy breathing and the impure wind-mind is also self-perpetuating; it takes on a life of its own.

Tibetan Buddhist philosophy also illustrates a strong relationship between how extreme states of mind manifest and how the impure wind moves through the energy channels. When the channels themselves are impure, they are knotted or twisted rather than running straight through the body, causing extreme types of imbalances. The Tantras state that when wind energy gets caught in the twists and turns of the channels, our energy is varied, erratic, and unpredictable in the same way that a turbulent river runs through extreme twists and turns. However, when a yogi eradicates the very last traces of neurotic mind and realizes the nature of wisdom, the channels are unknotted, untwisted, and unblocked.

K
ARMA AND
W
IND
E
NERGY

Another way that the Tibetan Buddhist teachings describe impure wind energy is with the phrase
karmic wind,
or
le lung
(Tib. las rlung). The teachings tell us that in order to tame our neurotic mind, we must dispel the karmic wind from the lungs, where it generally dwells. This enables us to experience a softer, more natural type of breath called
wisdom-wind,
which naturally abides in the heart. These two names point out two aspects of the wind energy: that which is “karmic” is impure, or related to the aspect of ordinary, conceptual mind; and that which is “wisdom” is pure, or related to the aspect of wisdom that is hidden, but dwelling inside of us.

But what does it really mean to describe the wind energy as
karmic wind
? First, let’s think of what our ordinary understanding
of karma is. Most people have a sense that what they do will come back to them—the Golden Rule. When we do good for others, we have a feeling that others will also care for us. And likewise, when we harm others or create chaos in our relationships, we feel that, one way or another, our actions will come back to haunt us.

Another way we understand karma is similar to fate. In our ordinary language, we can use the word
karma
to describe something happening outside of us, or happening to us, that we feel we have no control over. When an unpleasant situation arises, we shrug our shoulders and say, “That’s my karma,” meaning, “There’s nothing I can do about it.” But this view of karma is limited; for someone practicing wind energy training, neither of these is a proper understanding of how karma interacts with the body, the mind, and the breath.

Every situation that manifests in our lives arises from causes and conditions coming together at that moment in time. These causes and conditions represent the confluence of a multiplicity of circumstances—people, places, energy, and events. We could also say that the experiences we are having right now are the interaction of the karma we have already accumulated in the past and the karma we are accumulating in the present.

Three Types of Karma

Generally speaking, it can be helpful to think about karma in three different ways. From the point of view of the Buddhist teachings, some karma was accumulated countless lifetimes ago and is just now ripening in this life’s body, speech, and mind. Other karma was accumulated in this particular lifetime and will ripen in this or a future lifetime. But we are also accumulating karma in this very moment. This presently accumulating karma is based on our perceptions, responses, and beliefs about all of the experiences that are currently appearing before us and happening to us.

All types of karma, without exception, can be purified by working with wind energy training. The purification of karma
with wind energy training is like damming a river so it can no longer flow. Of course, the effects of damming take time to see; the purification of karma is the result of committed, long-term wind energy training as well as the practice of meditation in general.

Purifying Karmic Cycles

What drives our perceptions, responses, and beliefs? According to Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, the wind-mind does. Although we are not accustomed to thinking of our perceptions, responses, and beliefs in this way, they are all shaped and influenced by our previously accumulated karma. So, the wind-mind could be more precisely described as the “karmic wind-mind.” This is because the wind-mind is constantly expressing karma accrued in the past, and it also acts as the mechanism for accumulating karma moment by moment as we interact with our responses and perceptions.

How is it that we accumulate karma? When the karmic wind agitates the mind, the agitated mind expresses a strong thought or emotion that we grasp onto and respond to. The five root afflicted states of mind, also called
the five poisons
—ignorance, attachment or desire, anger, pride, and jealousy—all arise moment by moment. When, based on the wind-mind, such an emotion arises and the mind grasps onto it, we accumulate karma in the style of that particular emotion. For example, when we grasp onto or reinforce the experience of greed, we add energy to that mental and emotional tendency. Our grasping and response to the wind-mind is like an imprint, which makes the neurotic habits of the mind stronger and stronger. As we perpetuate this cycle, the wind energy becomes more and more agitated and coarse, and our habits become stronger and stronger. We begin to develop karmic patterns, or responding in a habitual way to the karmic patterns we have already developed in the past, which continue to reinforce and harden them.

This idea of creating and reinforcing patterns is not foreign to Western scientific thought. For example, neuromuscular memory,
motor learning, and emotional memory all develop on the basis of patterns. In these cases, patterns develop because our neurons become accustomed to firing in a certain way. Over time, this becomes the path of least resistance, like a well-worn trail in the woods. The behavior that relies upon these patterns can become an unconscious habit.

A few simple examples: how many of us think about the gestures we make while driving a car, or typing on the computer. When we try to think about what we are doing, it becomes harder to do what we ordinarily do naturally and with ease. The fact that our habits are so strong is why we have to consciously and effortfully work to change our habitual patterns. Sustained effort is essential for making a change, because we have to create new patterns and stronger pathways to override our established ways of acting and reacting.

Wind energy training is a key tool for overriding these habitual patterns. These practices are not just about relaxing the body and mind, and not simply about bringing the elements into balance so that we become more physically and emotionally healthy. They are also about purifying karma on a moment-by-moment basis. When we engage in wind energy training, we are working with our karmic patterns and deeply ingrained habits. Although it is true that there is nothing we can do to stop the ripening of karma in our lives at this moment, we can change our experience of karma by changing our state of mind, which also changes our future karmic patterns. The specific wind energy training techniques taught in chapters 4 through 7 can help us to intervene in our habituated patterns by introducing abdominal breathing, lowering our respiratory rate, and alleviating stress.

We can see that this is true by taking the example of two different people in the same set of circumstances and observing how differently they experience and react to that situation. For example, most people are agitated by places that are crowded, noisy, and busy, such as a subway station. We become impatient and frustrated. We prefer to be in a calm and relaxed environment, because
the outer environment makes it easier to calm and relax the mind. However, for a person who practices wind energy training, calm and relaxation come from the inside because of repeated awareness of the breath, the use of abdominal breathing, and the ability to influence the respiratory rate. As a result, the wind energy practitioner in the same crowded subway station does not feel impatient, frustrated, or overwhelmed by the noise and all of the people. That practitioner brings the calm and stability within the mind into the environment around him or her. It is not the outer environment that determines how he or she feels but the quality of the wind-mind itself. This illustrates the most empowering point of all: the key to our own experience lies within our bodies all the time. We need not look outside of ourselves to find peace or to resolve conflicts. We have the power to do that within ourselves.