Chapter
3

Prana and Nadis and Chi

Chakras are only a part of a complex, esoteric Eastern view of the body your Western medical doctor never encountered during medical school. It’s a different way of thinking about reality itself and a product of a different culture than ours. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth consideration because the anatomical and spiritual view of the body so familiar to those growing up in India is not just well-established but time-honored and enduring in many other countries around the world. You already know this isn’t a book about esoteric Indian health practices, Chinese medicine, or Eastern theology. This is a book about you and the energy flow inside your own body. That means we are going to have to simplify things a bit. However, we don’t want you to miss out on any of the good stuff, so in this chapter, we’ll talk about the Indian view of anatomy, and what it means to you.

For now, we draw this picture in broad strokes, so you get all the information you need without a lot of unnecessary extras. This chapter gives you the tools to understand your energy body and see what it’s doing, so you can begin to understand how your chakras work in conjunction with everything else.

Get Prana

First, let’s talk about what moves you. Or, more precisely, let’s talk about the energy that flows through you. Let’s talk about prana.

As we explained in Chapter 1, prana is the Sanskrit term for life force energy. Technically, there are several levels of prana, but for now, let’s just talk about prana as the energy that flows in and out of the body and in and out of all living things. Sometimes, the word prana is used as a synonym for the breath, but prana is not the same as the breath. The breath is actually a vehicle to carry prana in and out of the body. Prana rides on and infuses the breath, but is not the breath.

Prana is a key element in Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of health and longevity that emphasizes a whole-life approach to health and life extension, including physical and breathing exercises, diet, massage, herbal medicine, and meditation. According to Ayurveda, a body with free-flowing prana will be healthy. Blocks and overloads in the prana can lead to illness and disease. Ayurveda takes a holistic approach to health. By balancing prana through exercise, breathing, good hygiene, diet, massage, herbal medicine, and other specific practices, prana will become balanced, and the body will heal itself. This healing allows the full expression of life: an integrated body, mind, and spirit.

This view of health and healing, along with the idea of prana, is an ancient one, and it is not unique to India. You might have heard about chi or qi, the word for life force energy that comes from China and is so often used in discussions of acupuncture, Shiatsu massage, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and Tai Chi Chuan or Chi Kung (sometimes called Qi Gong).

Acupuncture is a Chinese healing technique for freeing the flow of chi in the body by piercing energy centers with thin needles. Acupuncture relieves pain and promotes healing. Shiatsu massage is a Chinese healing technique in which the massage therapist uses manual pressure on acupressure points to correct energy imbalances. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a system of healing techniques based on traditional Chinese health practices. These may include acupuncture, herbal and other remedies, and special exercises and massage designed to correct energy imbalances. Tai Chi Chuan is a form of Chinese martial arts related to Chi Kung, primarily practiced today as a meditative moving exercise to balance life force energy. Chi Kung, also called Qi Gong, is the art and practice of manipulating chi through movement and breath control.

Chi is essentially the same thing as prana, though they go by different names because they come from different languages. Because the word chakra is a Sanskrit word, in this book, we generally use the term prana instead of chi when talking about this life force energy. It is called ki in Japanese, khi in Vietnamese, and gi in Korean. In essence, these other systems of healing in other countries are the same as Ayurveda. They all perceive that blocked, overloaded, or imbalanced life force energy leads to ill health and disease. Balanced, free-flowing energy leads to vibrant health and an integrated body, mind, and spirit. As opposed to Western medicine, which seeks to treat specific symptoms or physical abnormalities, these energy-based healing systems see the body in a more holistic way. Correct the body’s energy, and the body will take care of the rest.

Nadi or Nice?

Prana flows in and out of the body; but how does it do that? Just as water flows over the planet or electricity flows through a power plant, prana moves through the body via certain channels or meridians of energy. In Sanskrit, these channels are called nadis. In Chinese medicine, they are called meridians or channels. Again, however, the concept is basically the same.

Technically, nadi comes from the Sanskrit root nad, which means “movement.” The word has been used in many ways in ancient yogic texts and Hindu scriptures. You could say that every blood vessel, artery, nerve, and breathing tube in your body is a nadi because nadis are basically passages through which something moves. In yoga, however, nadis generally refer specifically to the channels that carry life force energy, or prana.

Healers who are schooled in the subtleties of nadis or energy meridians use this knowledge in their practices. For example, according to Dr. Richard Gerber in his book A Practical Guide to Vibrational Medicine, knowing that a particular meridian passes through both the stomach and the knee joint can explain why people with knee arthritis or bursitis might also suffer from stomach problems. He writes, “It is not unusual for people to experience pain along a meridian pathway if there are physical problems affecting the corresponding meridian-linked organ.”

For most of us, however, we don’t have the time or resources to study every single meridian and its course through the body. We leave that to our healing professionals. Your body contains thousands of nadis, and it would take a long time and a lot of training to master them all. However, you can learn about three important ones that are directly related to your chakras. These are nadis you can influence through your own breathwork, movement, and even thought. They are sushumna nadi, ida nadi, and pingala nadi.

Sushumna nadi is a large central energy channel that runs along the spinal column from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Ida nadi is the energy channel that carries feminine energy from the base of the spine to the left of sushumna nadi, coiling around the spine in opposition to pingala nadi and ending at the left nostril. Pingala nadi is the energy channel that carries masculine energy from the base of the spine to the right of sushumna nadi, coiling around the spine in opposition to ida nadi and ending at the right nostril.

Sushumna Nadi

One of the most important nadis in your body is sushumna nadi. This is the central nadi that runs along the midline of your body, right along your spinal column. It isn’t your spinal column, but it coincides with your spinal column.

Sushumna begins at your first chakra or Root chakra, and ends at your seventh chakra or Crown chakra, piercing the center of each chakra. Somewhere around the sixth chakra, or Third Eye chakra, behind your forehead, the sushumna nadi divides into two, like a fork in the road. The front side moves straight up to the seventh chakra at the crown of the head. The back side curves around the back side of your brain and meets the front side at the seventh chakra.

Sushumna nadi is important because this is the channel that carries Kundalini energy from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. In his book Light on Pranayama, B.K.S. Iyengar writes: “Through the discipline of yoga, the direction of the mouth of the coiled serpentine energy is made to turn upwards. It rises like steam through the sushumna … till it reaches the sahasrara.” That serpentine energy is Kundalini. We talk more about that in Chapter 5, but for now, just remember that sushumna nadi is Kundalini’s private highway.

To ascend through the sushumna nadi, Kundalini must move through each of the primary seven chakras along the spine. For that to happen, those chakras must be open, healthy, and free-flowing.

Ida and Pingala Nadis

Wrapped around sushumna are two other important nadis that cross and recross each other at each chakra. These are the ida and pingala nadis. Ida and pingala nadis begin at the base of the spine, to the left and right (respectively) of sushumna nadi. (Some texts say they begin higher up, around the second chakra, or Sacral chakra.) Ida and pingala coil around sushumna nadi in a sort of double-helix pattern, intertwining and crossing each other at each chakra point. Some people compare this structure to a strand of DNA, or to the Greek caduceus symbol of two snakes entwined around a staff. Indeed, the staff is like sushumna nadi, and the two snakes are like ida and pingala, so this is an appropriate way to think about it.

The caduceus is a Greek symbol used today to represent the practice of medicine. It depicts a staff with two snakes entwining around it from bottom to top. This symbol is often used to describe the way in which the masculine and feminine energy channels or nadis coil around a central energy channel in the body called sushumna nadi, which runs along the spinal column.

Like the Chinese concept of yin and yang energy, ida and pingala each carry a different kind of energy. Ida transports lunar, female energy. It is a calm, cooling, meditative, receptive, and centered energy that is good to channel during meditation. Pingala energy is active, energetic, heating, and forceful energy that is good to channel when you need to get things done. When you breathe out of your left nostril, you tap into ida’s energy. When you breathe out of your right nostril, you channel pingala energy.

According to ancient Chinese philosophy, yin and yang are terms for opposite but balancing forces. All things have yin and yang energy. Yin energy is lunar, feminine, cooling, and receptive energy. Yang energy is solar, masculine, heating, and forceful energy. Yin energy is equivalent to the energy that moves through ida nadi.. Yang energy is equivalent to the energy that moves through pingala nadi.

According to yogic belief, at certain times of the day, we all tend to breathe primarily out of one nostril and then out of the other nostril. The nostril that is dominant at any given moment is the energy that is flowing, either through ida or pingala. For a few breaths each hour, when our breath is shifting from one nostril to the other, we breathe out of both nostrils at the same time, activating the sushumna nadi.

Pranayama exercises, which are meant to train and channel the breath to infuse our bodies with prana, can also influence the channels we use. In particular, nadi shodhana, or alternate nostril breathing, helps balance our prana along both ida and pingala by purposefully inhaling through one nostril while holding the other closed, then switching nostrils and exhaling out of the opposite nostril, then inhaling and switching again.

Ida and pingala are important to understand when working with the chakras because they can be helpful, depending on which chakra you are working on and whether that chakra is blocked or overloaded. Ida energy can help calm and dissipate an overloaded chakra, while pingala energy can help energize and open a blocked chakra. Ida energy is good for meditation, while pingala energy is good for invigorating exercise. Learn how to use these energies to your own benefit, and you’ll have another powerful tool for working with your chakras.

Chakras: Traffic Circles, Energy Transformers, Cosmic Vortices

Now, imagine energy, or prana, flowing through your body and coursing through thousands of channels like a network of rivers and streams running through every inch from torso to fingertips and from the bottoms of your toes to the top of your head. Nadis run up and down your body, not just sushumna, ida, and pingala, but a lot of smaller ones. For example, nadis connect your left ear to your right big toe (that one is called yashasvini), and nadis connect your right ear to your left big toe (that one is called pusha). Nadis connect your eyes to your feet, your throat to your genitals, and your hands to your heart. You’ve got thousands of nadis splitting into thousands more smaller nadis, and all of them are filled with moving and flowing energy. This is a road map of you.

Imagine those spots in this vast system of energy flow that are like whirlpools or vortices of energy, where big groups of rivers and streams come together into a swirling central area and then flow back out to other rivers and streams. They collect along your spine, in the palms of your hands, and in the soles of your feet. These are your chakras.

If you read a lot about chakras, you read a lot of metaphors. Call them whirlpools in your network of rivers and streams; traffic circles on the interstate highway system that is you; energy transformers in the vast power plant of your body; or cosmic vortices in your individual manifestation of universal energy. What you call them doesn’t matter so much as how you use them.

Because chakras are energy centers where prana collects as it travels through the nadis of your body, these are energy-intensive spots with a lot of power. That power is yours, swirling there inside for you to read, feel, contemplate, and use. This energy belongs to you. It is you. So, you might as well start tapping into its healing power.

Feeling the Energy

Now that you have a general idea of the network of energy running through your body, we would like you to start feeling it.

Of course, you already feel your own energy flow all the time as you go through your daily life. Whenever you get a surge of energy or good feeling or when you feel blocked, low on energy, or depressed, you are perceiving your own energy flow. Excitement, fright, anxiety, nervousness, and contentment all reflect what your energy is doing at any given moment. However, feeling your energy and really focusing in on your energy are two different things.

Feel the energy of your fourth chakra, or Heart chakra.

Any physical exercise can help get prana or chi moving in your body, but Chi Kung, the art and practice of manipulating chi in the body, consists of different exercises that specifically move and intensify your inner chi. The Chi Kung windmill exercise is particularly good for drawing in and strengthening inner chi. Some say that with the regular practice of this exercise, you can build such inner strength that you can break a board without ever doing any other muscle-strengthening exercises.

Chi Kung Windmill

This exercise is adapted from an exercise that Gene Wong taught to David Carradine, as described in his book Introduction to Chi Kung.

1. Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart and your toes pointed forward. Settle your weight into your heels and bend your knees just slightly but not so much that they extend past the feet. Tuck your tailbone in, pull your chin slightly in, and lift up at the crown of your head. Broaden your upper and middle back and imagine sending energy forward from the area just over your navel. This is the appropriate stance for many Chi Kung exercises.
2. Hold your left palm facing up against your abdomen. Raise your right hand in front of you, palm facing out, and look at the back of your hand. Slowly and with control, move your palm up, keeping your elbow slightly bent. Move your arm in a big circle, like a windmill blade, back behind you and around, following the back of your hand with your eyes.
3. Bring your right hand, palm up, against your abdomen, and rotate your left arm in a big circle, following the back of your hand with your eyes.
4. Repeat several times with both arms.

Do this exercise every day and enjoy dramatic energy reserves. This exercise is also particularly energizing for the third chakra, or Solar Plexus chakra.

Now that we’ve got those spinning chakra wheels into perspective, let’s go deeper. Circles, after all, penetrate our culture, our biology, and our Universe. Keep reading to find out how.