Siddhi of swift-footedness
Siddhi of swift-footedness (Skt. jaṅghākara siddhi; T. rkang mgyogs dngos grub རྐང་མགྱོགས་དངོས་གྲུབ་; C. tuzu 塗足) is one of the eight types of mundane siddhis that can be accomplished through tantric practice.[1][2]
Swift-footedness is the yogic art of being able to walk extremely fast, covering a huge distance in a short time, through control over the inner currents of energy.[2]
One who practices this siddhi is called a swift-walker (Skt. jaṃghācārika; T. rkang mgyogs pa རྐང་མགྱོགས་པ་), pronounced "kyang gyok pa" in the Tibetan language.[3]
In her book Magic and Mystery of Tibet (first published in 1929), Alexandra David-Néel presents detailed accounts of witnessing practitioners of swift-footnessness.[4] She states that, while trekking across Tibet, she encountered a man moving with unusual speed over long distance. The man "seemed to lift himself from the ground. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum [...] the traveler seemed to be in a trance."[4] In her book, David-Néel refers to the technique of swift-footedness as "lung-gom-pa", which in Tibetan means simply "breathing meditation."
This technique has been compared to the practices of Kaihōgyō and Shugendo in Japan.[5]
See also:
- Anāgarika Lāma Govinda, Chapter 18 - Trance Walking and lung-gom training in The Way of the White Clouds, wisdomlib.org
Notes
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Glossary, "eight common accomplishments"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1
རྐང་མགྱོགས་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ རྐང་མགྱོགས་པ་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 David-Néel, Alexandra, Magic and mystery in Tibet; see Chapter VIII
- ↑ The run of a lifetime Archived 2006-11-17 at the Wayback Machine.
