The Tibetan Yoga Practice Series

The Tibetan Yoga Practice Series from Wisdom Publications is an evolving series of books that explain in plain terms the yogic movemements, postures, and breathing techniques of Tibet’s trulkhor (magical movement) tradition.

Explore the Series

CURRENT TITLES

Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind

Discover ancient Tibetan yogic practices that integrate body, breath, and mind on the journey to personal cultivation and enlightenment.

Tibetan Yoga offers accessible instructions for performing the ancient yogic techniques of Tibet’s Bön religion. This is Tibetan yoga, or trulkhor, a deeply authentic yogic practice. Drawing on thirty years of training with Bön’s most senior masters as well as advanced academic study, Dr. Alejandro Chaoul offers expert guidance on practices that were first developed by Bön masters over a millennia ago, framing them according to the needs of contemporary yoga practitioners and meditators.

No matter their level of experience, dedicated practitioners of Tibetan yoga will discover their ability to clear away obstacles and give rise to meditative states of mind. In Tibetan Yoga, you’ll learn what it means to practice for the benefit of all beings and to experience your body as a mandala, from center to periphery. These movements help you live in a more interconnected mind-breath-body experience, with benefits including better focus, stress reduction, the elimination of intrusive thoughts, better sleep, and general well-being.

“It’s wonderful when thirty years of study and practice flow into words that bring an ancient and magnificent tradition to life. These practices combine unique sounds, imagery, and movement as pathways toward a more natural and fundamental sense of being. Clear and authentic.”—Anne C. Klein (Rigzin Drolma), professor, department of religion, Rice University, and founding teacher, Dawn Mountain

 

Calm Breath, Calm Mind: A Guide to the Healing Power of the Breath

Discover ancient Tibetan breath practices for calming your mind and improving your health in this plain-English guide. Over millennia, many Eastern traditions have developed practices that use the powerful healing energy of breath to treat physical, emotional, and mental problems. In Chinese, this energy is called chi; in Sanskrit it is called prana; and in Tibetan it is called lung.

Lung is life-giving energy that moves through our bodies. An imbalance of lung can create illnesses of body and mind or cause emotional struggles such as confusion, anger, and sadness. In this book Geshe YongDong Losar, a scholar and monk in the ancient Bön tradition of Tibet, guides us through time-tested practices to help balance our lung. His deep knowledge—garnered through years of study and practice—renders the practices simple and achievable, creating a clear path for us toward greater calmness, strength, and clarity.

“A deep and didactic exploration into the ancient art of Bön breathing from a master of the form. Highly recommended.” —James Nestor, New York Times bestselling author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

 

Meet the Authors

Dr. Alejandro Chaoul is a senior teacher at The 3 Doors, an international organization founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche with the goal of transforming lives through meditation. He has studied Tibetan yoga for thirty years with the Bön tradition’s greatest masters, including the late H. H. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak, and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, having trained in Triten Norbutse Monastery in Nepal and Menri Monastery in India. He completed the seven-year training at Ligmincha International and received his PhD in Tibetan Religions from Rice University. Dr. Chaoul is the founding director of the Mind, Body, Spirit Institute at The Jung Center of Houston. He is the author of Tibetan Yoga: Magical Movements of Body, Breath, and Mind, Chöd Practice in the Bon Tradition, and Tibetan Yoga for Health and Well-Being.

Geshe YongDong Losar is a Tibetan Bön lama, or spiritual teacher, in the Yungdrung Bön lineage, which is rooted in the indigenous spiritual tradition of the Himalayas. He lives in Courtenay, British Columbia. where he established and directs Sherab Chamma Ling, the only Tibetan Bön Buddhist Center in Canada. Geshe YongDong teaches in many centers and universities around the world and has also founded the Bon Da Ling center in Costa Rica. He is the author of Calm Breath, Calm Mind: A Guide to the Healing Power of the Breath.

Know the Lineage

Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859–1935) began living with his root teacher Tenzin Wangyal from a young age, eventually taking full ordination as a Yüngdrüng Bön monk at 18. He took numerous students from all traditions, engaged in vast practices of purification and accumulation, wrote extensively on the Bön tradition, taught far and wide. 

H. H. Lungtok Tenpai Nyima (1927–2017) was the first leader of the Bön community in exile in India and the co-founded Menri Monastery in Dolanji, India. He established a Bön dialectic school awarding geshe degrees. He also founded an orphanage for Bön children known as the Bön Children’s Welfare Center at the monastery as well as a nearby nunnery.

Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak (1926–) is a Tibetan religious leader and the most senior teacher of Bön, specializing in teachings of the Dzogchen and Mother Tantra traditions. He studied Buddhist philosophy for almost 20 years and then spent around 10 years in retreat before relocating to the West in 1961. He has since collaborated with influential Tibetan and Western Buddhist figures alike to open monasteries, advance study programs, and support various virtuous projects. 

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (1961–) is the founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International and a respected and beloved teacher of the Tibetan Bön tradition. He has students in more than twenty-five countries, teaches around the world and reaches thousands of students through his online programs. Trained as a Bön monk, Rinpoche now lives as a householder, allowing him to more fully relate to the needs and concerns of his students. He is the author of many books and online courses.