Subtle body

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A Tibetan illustration of the subtle body, showing the central channel and two side channels as well as five chakras.

subtle body (Skt. sukshma-sharira; T. phra ba’i lus [alt. lus phra, lus phra ba]).[1] In Buddhist tantra, the aspect of the psycho-physical system that lies between the physical body and the mind.[2] Tsoknyi Rinpoche states:

Essentially the subtle body is a kind of interface between the mind and the physical body, a means by which these two aspects of being interact.[2]

The subtle body is made up of three related features: the channels (nāḍī), inner winds (prāṇa or vāyu), and drops (bindu). The channels are the pathways through which the "inner winds" flow. The drops (bindu) are "vital essences" that ride on the winds that flow through these channels.

The tantras also identify “wheels” (cakra), or nodes, at which various channels intersect.

The subtle body is sometimes referred to as the "inner mandala" within tantric texts. The anatomy of the subtle body is also central to traditional Tibetan medicine.

The subtle body is also known as the ‘innate body’ (nija-deha) or the ‘uncommon means body’ (asadhdrana-upayadeha).[3]

Channels (nāḍī)

The channels (nāḍī) are the pathways through which the inner winds flow. While these channels can be divided into up to seventy-two thousand, the most important are the central channel, and the left and right channels.[4]

The Princeton Dictionary states:

These channels branch out from networks located along the central channel (avadhūtī) that runs from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. The central channel is paralleled and entwined by two vertical channels on the right and left, called the rasanā (right) and lalanā (left). At the points where the right and left channels wrap around the central channel, there are networks (called cakra, or “wheels”) of smaller channels that radiate throughout the body. The number of these networks [cakra] differs among various systems, but they are commonly said to be located along the central channel at the crown of the head, the point between the eyes, the throat, the heart, the navel, the base of the spine, and the tip of the sexual organ. Much tantric practice is devoted to techniques for loosening knots in the channels in order that the winds will flow smoothly through them, with advanced practices designed to cause the winds to enter the central channel. The system of channels also provides the basis for medical theories in both India and Tibet.[5]

Most systems identify five or seven “wheels” (cakra) along its course of the central channel, where the central channel intersects with other channels.

Origin of subtle body theory

Willa Blythe Baker states:

The term “subtle body” is a close translation of a term found in Sanskrit sources, sukshma-sharira, rendered in Tibetan as traway-lu (transliterated phra ba’i lus). According to Samuel [2013], the term’s origins extend back as far as the Indian Taittiriya Upanishad, composed during the fourth to fifth century, which discusses five coexisting bodies: the physical body, the vital breath body, the mental body, the consciousness body, and the bliss body. Samuel tells us that by the eighth century, with the emergence of the Buddhist niruttarayoga tantras, the term had come to refer to a complex subtle physiology that both coexists with, and functions in constant relationship to, the physical body and its cognitive correlate, the mind. This strain of Indian Buddhist tantric literature became very influential in the Himalayan region, where it remains a major part of religious tradition to this day.
Given the close relationship between this subtle physiology and the coarse flesh-and-blood body, it is not surprising that in contemporary Himalayan (or Tibetan) Buddhist practice, the subtle body acts as a kind of bridge between the body and mind. This view can be found dating back to the work of Yangonpa Gyaltsen Pal (1213–1258), a Tibetan yogi and author of one of the earliest Tibetan handbooks describing the subtle body. In his seminal work on this topic, Description of the Hidden Vajra Body, he explains that as an interface between body and mind, the subtle body has elements of the physical, such as form, colors, and structure. But it has elements of the mental as well; like thought and emotions, the subtle body can be reconditioned with focus, training, and intent, and even permanently altered to support a more enlightened state of being.
Echoing a system found in many Buddhist tantras, Yangonpa taught that the activity of bridging body and mind takes place via a tripartite structure of channels (nadi), winds (vayu), and drops (bindu), the key components of the subtle body. These components are interconnected and find expression in their subtle correlates of body, speech, and mind. The channels, as subtle correlates of body, are pathways. The winds, subtle correlates of speech, are energies that move along those pathways. And the drops, which are subtle correlates of mind, are vital essences that are stored in and move throughout various locations of the body.[1]

The subtle body in tantric practice

Willa Blythe Baker states:

In tantric theory, specific practices and transmissions involving appropriate attention to these three subtle aspects of being [channels, winds, and drops] facilitate training and mastery of the movement of energies and vital essences, eventually catalyzing an enlightenment experience that is authentic and irreversible. Hence, this subtle interface between body and mind becomes the key component of liberation: if the subtle body is mastered, the mind can be freed. For that reason, in Buddhist tantric practice, the subtle body takes on a role of supreme importance.
Yangonpa further states that the mechanism for this kind of somatic awakening resides first and foremost in the simplicity of valuing, learning about, and experiencing the subtle body. The subtle body of Buddhist tantric understanding is not subtle merely because it is invisible to the naked eye, but also because it can only be fully known through internal sensory or meditative experience. According to Yangonpa, simply learning a map of the subtle body is not enough. A yogic practitioner must pay attention to the field of the body’s experience, a notion that students of the dharma long accustomed to valorizing the mind may find challenging, though ultimately refreshing. In paying attention to the body’s field of experience, the mind is naturally and immediately involved, but attention is drawn away from thought and becomes immersed in somatic feeling. In this way, the subtle body inhabits an “in between” mode of embodiment, mediating between body and mind.
Our physical body, with its heaviness and self-regulating activity, seems largely out of our control. Similarly, we often experience the mind, with its flightiness and intelligence, as completely unmanageable. The subtle body bridges these two realms—the mental and the physical—by privileging neither body nor mind in isolation, but rather accommodating both as an integrated whole. This whole is the field of somatic experience, as it occurs at the present moment. While the body may not be in our control, the quality of our attention to our experience is, and this is where we begin to enter the world of the subtle body. Here, we find a unique place of entry into a more conscious relationship with both body and mind.[1]

There are a variety of tantric practices for working with the subtle body, including yogic exercise known as lujong in Tibetan, as well as Completion Stage practices such as the Six yogas of Naropa.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Baker 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tsoknyi Rinpoche 2012, Seven: The Subtle Body.
  3. ↑ Wayman 2024, p. 65.
  4. ↑ Internet-icon.svg rtsa , Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  5. ↑ Buswell & Lopez 2014, s.v. nāḍī.
  6. ↑ Samuel 2013, p. 38.

Sources

  • Wayman, Alex (2024), Yoga of the Guhyasamajatantra: The Arcane Lore of Forty Verses (A Buddhist Tantra Commentary), Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House 

Further reading

  • Book icoline.svg Baker, Ian (2019), Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices, Inner Traditions 
  • Book icoline.svg Chenagtsang, Dr. Nida (2016), The Tibetan Book of Health, SKY Press 
  • Goldfield, Rose Taylor (2013), Training the Wisdom Body: Buddhist Yogic Exercise, Shambhala Publications 

External links

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