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. 1030 Vimalaprabhā commentary on the Kālacakratantra, haṭha yoga is for the first time defined within the context of tantric sexual ritual: The earliest mentions of haṭha yoga as a specific set of techniques are from some seventeen Vajrayana Buddhist texts, mainly tantric works from the 8th century onwards. Transition from tantric Buddhism to Nāth hatha yoga Tantric Buddhism

3rd century Bodhisattvabhūmi, the phrase na haṭhayogena seemingly meaning only that the bodhisattva would get his qualities 'not by force'. The term haṭha yoga was first used in the c. 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. These later texts promote a universalist yoga, available to all, 'without the need for priestly intermediaries, ritual paraphernalia or sectarian initiations.' Later Nāth as well as Śākta texts adopt the practices of haṭha yoga mudras into a Saiva system, melding it with Layayoga methods, without mentioning bindu. However, other early Nāth texts like the Vivekamārtaṇḍa can be seen as co-opting the hatha yoga mudrās. Early Nāth works teach a yoga based on raising kuṇḍalinī through energy channels and chakras, called Layayoga ('the yoga of dissolution'). Īlmost all hathayogic texts belong to the Nath siddhas, and the important early ones (12th-13th c.) are credited to Matsyendranath's disciple, Gorakhnath or Gorakshanath (11th c.).

Two early Haṭha yoga techniques sought to either physically reverse this process of dripping using gravity to trap the bindhu by inverted postures like viparītakaraṇī, or force bindu upwards through the central channel by directing the breath flow into the centre channel using mudras (yogic seals, not to be confused with hand mudras, which are gestures). This was seen as the physical essence of life that was constantly dripping down from the head and being lost. Some of the early haṭha yoga texts (11th-13th c.) describe methods to raise and conserve bindu (vital force, that is, semen, and in women rajas – menstrual fluid). Hindu hatha yoga texts appear from the 11th century onwards. 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.

Some haṭha yoga style techniques can be traced back at least to the 1st-century CE, in texts such as the Hindu Sanskrit epics and Buddhism's Pali canon.

The Sanskrit word हठ haṭha literally means 'force' thus alluding to a system of physical techniques. Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to preserve and channel the vital force or energy.

Tantric yoga sequence