dhyana, pranayama, dharana, anusmrti and samadhi), then, having forcefully ( hathena) made the breath flow in the central channel through the practice of nada, which is about to be explained, should attain the undying moment by restraining the bindu of the bodhicitta in the vajra when it is in the lotus of wisdom. When the undying moment does not arise because the breath is unrestrained when the image is seen by means of withdrawal ( pratyahara) and the other (auxiliaries of yoga, i.e. In this text, haṭha yoga is defined within the context of tantric sexual ritual: Transition from tantric Buddhism Īccording to the scholar Jason Birch, the earliest mentions of haṭha yoga specifically are from Buddhist texts, mainly tantric works from the 8th century onwards, such as Puṇḍarīka’s Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra. In the Mahāsaccaka sutta ( MN 36), the Buddha mentions how physical practices such as various meditations on holding one's breath did not help him "attain to greater excellence in noble knowledge and insight which transcends the human condition." After trying these, he then sought another path to enlightenment. The Buddha also used a posture where pressure is put on the perineum with the heel, similar to modern postures used to stimulate Kundalini. However, there is no mention of the tongue being inserted further back into the nasopharynx as in true khecarī mudrā. The Pali canon contains three passages in which the Buddha describes pressing the tongue against the palate for the purposes of controlling hunger or the mind, depending on the passage. Tibetan depiction of Tummo ( candali, inner heat) practice showing the central channel, the sushumnaĪccording to the Indologist James Mallinson, some haṭha yoga style techniques practised only by ascetics can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Sanskrit epics (Hinduism) and the Pali canon (Buddhism). This modern form of yoga is now widely known simply as "yoga". In the 20th century, a development of haṭha yoga, focusing particularly on asanas (the physical postures), became popular throughout the world as a form of physical exercise.
Later haṭha yoga texts adopt the practices of haṭha yoga mudras into a Saiva system, melding it with Layayoga methods which focus on the raising of kuṇḍalinī through energy channels and chakras. The oldest texts to use the terminology of hatha are also Vajrayana Buddhist. The oldest dated text so far found to describe haṭha yoga, the 11th-century Amṛtasiddhi, comes from a tantric Buddhist milieu. According to the Dattatreya Yoga Śastra, there are two forms of haṭha yoga: one practiced by Yajñavalkya consisting of the eight limbs of yoga, and another practiced by Kapila consisting of eight mudras. Almost all hathayogic texts belong to the Nath siddhas, and the important ones are credited to Matsyendranath's disciple, Gorakhnath or Gorakshanath. In India, haṭha yoga is associated in popular tradition with the Yogis of the Natha Sampradaya through its traditional founder Matsyendranath, who is celebrated as a saint in both Hindu and Buddhist tantric and haṭha yoga schools. The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means "force" and thus alludes to a system of physical techniques.