As the various Indian schools of yoga spread worldwide, more and more people realized that yoga had proven positive effects on the mental and physical well-being of its practitioners. Despite its popularity as a health-promoting practice, many people are still unaware of the deeper meaning of yoga or the variety of yoga practices that modern times offer. One aspect of yoga practice that remains hidden to many is the Tibetan tradition of yoga as a healing method.

There are many reasons why the Tibetan tradition of yoga is less well known and why people do not fully understand its essence. On the one hand, the strong emphasis on the benefits of Indian yoga for health and a sense of life satisfaction sometimes overshadows the spiritual roots and meaning of this practice. In Tibet, yoga is very closely connected with Buddhist practice, especially with esoteric Buddhism. Historically, Tibetan yogic disciplines were practiced exclusively by selected and initiated individuals as part of a deep spiritual path, often in the context of long-term retreats in seclusion. Many Tibetan yogic practices, aimed at mastering and transforming the human body, its energy, and the human mind, were strictly secret and reserved for a very limited circle of teachers and students. Traditionally, Tibetan yogis and yoginis (men and women practicing yoga) were initiated within specific lineages of transmission and learned yogic techniques directly from their gurus and from the texts of their lineage. These texts are sometimes difficult to understand without the guidance of teachers and more experienced practitioners. As a result of these factors, Tibetan yoga has been far less accessible to the general public.

Many people are surprised to learn that Tibet has its own tradition of physical or postural yoga. Although they may have heard of asanas, stretching, and breathing exercises derived mainly from the ancient Indian tradition of hatha yoga, they know much less about similar practices within Tibetan esoteric or tantric Buddhism and the Bön tradition. Sometimes people hear about other Tibetan yogic practices, such as dream yoga, in which a yogi or yogini learns to dream consciously and gain control over the dream state, or deity yoga, where practitioners learn to perceive themselves as awakened Buddhist deities. Guru yoga is also highly significant, being a key aspect of all tantric or Vajrayana Buddhism. It consists of meditating on one’s own spiritual teacher as a Buddha, who is the source of teachings, and devotionally requesting guidance. The culmination of guru yoga is the moment when the student attains unshakable certainty that there is no difference between their own seemingly ordinary mind, the mind of their teacher, and the mind of the Buddha. Some people are also aware of special Tibetan yogas practiced as preparation for the time of death and its actual process, or of the yoga of inner heat (tummo), in which yogis and yoginis generate heat and bliss within their bodies. In recent times, there has also been growing interest in karmamudra, or Tibetan tantric sexual yoga, the yoga of bliss, in which ordinary desires are transformed into infinite, unconditional bliss that transcends any perception of duality between self and other.

All of these methods share the common designation “yoga,” yet at first glance they differ significantly from one another and represent something quite different from the relatively informal and secular group yoga exercises practiced during the week in a gym. However, if we truly understand the deeper meaning of yoga, it is not difficult to see continuity between physical yoga exercises that support health and well-being, and spiritual practices that help us understand the nature of human consciousness and can serve as powerful methods for achieving spiritual awakening within and through the human body.

Yoga is a Sanskrit word generally translated into English as “union” or “integration.” The fundamental meaning of this term lies in the fact that various methods and spiritual disciplines of yoga share, regardless of their specific forms, a common goal or highest purpose—namely, the union of our own being with the divine or primordial source, the return of our relative, limited, or fragmented self to its natural state. The Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word yoga is the term naljor. Nal (a shortened form of nalma) means pure, natural, original, or primordial state. The meaning of the term jor (a shortened form of jorwa) is “to receive, to arrive at, or to unite with.” Like the original Sanskrit term yoga, naljor refers to all methods whose aim is to return the practitioner to their original, unconditioned, and unstained true nature. From the highest perspective, according to Buddhist teachings, our primordial pure state can never be defiled or damaged. It is always with us and within us, regardless of whether we are able to recognize and experience it. It is said that our true nature is like a beautiful, indestructible, perfectly clear and radiant diamond that gradually becomes covered with dirt, making it unrecognizable at first glance. This “dirt” on the diamond consists of accumulated imprints of our past actions, habitual tendencies, and mistaken perceptions—and just like the diamond, our true nature is not altered by this layer of dirt. It is merely obscured by it, and this layer must be completely removed for its intrinsic value to be revealed. In the Tibetan tradition, yoga is therefore regarded as one of the most important methods for cleansing the diamond of our absolute nature. Through yogic practice, we train (purify ourselves) in order to uncover our clear, pure, and radiant nature, which has been hidden beneath layers of confusion and ignorance.

Excerpt from the book NEJANG: TIBETAN SELF-HEALING YOGA by Dr. Nida Chenagtsang