The Vajra Path Module 2: Noetic Heat
A seminar with Ian Baker on the practices of inner fire, set beside polyvagal theory and psychoneuroendocrinology, the second in the Vajra Path series.
The second of six standalone seminars in Ian Baker's Vajra Path series, on the practices of inner fire. Baker traces the term back to the Sanskrit chandali, a caste of women who pulled bodies from the funeral pyres, and on to the Tibetan tummo, which is closer in meaning to fierce feminine than to heat. He sets the yogic accounts beside the Buddha's Fire Sermon and the lives of Yeshe Tsogyal and Milarepa, then reads them against polyvagal theory, psychoneuroendocrinology and the research on heat-generating yogis carried out above Dharamsala in 1982. A presentation with slides rather than a practice session, followed by a long discussion: the vase breath, herbal support, entheogens, and burning up karmic imprints. The techniques are described and placed in context, not given as instruction.
What this course covers
- Chandali and tummo, and why the words mean fierce feminine rather than heat
- The Buddha's Fire Sermon read beside the tantric literature on inner fire
- Milarepa and Yeshe Tsogyal as the tradition's own accounts of the practice
- Polyvagal theory, the vagus nerve and the physiology of generated heat
- Herbert Benson's 1982 study of yogis above Dharamsala
- Questions on the vase breath, herbal support and entheogens
Sessions
- Module 2: Noetic Heat 184 minutes