The Dawn of Physical Yoga. Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality

Giacomella Orofino

doi:10.6093/978-88-6719-314-1

The Dawn of Physical Yoga. Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality

Authors

Giacomella Orofino

Università di Napoli L'Orientale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-314-1

Keywords:

Tantric Buddhism, Haṭhayoga, Tibetan Canon, Amṛtasiddhi, Yantra, Physical Yoga, Indo-Tibetan Studies, Philology

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Series Minor

ISSN: 1824-6109

Pages: 210

Language: English

NBN:

Abstract: This volume presents the critical edition and the first annotated English translation of Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality (*Amṛtasaṁkaṭanibarhaṇa; Tib. 'Chi med kyi 'phrang sel), a Tantric Buddhist treatise composed between the late 11th and early 12th centuries and preserved exclusively within the Tibetan canon. The work belongs to a corpus of texts closely related to the Amṛtasiddhi, the earliest known Sanskrit source to introduce in Sanskrit texts as the " introduce many practices and principles fundamental to the yoga method often categorised in subsequent Sanskrit texts as haṭhayoga (yoga of force)

Attributed to the Indian mahāsiddha Yogeśvara Amoghavajra—a yogin who traveled to Tibet during the decline of Buddhism in India—the treatise was likely composed directly in Tibetan and represents one of the most ancient witnesses to the origins of physical yoga. It describes 108 dynamic postures (yantra; Tib. 'khrul 'khor) designed to remove hindrances to Tantric Buddhist practice. Many of these yantras exhibit striking analogies with the āsanas codified centuries later in classical Indian haṭhayoga texts that became central to both premodern and modern yoga traditions.

As such, the text constitutes one of the earliest systematic formulations of physical yoga, predating its subsequent codification in Śaiva literature. Through a meticulous philological and historical-religious analysis, this study reconstructs the nascent stages of haṭhayoga within the framework of Tantric transmission between India and Tibet. The result is a fresh historical perspective that, in addition to redefining the evolution of yoga, illuminates the complex transregional dynamics that shaped the Asian Middle Ages.

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Author Biography

Giacomella Orofino, Università di Napoli L'Orientale

Giacomella Orofino is a Full Professor of Tibetan Language and Literature and of the History and Cultures of Tibet and the Himalayan Regions at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” She is the co-founder and President of AISTHiM (the Italian Association of Tibetan, Himalayan, and Mongolian Studies) and Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Naples “L’Orientale.” Her research focuses on Indian and Tibetan Buddhism and the intellectual history of Tibetan religious traditions, with particular attention to the Chöd tradition, Dzogchen, the Kālacakratantra, the Bön religion, and the early history of yoga. Extensive publications on Indo-Tibetan religious literature and doctrine include her critical edition of the Sekoddeśa (IsMEO, 1994), a study of the Tibetan Chöd tradition (Tantra in Practice, Princeton University Press, 2000), and collaborative research with Raniero Gnoli on the Kālacakratantra (Adelphi, 1994). Recent articles have further explored Dzogchen systems and Bön philosophy, focusing on contemplative practices and metaphors of light.

Her latest monograph, The Dawn of Physical Yoga. Dispelling the Hindrances to Immortality (UniorPress, 2025), examines the early development of physical yoga through the study and translation of primary textual sources.