THE SNOW LION BUDDHIST NEWS & CATALOG

An understanding of the subtle winds and channels is essential in working with most forms of tantric practice. This clear explanation is taken from Highest Yoga Tantra by Dan Cozort, a useful handbook and map for practitioners.

Winds
The winds are distinguished in several different ways in Nga-wang-bel-den's description of the stages of Highest Yoga Tantra. In one scheme, winds are enumerated as five: (1) the vitalizing wind, which causes inhalation, exhalation, and so forth; (2) the pervasive wind, which makes possible the movement of the limbs, and so forth; (3) the upward-moving wind, which is involved in speech, swallowing, and so forth; (4) the downward-voiding wind, which is responsible for defecation, urination, the emission of semen, and so forth; and (5) the fire-dwelling wind, which is responsible for digestion, and so forth.

Channels
The winds move in a system of 72,000 subtle "channels" arrayed throughout the body. There are three major channels, running parallel to each other from mid-forehead up over the crown of the head down to the base of the spine and then under the trunk of the body to the tip of the sexual organ. The upper opening of the central channel is at the forehead between the eyes and the upper openings of the right channel and left channel are at the top of the nose.

The right channel and left channel wrap around the central channel at certain places, constricting it such that the winds cannot pass through it. In the Guhyasamãja system, the central channel is said to have seven loci of constriction; they are called channel-wheels because many smaller channels branch out of them like the spokes of a wheel, and they are also called channel-knots because of being places of constriction. The wheel-spokes are sometimes called petals because the channel-wheel spreads out like a flower.

The channel-wheels are located at the forehead, the crown of the head, the throat, the heart, the navel, the "secret place," and the opening or tip of the sexual organ. The forehead channel-wheel is the upper opening of the central channel and the channel-wheel at the tip of the sexual organ is its lower opening. The navel channel-wheel is located behind the solar plexus, closer to the spine than the navel. The "secret place" is located at the base of the spine. The channel-wheels have varying numbers of petals or spokes: at the crown there are thirty-two petals, at the throat there are sixteen, at the heart there are eight, at the navel there are sixty-four, at the "secret place" there are thirty-two, and at the sexual organ there are eight.

Winds can move both into and out of the central channel at any of the channel wheels, not merely at just the upper and lower openings. However, the same knots that constrict the vertical movement of winds in the central channel also "plug" the central channel ends of the spokes or petals. Until the knots at the channel wheels are loosened, winds from various parts of the body may be drawn up to those places but not past them; for instance, at the end of the practice of physical isolation, the winds are drawn into the central channel but cannot enter the heart because of the heart channel-knot.

The sign that winds have entered the central channel is that the pressure of exhalation and inhalation is equal and that the volume and pressure of air moving in each nostril is equal, whereas normally there are various imbalances in the breath. As more winds enter the central channel, breathing becomes progressively weaker and finally ceases altogether.

Dissolution of Winds
In the context of the three lower tantra sets—Action Tantra, Performance Tantra, and Yoga Tantra—gaining control over the winds means to be able to restrain the senses by preventing the winds they depend on from going out of the "doors" (the eyes, ears, and so forth) of the senses. However, in Highest Yoga Tantra, the aim is not merely to prevent the winds from going outside, but actually to draw them into the body and then into the central channel by the power of meditation. When the winds are caused to enter the central channel, they are held there, moved around, and drawn into various places where they "dissolve" (cease). The dissolution or cessation of winds concomitantly causes the cessation of the types of minds that rely upon them. Thus, as the coarser winds cease, so do the coarser types of minds, leaving only subtle winds and minds. The remaining subtle mind (mounted on the remaining subtle wind) is then used to cognize emptiness.

The Power of Meditation
The meditation that causes the winds to enter, remain, and dissolve in the central channel consists of special techniques involving penetrative focusing on important parts of the body. The practice of penetrative focusing is begun on the stage of generation, but at that time it is not yet developed sufficiently to cause the entry and dissolution of winds in the central channel. That is what occurs on the stage of completion.

In addition to the techniques involving intensive focusing, yogis of the stage of completion use sexual union with either a real or imagined consort to generate sexual desire, which in turn is used to enhance concentration and cause the generation of a blissful physical and mental feeling. The bliss thus engendered causes the manifestation of subtle consciousnesses called "empties" which the yogis use to realize emptiness. Then, after meditation on emptiness, they practice perceiving all phenomena to be manifestations of bliss and emptiness.

Through lengthy cultivation of these practices over the various levels of the two stages of Highest Yoga Tantra, one completes the collections of merit and wisdom, the imprints of which are the Form and Truth Bodies of a Buddha. These techniques will be described in subsequent chapters on the levels of the stage of completion.

Death, Intermediate State, and Rebirth
By gaining control over the winds, yogis mimic the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth. They are then able to actualize subtle consciousnesses capable of overcoming the barriers to full enlightenment. In the process of ordinary death, winds are involuntarily drawn into the central channel, the channel knots relax, and those winds dissolve into the indestructible drop in the center of the heart. This causes the manifestation of the most subtle of all consciousnesses, the mind of clear light. When the mind of clear light of death ceases, the intermediate state commences, and rebirth occurs sometime within the following forty-nine days.

Special meditative techniques are used in both stages of Highest Yoga Tantra to bring about the same sequence of events as in ordinary death. During the stage of completion, winds enter the central channel, remain there, and then dissolve into the indestructible drop; concurrently, the mind of clear light dawns. However, because these events occur due to the power of meditation one does not enter the intermediate state as one would subsequent to death; rather, one rises in an illusory body—an unobstructive, subtle body made of wind that resembles a deity—and instead of being powerlessly reborn into cyclic existence, one eventually becomes a Buddha.

Most of the meditations of the stage of generation mimic the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth, as specified in the definition, but, according to Nga-wang-bel-den, some do not. For instance, yogas of the stage of generation are said to include the use of an actual consort or the visualization of a circle of protective deities, but neither of those are practices that mimic death, intermediate state, and rebirth.