TIBETAN “MAGIC”

Taranaki Daily News, 30 March 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

TIBETAN “MAGIC”

PRODUCING BODY HEAT

(By

’—Part II.)

“N.O.V.”-

A glimpse of the reasonings of the Tibetan mind and the thorough mental training received by all students of religious and psychic matters in that hncient country was given last week. Subjects then mentioned included the power of controlling the breath, the attainment of the four trances leading finally to a state of serenity, and control of mind over matter. There is no doubt that generations of practice of these ageold habits and years of asceticism and mortification of the flesh gives the Tibetan priest the ability to perform the uncanny feats of which travellers speak.

The German explorer who provided the inspiration for these articles mentioned, in a tone of wonderment, no doubt, the ability of -certain ascetics to stand naked in the snows and by the voluntary production of bodily heat to dry a constant succession of cloths soaked in icy water. The story of “tumo” rites is told by Madame Alexandra David-Neel. “The word ‘tumo’ signifies heat, warmth, but is not used in Tibetan language to express ordinary heat or warmth,” she writes. “It is a technical term of mystic terminology. There are various kinds of tumo; exoteric tumo which arises spontaneously in the course of peculiar raptures and gradually folds the mystic in the ‘soft warm mantle of the gods,’ esoteric tumo that keeps the hermits comfortable ,on the snowy hills, and mystic tumo,. which can only claim a distant and .quite figurative connection with the term ‘warmth’ for it is the experience of ‘paradisiac bliss’ in this world. In the secret teaching tumo is also the subtle fire that warms the generative fluid and drives the energy in it, till it runs all over- the body along the tiny channels of the veins, arteries, and nerves.

“Only a few, even In mystic circles, are thoroughly acquainted with these several kinds of tumo, while the wonderful effects of the tumo that warms and keeps alive the hermits in the snowy wilds are known to every Tibetan. The most important qualifications required are to be already skilled in the various practices connected with breathing and to be capable of a perfect concentration of mind going as far as the trance in which thoughts become visualised. “Once initiated, one must renounce all fur or woollen clothing and never approach the fire to warm oneself. After a short period during which he exerts himself under the elose supervision oi his master, the novice rpust retire to a very remote, absolutely solitary place situated high up on the hills. In Tibet “high up” means generally an altitude well above 10,000 feet . . . One must never practise the training exercises inside a house or near inhabited places. It is believed that foul air produced by smoke and smells, and various occult causes impede, the success of the student and may even harm him. “Various breathing drills are performed and then priffS, anger, hatred, covetousness, sloth, stupidity are mentally rejected with the rhythmic breathing out. All that is good and lofty in the world is assimilated while drawing in the breath. Now one dismisses all cares and cogitations. One imagines that a golden lotus exists in the body on a level with the navel and from above it dorjee naljorma, a feminine deity, issues. The lotus is known as ‘ram’ and dorjee naljorma issues from ‘ma.’ These mystic syllables, which are called seed, must not be regarded as mere written characters or symbolic representations of things, but as living beings with motive power. Ram is not the mystic name of the fire, it is the seed of fire. “Hindus attach great importance to the right pronunciation ■ of these seed formulae. They think that their power resides in the sound, which they believe to be creative. Certain Tibetan mystics agree that ram correctly pronounced may produce fire, yet these mystic syllables are not generally used in Tibet as sound but rather as representations of elements and deities. Tibetans, identifying ram with the fire, think that he who knows how to make mental use of the subjective image of that word can set anything ablaze or even produce flames without apparent fuel. “As soon as one has imagined dorjee naljorma springing from the syllable ma, one must identify oneself with her. When one has “become” the deity, ono imagines the letter A placed in the navel and the letter Ha of the Tibetan alphabet at the top of one’s head. “Slow deep inspirations act as bellows and make up a smouldering fire in Al Each inspiration produces the sensation of a breath of wind penetrating the abdomen at the height of the navel and increasing the force of the flames. Each deep inspiration is followed by a retention of the breath. “Gradually the time spent holding in the breath is increased more and more. One’s thoughts continue to follow the waking up of fire which ascends along the vein arising in the middle of the body.” How the exercise goes on is described, for convenience by Madame David-Neel by numbers as follows: —“1. The central artery is imagined, and subjectively seen, as thin as the thinnest thread or as a hair, yet filled with the ascending flame and crossed by the current of air- produced by the breath. 2. The artery has increased in size and become as-large as the little finger.' 3. It continues to increase and appears to be the- size of an arm. 4. The artery fills the. whole, body, or rather the body becomes a kind of tube filled with blazing fire and air. 5. The bodily form ceases to be perceived. Enlarged beyond all measure the artery engulfs the whole world and the subject feels himself to be a storm-beaten flame among the glowing waves of an ocean of fire. “Sometimes,” continues Madame David-Neel, “a kind of examination concludes the training of the tumo students. Upon a frosty winter moonlight night with a hard wind blowing they are led to the shore of a river. The examinees sit on the ground, cross-legged and. naked.. Sheets are dipped in the icy wafer, each man wraps himself in one of them and must dry it on his body. As soon as it has become dry the operation is repeated until daylight, when he who has dried the largest number of sheets is acknowledged the winner of the competition.” Besides drying wet sheets on the body there exist various other tests to ascertain the degree of heat, including one of sitting in the snow. The quantity melted under the man and the distance at which it melts around him are taken as measures of his ability“Hermits really do live naked during the whole winter in the high regions,” concludes Madame David-Neel, “and they have been seen by more than myself. I may say that I have myself obtained remarkable results from my small experience of tumo.”