Prana

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Prana ( Sanskrit , m., प्राण, prāṇa , breath of life, breath of life) means life , life force or life energy in Hinduism . Prana is comparable to Ruach in the Old Testament , Qi in ancient China , Ki in Japan or the Tibetan lung.

Prana in Yoga and Hinduism

The term prana plays a particularly important role in yoga , but it is already mentioned in the Brahmanas and the Upanishads . In the Brahmanas, in continuation of the Upanishads, an attempt is made to distinguish between the visible and invisible components of the human being. In contrast to the five mortal components - these are hair, skin, flesh, bones and marrow - the five invisible components of human beings such as thinking (manas), speaking, breathing (prana), sight and hearing are often mentioned and as immortal components designated. In this idea the breath is thought of as the central life force, and that is why these five life elements are also referred to as pranas in the Brahmanas.

In Raja Yoga the breathing exercises ( Pranayama ) serve to bring body and mind together through breathing. However, Prana is more than “just” breath or air. In yoga, working with breath and air is understood as access to prana, i.e. the life energy and its manifestation in the body. According to the ideas of yoga, Prana circulates in the body through a system of channels ( nadi ).

In the Upanishads, the teaching of breathing is closely related to the idea of ​​the Atman (soul). Prana pervades every life but is not the Atman or the individual self . In the Kaushitaki Upanishad it says:

I am the breath (prana). Adore me as the atman consisting of knowledge, as life, as immortality. Breath is life and life is breath. Because as long as the breath lingers in this body, so long as life lingers.

Does Prana become dynamic, i.e. H. when the life force reaches a level where it takes on a life of its own, it is called Kundalini in India .

Definition according to Spalding

The American travel writer Baird Thomas Spalding (1857–1953) described Prana as "one of the elements of the mind, for mind is not just energy, but intelligence and substance." According to him it is finer than ether, which is in contrast to the western view, where the ether is equated with the prana. Yet there is a "difference in the delicacy and action of prana and ether". The latter is emerging, whereas Prana is always active. "Ether is becoming prana, or prana growing in revelation." Spalding was of the opinion that all finer natural forces (electricity and the other moving elements of creation) are subdivisions and mediators in which and through which prana works.

See also

literature

  • Baird T. Spalding: Instructions. Indian Travel Letters ( Lives and Teachings of Masters in the Far East , Volume 4). Schirner Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, ISBN 978-3-8434-4437-8 , pp. 211-221 (Chapter XII: "Prana")
  • Alice A. Bailey: The Yoga Path. Karl Rohm 1963, p. 297. ISBN 3-87683-119-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Baird T. Spalding | Life and teachings of the masters in the Far East , Volume 4 "Instructions - Indian Travel Letters", Schirner Verlag, Darmstadt 2004, Chapter 12: Prana, p. 216. ISBN 978-3-8434-4437-8 .