Dzogchen and Energy

[jonesboy]

From the Book.

HEALING
WITH FORM, ENERGY AND LIGHT

by
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE FIVE PRANAS

The five primary energy flows in the body are: the upward-moving prana, related to earth; the life-force prana, related to space; the fire-like prana,
related to fire; the pervasive prana, related to air; and the downward-moving
prana, related to water.

Upward-moving prana

The upward-moving prana activates the senses: it allows us to see, hear,
smell, taste, and feel through touch. It is also the energy underlying thought
and cognition. A defect in the senses is often related to a weakness in the
upward-moving prana. Many people who have done these practices have
told me that they notice improvements in memory and vision. The upwardmoving
prana is related to the earth element—which may seem counterintuitive.
But besides activating the senses, this prana also vitalizes the brain,
the earthy aspect of the senses and cognition. Because the five elements
underlie everything that exists, there are apparent contradictions when looking
at more than one level of what is manifest.

An image is associated with each of the five types of prana, either relating
to the concentration or function of the energy in the body or representing
qualities of the prana. The image connected to the upward-moving prana
is shaped like an umbrella. The pranic energy is strong in the throat chakra,
and rises up and spreads out through the brain, making the umbrella-like
shape. It is yellow, symbolizing the earth element.

The upward-moving prana opens the throat and crown chakras as well as
the central channel. For this reason it is particularly related to spiritual experience.
Without an opening of the upper chakras and the central channel,
higher spiritual experience is not supported by the body. Opening the crown
chakra is related to strong experiences of bliss, while opening the throat
chakra is related to peace. Traditionally, the ultimate external sign of connection
to and integration of the upward-moving prana is the ability to jump
very high and to fly. Internally, the sign of full integration is the ability to
rise above negative emotions and enter upper realms.

Life-force prana

The life-force prana is concentrated in the heart. It is the vitality of the
person. When the life-force prana is weak, the individual is frail. When it is
absent, death results. When it is strong, the person is vital, the will is strong,
and experience is vivid.

The image associated with the life-force prana is the white or clear wishfulfilling
jewel centered in the heart. In old Tibetan stories, prayers to the
wish-fulfilling jewel result in desires being met—that which is in the heart becomes manifest in life. The heart and life-force prana are associated with
the space element. When the life-force prana is strong and the heart chakra
is open, there are vivid experiences of clarity and vitality. When this prana
is deficient, the memory grows weak and the mind is clouded. The lifeforce
prana manifests negatively as anger and hatred; positively as strong
will, happiness, joy, and the development of wisdom. It supports vitality in
life, cognitive functioning, and perception.

Traditionally, the ultimate sign of integration with the space element is
the ability to transfer consciousness into other bodies. This ability has resulted
in many stories of masters who, facing death and unwilling to give
up serving others, locate the body of a recently dead young person and
transfer the consciousness into it. Upon reviving the younger body, the
masters continue their work without loss of the memories that originated in
the older, now abandoned, body.

[jonesboy]

Continuing on:

Fire-like prana

Fire-like prana is the energy of metabolism. It digests food and is strengthened
by the digestion of food. It controls the process of drawing nutrition
from what is eaten. It is centered in the navel chakra and is responsible for
the heat of the body. The image associated with it is a red triangle, point up,
in the navel chakra.

The fire in the navel chakra is developed in practices like tummo—the
yoga of inner fire. When refined it is the basis of subtle psychic heat, which is
associated with bliss. There are many kinds of bliss; the fire prana is related
particularly to meditative bliss, to the joy of being. This is a joy not dependent
on anything. It does not disappear if a job is lost, it does not increase if a
promotion is earned. It is the bliss of awareness, of sensation, of existence.

A deficiency of fire prana manifests as ignorance, sleepiness, dullness,
forgetfulness, poor digestion, or a lack of energy. The sign of an ultimate
connection to fire is an invulnerability to destruction by the elements and
the ability to develop dream yoga–self-awareness in the dream state–and
the practice of the clear light.

Pervasive prana

Pervasive prana moves throughout the body. It is connected to the air element.
Because it is everywhere in the body, there is no specific image that
reflects its concentration.

Pervasive prana is responsible for communication inside the body; it
connects the different parts of the body energetically. Nutrition moves from
the intestines to the rest of the body; blood flows; nerves carry information. Touch any place on the skin and there is sensation. More subtly, focus the
mind on any part of the body and there is sensation. This is all the work of
the pervasive prana.

Strong pervasive prana allows for the extension of experience, positive
and negative. If we see a beautiful flower and feel the pleasure of that throughout
our bodies, that is the pervasive prana. When we feel love in our hearts
and it manifests in the expression on our faces, it is the pervasive prana that
connects heart and face. If we feel good and share that with our friends, that
is positive pervasive prana. If we feel bad and dump that bad experience on
someone else and make them feel bad, that can be a negative manifestation
of pervasive prana. Pervasive prana manifests negatively as jealousy and
the wish to harm others; positively it produces a fast, sharp intellect.

Pervasive prana allows the effects of meditation and other spiritual practices
to spread throughout life. Without it, we may have good experiences
but they remain isolated. When most developed, pervasive prana can bridge
time and space. For example, when a strong practitioner consciously chooses
an incarnation after death, it is the power of the pervasive prana that allows
the connection from this life to the next.

The ultimate signs of integration with the air element are the abilities to
transform the body, to be present in more than one place at a time, and to
have clairvoyance. Development of the pervasive prana supports the direct
perception of emptiness and is the pranic basis of bliss.

Downward-moving prana

Downward-moving prana is connected to water. On a mundane level, it is
the energy behind orgasm, urination, bowel movement, and erection. When
it is deficient all these functions can be impaired. It also allows us to eliminate
what we don’t want in other areas of our lives. It is represented as a
bellows that can push energy down, concentrated in the secret chakra behind
the sexual organ.

Negatively, downward-moving prana manifests as attachment and lust.
Positively, it supports being grounded and stable. Its higher function is to
generate bliss in sex; when it is cultivated and integrated, it provides the
ability to receive yogic power through tantric sexual union. Through it one
is able to experience the union of bliss and emptiness, the foundation of
tantric practice.

[jonesboy]

Please,

No comments on how this isn't Buddhism or attacks on the teacher who is very respected.

THE PATH: CHANNELS

Prana moves through the body in channels. There are said to be 84,000 channels in the body—or, alternatively, 360,000—categorized as gross,
subtle, or very subtle. The gross channels are blood vessels, nerves, and the
lymph system. The subtle channels are not substantial but are energetic,
like the meridians of the energetic circulation system recognized in acupuncture.
Very subtle channels are the paths of the very subtle prana. They cannot
be detected or measured, but can be experienced directly by the naturally
sensitive and by yogic practitioners who develop the necessary sensitivity.

Sometimes when I teach I use the metaphor of a house to explain the
relationship of the prana and the channels: The house is the body. The channels
are the wires in the house that carry the electricity. The electricity is the
prana. The light bulbs are the senses. The appliances are the mechanical
functions of the body. If the prana is deficient, the bulbs will not light or
will be lit only dimly. The senses won’t work fully, or the mechanical functions
of the body will be defective, or the thoughts will be unclear. If the
channels are broken or damaged, the results will be the same.

Although I use this analogy, it is a mistake to think of the subtle and very
subtle channels as substantial conduits through which the prana flows. To
imagine them in a way that is closest to their actual nature, imagine them as
paths of light, a network of light that permeates every cell of the body. Some
of the channels are stronger and brighter, some are smaller and dimmer.

There are three main channels used in many of the yogic practices: the
central channel and the two side channels. They were described in the directions
for the purification breathing in the section on shamanism We visualize
them in order to connect with the prana moving through them. Though
the visualization is only a symbolic image, it directs our attention to the
energy that is actually present in the body. I’ll repeat the description of the
three channels here: The central channel is blue and rises straight through
the center of the body, beginning about four finger-widths below the navel;
it is the width of a thick fountain pen, and widens slightly from the heart to
its opening at the crown of the head. The side channels have the diameter of
pencils and join the central channel at its base below the navel, in the center
of the body. They rise straight through the body on either side of the central
channel, curve around under the skull, pass down behind the eyes, and open
at the nostrils. In women the right channel is symbolized as red and the left
as white. In men the right channel is white and the left is red.

Ordinarily prana flows strongly in the side channels. This is the karmic
prana. It can be positive, negative, or neutral, and underlies all normal dualistic
experiences, which are also positive, negative, or neutral. There are
various kinds of karmic prana—in this book we are concerned with the five
primary pranas that I described earlier.

The central channel is very subtle. In it flows the prana that is the energetic
aspect of the non-dual awareness, rigpa. When the nature of reality is
described in terms of two inseparable aspects—form and emptiness, bliss
and emptiness, or awareness and emptiness—it is the central channel that
represents the experience of the inseparability of the two aspects of the
apparent duality.

In the yogic practices of the subtle winds and channels, which are described
in detail a little later, the intention is to open the major chakras and
bring the prana from the side channels into the central channel. Doing this
coincides with the mind releasing dualistic misperceptions and abiding in
the non-dual awareness of rigpa. This is why, in the retrieval of the elements,
the recovered energies are poured into the central channel. When the
prana abides in the central channel, the practitioner can abide in the nature
of mind. The prana and the mind always move together; there is no mind
without prana.

[jonesboy]

Last post for now.. Can add specific energy practices later if anyone is interested.

CHAKRAS

Chakra (khor lo) means “wheel.” Chakras are probably the most well-known
aspect of energetic anatomy in the West, where they are often used as metaphors
for psychological or spiritual growth. But chakras are not only metaphors,
they are actual energetic centers in the body. A chakra is simply a
location in the body at which channels cross. As there are thousands of
channels, there are many, many chakras. However in spiritual and yogic
practice the focus is on the major chakras, the sites where many channels or
major channels cross. If we imagine many channels intersecting—the channels radiating out from the intersection—it is easy to understand why chakras
are represented as spoked wheels or as a wheel-like shape made by the
petals of a lotus.

Many tantric practices require the practitioner to fix his or her attention
in particular chakras. Because prana and mind always move together, directing
the attention directs prana; the movement of prana cannot be divided
from experience. As the pranic centers in the body, the chakras—in
particular the six main ones—influence the quality of experience. Each of
these chakras are linked to the experiential qualities of one of the six realms
of existence.

To use a modern analogy, the main chakras are like hard drives, one for
each of the main realms of experience. Each hard drive has many files. As
long as a chakra is functioning—and it always is to some extent, no matter
how “closed” it may be—one of these files is open. What is displayed by
that file shapes experience. In sleep, for example, if we do not remain aware,
the mind and prana are directed by karmic habit to move to one of the
chakras, which means that the attention becomes rooted in different energetic
locations in the body. As it does, particular types of characteristic
experience arise which determine the character of the dream. When the
mind’s focus moves to another chakra, the dream changes. This normally
happens without our conscious direction unless we are able to guide dreams.

In the yogic practices of the channels and prana, we open the channels so
that the prana can move without obstruction. We open the chakras and evoke
positive experiences associated with that chakra. In the hard drive analogy,
we clear the screen and then call up the file that contains the positive, supportive
qualities that we need for the practice. The tigle is the mental aspect,
the consciousness that is focused there that takes on the quality that is
evoked in the chakra, as a crystal ball takes on the color of fabric that it rests
upon. The syllable is both the password that evokes the quality and the
armor that sustains it.

[sky]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

Please,

No comments on how this isn't Buddhism or attacks on the teacher who is very respected.

Yes it is part of Tibetan Buddhism but the million dollar question is did Buddha teach it.....

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by sky123

Yes it is part of Tibetan Buddhism but the million dollar question is did Buddha teach it.....

Does Buddhism have only one Buddha?

If the answer is Yes, then Yes.

If the answer is No.. are you sure?

Also, Buddhism was an evolving system, it has been since it's beginning. As it spread to different cultures it incorporated much from each culture.

Yes, new teachings have come forth from great Mahasiddhas and Buddha's. Yet all the techniques are designed to help one realize the teachings of the Dharma. If they take one away from the Dharma.. then it isn't Buddhism.

[sky]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

Does Buddhism have only one Buddha?

If the answer is Yes, then Yes.

If the answer is No.. are you sure?

Also, Buddhism was an evolving system, it has been since it's beginning. As it spread to different cultures it incorporated much from each culture.

Yes, new teachings have come forth from great Mahasiddhas and Buddha's. Yet all the techniques are designed to help one realize the teachings of the Dharma. If they take one away from the Dharma.. then it isn't Buddhism.

So these teachings come from another Buddha not the Historical Buddha?

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by sky123

So these teachings come from another Buddha not the Historical Buddha?

The Buddha even talked about other Buddhas.

The goal of Buddhism is to reach Buddhahood is it not?

So you would think that there would be more than one and there has been.

Therevada says it is impossible but even it has new teachings some fairly recent that are very popular.

There have been other Buddhas and great masters that have passed down teachings and insights over the thousands of years.

The Six Yogas of Naropa are a perfect example of that. Another is Tummo. Vajrayana was started by a recognized Buddha.

Let's look at Zen, while the disciple student can be traced to the Buddha, did the Buddha teach wall gazing? Did the Buddha teach the mantras they do during the day?

Every tradition is different in one way based on the methods, the techniques used but all are on agreement on the Dharma.

Also, is this just another way of dismissing teachings that are part of and accepted teachings in Buddhism?

[sky]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

The Buddha even talked about other Buddhas.

The goal of Buddhism is to reach Buddhahood is it not?

So you would think that there would be more than one and there has been.

Therevada says it is impossible but even it has new teachings some fairly recent that are very popular.

There have been other Buddhas and great masters that have passed down teachings and insights over the thousands of years.

The Six Yogas of Naropa are a perfect example of that. Another is Tummo. Vajrayana was started by a recognized Buddha.

Let's look at Zen, while the disciple student can be traced to the Buddha, did the Buddha teach wall gazing? Did the Buddha teach the mantras they do during the day?

Every tradition is different in one way based on the methods, the techniques used but all are on agreement on the Dharma.

Also, is this just another way of dismissing teachings that are part of and accepted teachings in Buddhism?

' Also, is this just another way of dismissing teachings that are part of and accepted teachings in Buddhism? '

It is ok to dismiss teachings that you don't agree with.... Different Schools disagree with certain teachings, we can't all agree with the same things. Yes as I said before they are accepted teachings in some Schools but like it or not, not all.

[jonesboy]

Originally Posted by sky123

' Also, is this just another way of dismissing teachings that are part of and accepted teachings in Buddhism? '

It is ok to dismiss teachings that you don't agree with.... Different Schools disagree with certain teachings, we can't all agree with the same things. Yes as I said before they are accepted teachings in some Schools but like it or not, not all.

Yet each school recognizes them as Buddhist schools and traditions.

One school may disagree with mind only, two fold emptiness, etc.. but they each accept they are schools of Buddhism.

While they disagree they don't say it isn't Buddhism.

For example Zen may say there is no need for the practices in Vajrayana. Zen thinks it's methods are better and vice versa.. but they both accept and respect each other.

Also, isn't much of the same thing taught in Qiqong? heck I think qiqong goes into even more details does it not? Wouldn't seeing such teachings in multiple traditions add to the confirmation that they are true?