Breath & Energy · “Breath Is the Bridge”
Tsa Lung Trul Khor
Use five breath-held movements to guide the vital breath (lung) through the channels (tsa) to five centres, clearing energetic and emotional obstacles and opening into clear, spacious awareness.
Tsa Lung Trul Khor (five exercises): Clear the channels with nine purification breaths. Then, for each of five exercises: inhale and hold the breath gently at the lower belly, perform the prescribed movement while focusing awareness on the target centre, then release breath and movement together and rest in the open clarity that follows. Gentle, never forced — the breath settles the body, the body settles the mind.
What it is
Tsa Lung Trul Khor is a set of Tibetan yoga exercises combining breath, movement, and focused awareness, brought into wide Western practice by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (b.
1961), a master of the Bön Dzogchen tradition and founder of Ligmincha International. Tsa means the subtle channels, lung the vital breath (prana), and trul khor (“magical wheel/movement”) the dynamic yoga that moves the breath through them.
The five core exercises come from the “Sphere of Elements” chapter of the Bön Mother Tantra (Ma Gyü). Each exercise pairs a held breath with a specific body movement that drives the breath to a particular centre, clearing obstacles there and supporting open, clear awareness — Tenzin Wangyal teaches them as a preparation for, and support of, Dzogchen meditation.
The Method
The five exercises share a common form and address five centres / five “winds.” A faithful general outline:
- The nine purification breaths (preliminary). First clear the channels with nine breaths that exhale stale energy from the three channels in sequence.
- For each of the five exercises: sit (or stand), inhale and hold the breath gently in a “vase” at the lower belly, then perform the prescribed movement (e.g. circling or rotating the upper body, head, or limbs) while the breath is held, bringing focused awareness to the target centre; then release the breath and the movement together, and rest in the resulting openness.
- The five centres, broadly: the exercises successively guide the breath to centres associated with the crown / upper body, throat, heart, navel/solar, and lower (secret) centre, each linked to one of the five elemental winds and to clearing a particular kind of obstacle (e.g. agitation, heaviness, emotional contraction).
- Resting in awareness. After each movement-and-release, the practitioner pauses in the spacious clarity that follows — this resting, not the movement, is where the practice points. The emphasis throughout is gentle, never forced: the held breath is comfortable, the movements smooth, and the real aim is to settle the mind into clear presence by first settling the breath and body. (Sourcing note: a faithful general outline of the publicly published five-exercise set; precise movements and centre-assignments are given in Tenzin Wangyal’s books and courses and are best learned by demonstration.)
Source & Lineage
The exercises derive from the Bön Mother Tantra (Ma Gyü), the oldest cycle of Tibet’s indigenous Bön tradition, and were systematised for modern practitioners by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche in Awakening the Sacred Body and related teachings through Ligmincha International. → author node.
Common refinements
Forcing the breath-hold. The retention is gentle and comfortable; straining defeats the purpose and risks dizziness.
- Doing the movement mechanically. Without focused awareness on the centre and the rest afterward, it becomes mere calisthenics.
- Skipping the rest. The pause of open awareness after each release is the heart of the practice, not an afterthought.
- Skipping the purification breaths. The nine clearing breaths set up the channels and shouldn’t be omitted.