Agni: The Belly Fire of Transformation

If you’ve ever rubbed the big belly of a Buddha statue for good luck, you were also symbolically stoking the inner fire that lives in all of us. Many cultures instinctually reference the importance of the abdominal area as a place of fire and power. Before medical research had proven the physiological connection between the gut and the brain, Robert Louis Stevenson used the term “fire in the belly” to describe a person’s “burning drive” in the 19th century. In Korean and Chinese martial arts and healing systems, the lower abdomen is known as the lower dantien and is also understood to be the seat of our life force, which is called qi in Chinese and ki in Korean. In Japan, hara means abdomen but also refers to this area where life force energy, ki, is developed and stored. In the yoga tradition, the fire in our belly is known as agni, which means fire in Sanskrit, the ancient language of yoga.

Michael Gershon, M.D. and chair of the department of anatomy and cell biology at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, says a “second brain” works in the abdomen. This “second brain” is the enteric nervous system, the system that controls our digestion and can work both independently and in conjunction with the brain in the head. Dr. Gershon says that there is an intimate relationship between our brain and our gut and that our digestion responds to the thoughts and emotions. “You have more nerve cells in the gut than you do in the combined remainder of the peripheral nervous system,” he says. “If there isn’t smoothness and bliss going up to the brain in the head from the one in the gut, the brain in the head can’t function.”

Ancient yogis have been stating what Dr. Gershon has proven for thousands of years. According to yogic and ayurvedic scriptures, one must be able to digest food, thoughts, and emotions in order to be free of disease. One must also be able to use the nutrients being digested in the belly to transform the body, mind, and spirit. The energy needed for this digestion and transformation is the element of fire, agni. Ayurveda and Indian spiritual traditions state that there are at least 13 types of agni that digest food. In the Tantra tradition, bhutagni is the type of fire that burns our bhuta (translated as “inner ghosts,” more commonly known as “inner demons” or habits that haunt us) and therefore transforms us spiritually.

Local ayurveda practitioners Indu Arora and Zach Zube comment on agni and how to work with it. Indu defines agni as not what we see as flames, but as an internal, transformative fire that transforms knowledge to wisdom through meditation, vision to insight through acting in moderation, and food to nourishment through digestion. She says that a balanced, wholesome, and compatible diet helps maintain the fire of metabolism. Zach also advises that one of the simplest approaches to balancing agni is to eat three meals a day, at the same time every day, with your largest and most complex meal for lunch and smaller, simpler meals for breakfast and supper. This can lead to a steady rhythm of digestion and improve the quality and regularity of elimination. Zach’s choice word to talk about agni is “balance.”

Dr. Sheila Patel says on Deepak Chopra’s website that a regular meditation practice and releasing negative emotions are also ways to keep our inner fires going (chopra.com). Tantric master Pandat Rajmani Tigunait prescribes three yoga exercises that will develop a powerful fire at the naval, agni sara, ganesha mudra, and yoga mudra.

Agni sara is done by exhaling fully and holding the breath out of the body. You then powerfully draw the stomach muscles in and upwards creating a hollowing of the belly. Hold for a few seconds, then gently release.

Ganesha mudra is a moving gesture that combines cat and cow poses, rounding and arching the spine, with a continuous, circular motion of the hips. Begin on the hands and knees in tabletop pose. Inhale. Exhale and bring your hips to the right, back, left, and back to the original tabletop position. Inhale and repeat in the same direction 1-3 minutes. Then reverse in a counter-clockwise direction.

The third agni yoga practice is yoga mudra. Sit on your knees or cross legged on the floor. Open your palms in your lap, inhale. Exhale, fold forward over your hands and hold the pose, breathing deeply into the palms as they press upward into the belly. Stay here for three to five breaths. Inhale and slowly sit up. Repeat three times. These exercises focus on physical activation of the abdomen as a way to access the energetic and esoteric transformative fire. A few contraindications to these poses include pregnancy, digestive issues, and ulcers. More information can be found at https://yogainternational.com/article/view/tantra-therapy-part-3-advanced-yoga-practices.

Balanced agni has many mental and emotional benefits as well as physical benefits. As Zach said, “Ayurveda teaches that with balanced agni, we are healthy and we have proper tissue development, regular elimination, strength, endurance, courage, a sense of vibrant energy, resilience, and even a pleasant disposition and sense of joy.”

Developing and maintaining a strong fire in the belly is key to personal transformation and proper physical, mental, emotional and spiritual digestion. As ayurveda states, we’re not what we eat, we’re what we digest. So, next time you rub a big Buddha belly for good luck, rub your own belly for proper agni.