Prāṇa
Prāṇa; (Tib. rlung) “Breath”, wind, current of energy, psychosomatic energy, of which there are five types activating the subtle Body. The psychic energy or vitality that emanates from the sun, from the Heart of all manifest Life. This word is derived from the Sanskrit roots pra, meaning “forth”, and na, meaning “to breathe, move, live”. It is the “Breath of Life”, the energy drawn to the physical World from the etheric aspect of all phenomenal Life, and is the sum total of the vital energy composing a Body, be it human, planetary, or solar. The process of Liberation from bondage to the dense Form is directly concerned with the transmutation and right projection of the grossest forms of prāṇa in the Body. It is the energy that flows through the Naḍī system, where it takes on five different attributes or qualities, (the five vayūs: apāna, Udāna, prāṇa, samāna, vyāna,) related to the five main attributes of Mind. (The four concreted levels, and the abstract level.)
