Five and Ten vāyu in Vajrayāna Buddhism
Five and Ten vāyu in Vajrayāna Buddhism
Their location and Function
སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྲོག་གྱུར་པ།
།རླུང་ཞེས་བྱ་བས་ལས་ཀུན་བྱེད།
།འདི་ནི་རྣམ་ཤེས་བཞོན་པ་སྟེ།
།ལྔ་ཡི་བདག་ཉིད་བཅུ་ཡང་ཡིན།
Vital air, the life force of sentient beings,
Is the doer of all the activities.
It is the vehicle of the consciousness,
Composed of five and also ten forms.
Nāgārjuna (Pañca Krama text རིམ་ལྔ་)
Ten vāyu of the body:
I. Five Primary air (རྩ་བའི་རླུང་ལྔ་/རང་བཞིན་འབྱུང་བཞིའི་རླུང་ལྔ་):
སྲོག་འཛིན་ (prāṇavāyu) Life bearing air.
Location: the centre of activity is the heart centre.
Function: Sustains life and helps the movement of air through nostrils.
ཐུར་སེལ་ (apānavāyu) downward clearing air.
Location: Centred at the crotch or loin region.
Function: Its activity is expelling and holding urine, faeces, semen and blood.
གྱེན་རྒྱུ (udānavāyu) upward moving air.
Location: Centred at the throat.
Function: It helps to eat, taste, talk, and vomit and it also helps other vāyu to move upwards.
ཁྱབ་བྱེད་ (vyānavāyu) Pervasive air.
Location: From head to toe and all the joints of the body.
Function: This air spreads all over the body and helps in the movement of the body.
མཉམ་གནས་/མེ་མཉམ་ (samānavāyu) air coexisting with fire.
Location: Centred at the navel area.
Function: Digest food, Separate the waste and nutrients from the food and kindle the fire of Tummo.
II. Five Secondary vāyu (ཡན་ལག་གི་རླུང་ལྔ་/རྣམ་འགྱུར་གྱི་རླུང་ལྔ་):
ཀླུ་/རྒྱུ་བ་ (Nāgavāyu) Serpent (vāyu of eyes/visible form).
Location: This air moves from the eyes and stays in the intestines. As the centre of this air is the intestine which looks like a coiled snake, it is called Nāga (serpent).
Function: This air (that moves in the eyes) becomes the vehicle of the eye-consciousness and apprehends the outside visible objects.
རུ་སྦལ་/རྣམ་པར་རྒྱུ་བ་ (Kūrma vāyu) Tortoise (vāyu of ear/sound).
Location: This air moves from the ear to the liver and as the liver looks like a tortoise, it is called Kūrma.
Function: Becomes the vehicle of ear consciousness and comes in contact with the sound.
རྩངས་པ་/ཡང་དག་པར་རྒྱུ་བ་ (Kṛkala) Lizard (vāyu of nose/smell).
Location: This air moves from the nose to the lungs and as the lung looks like a lizard, it is called Krkala (lizard).
Function: Becomes the vehicle of nose consciousness and comes in contact with the smell.
ལྷས་སྦྱིན་/རབ་ཏུ་རྒྱུ་བ་ (Devadatta) (vāyu of skin/touch).
Location: This air moves through the skin pores of the whole body. It is called Devadatta because it appears like a daughter of Devadatta wearing a white silk dress.
Function: Becomes the vehicle of bodily consciousness and comes in contact with tangible objects and apprehends the touch.
གཞུ་ལས་རྒྱལ/ངེས་པར་རྒྱུ་བ་ (Dhanu-jaya) Victory over bow (vāyu of tongue/taste).
Location: This air moves in the tongue and stays at the kidneys, and as the kidney looks like a bow it is called a victory over a bow.
Function: Becomes the vehicle of tongue consciousness and apprehends the taste.
Note: This post is based on Jonang Taranatha’s Tibetan text. Image source Rubin Museum of Art (18th century Tibet).