Kum Nye, Level 1 - Training, Self-Study Video Program, Sessions 7, 8, and 9
based on Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche’s book
Kum Nye – A Tibetan Yoga
with Arnaud Maitland
Session Seven – Preparations: (1hr 16 min.)
We may have the intention to do Kum Nye but where does our attention go? We want to bring the mind into the body and pay attention to our inner environment. A genuine wish to explore creates conducive conditions for Kum Nye practice.
All Kum Nye exercises are ways to touch and expand inner feelings and energies. The way to get in touch with our energy body is through the physical body. We move in order to explore and balance the inner environment, where awareness and insights reside. The external form focus on breath, stillness, and movement, these prepare us for the internal exercise, which is the essence of Kum Nye.
We move slowly, gracefully, and rhythmically. Before we start the movement we settle in, then we allow the energy body to move elegantly, at its own rhythm and flow with the blissful experience. Everything comes to life when we touch it without labeling it, without judgment. Movement wakes up feelings in the body. We stimulate, activate, expand, and accumulate.
Movements and posture are external yet have a profound effect on the quality of our internal experience. Following the movement, we transition to stillness allowing the feelings to expand. Stillness enables deeper layers of feelings to emerge, the more subtle the deeper they are. The intention of Kum Nye is to find satisfaction from within. As the experience of the inner world expands we become more balanced and appreciative in the external world.
Exercises: #41 Body alertness, #58 Coordinating the wholeness of energy.
Session Eight - Alertly Probing: (1hr. 8min.)
When present, our energy flows, we are curious, active, and exploring. On the other hand, when we hold on to past experiences our energy gets stuck. Our attitude represents a fixed opinion, it is frozen energy that blocks our natural flow. The goal is to become formless so that we can easily adjust to the flow of life. When we are calm, still, and even, we are like a reflective surface that things can show up upon.
By probing the sensation that comes up, going in and staying with it, we can increase awareness and connect with different energies. We want to alertly probe the characteristics of awareness: form, texture, and movements of subtle feelings. Every part of the body is a source of information. As we become aware of refined energies, we notice that sensations have a texture, a feel to them.
In order to develop this sensitivity, we must trust the experience. Sometimes movement brings up irritation. Sit with it and notice the quality of the energy it brings to the surface. Notice what comes up: dialogs, images, sensations, the direction of energy flow. Directing our attention to the internal environment transforms us from observes to active participates in the experience.
Imagine your senses going inward, look, listen, taste, hear, and touch the internal experience: the form, texture, and movement of the energy body. Notice the impact of the movement, as we become more pliable, the form becomes formless, time and space become borderless; past, present, and future are all Being open and flowing, we can experience alertness and stillness at the same time.
Exercises: #2 Melting tension, #99 Touching positive feelings, #22 Flying
Session Nine – Wellbeing: (48 min)
Kum Nye leads to the experience of wellbeing, which is an awakening, a manifestation of our soul. Wellbeing is the foundation for living well, working well, and expressing our inner potential.
We engage all of our energy in the movement, go all in and savor the experience. Surrendering to the movement dissolves tension and opens the senses. Colors or images may appear during practice as energy centers start to open up. It is a good opportunity to go deeper and observe for a moment, without labeling the experience or looking for meaning, nor following associations, just staying with the raw feelings that come up. When we go inward, we feel, touch, and expand space. Ideally, we let the thinking mind rest and just follow the energy, sense it, and look inward. While doing so one may touch an experience that transcends beyond time and space.
It is important to pay attention to times when we feel reluctance to practice. Whatever we pay attention to comes to life and something magical happens, our true self comes to the foreground. There is a knowing quality in feelings. When we experience relaxation fully and settle down, a body of knowledge opens up. When feelings arise we go into it and stay with the experience, let it open up, expand and release. As we tap into the feelings, we go through deeper layers of energy, assimilating and distributing them through the whole body, to every cell. The result of tension melting down is an awaking of inner knowledge.
Exercises: #60 Relieving negativity, #61 Expanding body energy.
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For an in-depth interview about Kum Nye, please click here:
We recommend A Line by Line Reading plus commentary by Arnaud Maitland of Rinpoche’s entire first Kum Nye book (about thirty hours).