Rlung, Rtsa and the Tibetan Body: A Complete Guide·Part C of 7
The Geography
Of the thousands of channels the texts mention, three count.
9. The three channels
Of the thousands of channels the texts mention, three count.
| Channel | Pronunciation | Position | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| dbu ma | uma | Central, in front of the spine | The goal. Normally closed |
| ro ma | roma | Side | Solar, warm |
| rkyang ma | kyang-ma | Side, opposite | Lunar, cool |
The two side channels wind around the central one, constrict it at certain points, and end at the nostrils.
And now the honest correction
You will see everywhere neat diagrams with “right = solar, left = lunar”. The reality in the sources is murkier, and this deserves to be said.
- The correspondences differ by tantra. The Guhyasamāja system does not fully agree with the Kālacakra.
- The sides are reversed for women in several traditions. This is not a detail — it means the system does not correspond to fixed anatomy.
- Even the number of channels varies depending on the text.
What does this discrepancy mean? That the map is not measurement. It is a working tool within a specific system of practice — and it works because the system is internally consistent, not because it describes pre-existing structure.
The tradition, at its best moments, says it: the channels are created by the practice; they are not discovered.
The foundational principle
The winds normally move in the side channels. The goal is for them to enter, remain and dissolve in the central one.
And the method is not force. It is balancing the two side channels — at which point the central opens as a consequence.
It is the same shape as chapter 1: you do not command the mind. You regulate the conditions of the wind, and the mind follows.
10. The wheels: four or five, not seven
‘khor lo (khor-lo) — “wheel”. Points along the central channel where channels branch and form nodes.
The Tibetan list
| Wheel | Position | Tibetan | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Of great bliss | Crown of head | bde chen | Seat of the white drop |
| Of enjoyment | Throat | longs spyod | Speech, dream state |
| Of Dharma | Heart | chos kyi ‘khor lo | The centre: the indestructible drop |
| Of emanation | Navel | sprul pa’i ‘khor lo | The fire, the tummo |
Some systems add a fifth, at the lowest point.
Three differences that must be said
1. It is not seven. The seven-fold system that circulates in the West is not this one.
2. There are no rainbow colours. Nor correspondences to endocrine glands. These are modern additions from elsewhere.
3. The centre is not the crown — it is the heart. And this is structurally critical: the system is not ascending toward the crown. The crown is a storehouse; the heart is the place where everything is judged (chapter 12).
The “petals”
Each wheel is described with a specific number of branches (32 at the crown, 16 at the throat, 8 at the heart, 64 at the navel, in the most common version).
The numbers differ by tantra — and this is, again, an indication that we are dealing with a structured object of visualisation, not with anatomical measurement.
11. The knots
rtsa mdud (tsa-dü) — “channel knot”. The points where the two side channels squeeze the central one and obstruct the flow.
The sources differ on the number — three, six, or more — but agree on the essential: the tightest and most critical is in the heart.
What “knot” means
It is not an obstacle you break. The text insists: knots are untied, not broken — and they are untied when the winds can gradually enter, not when they are pressed.
And the correspondence with the psychic is explicit: each knot is connected with a form of tightening of identity — attachment to something you take to be self.
The practical point
This explains why the tradition insists so strongly on order and gradualness.
A strong wind in a tight channel does not open it. It presses it. And the result has a name: chapter 16.
12. The heart and the indestructible drop
mi shigs pa’i thig le — “the indestructible drop”. At the centre of the heart wheel, described as the size of a mustard seed: white in the upper half, red in the lower.
Inside it dwells the very subtle level of chapter 3 — the very subtle wind and the very subtle mind, inseparable.
Why the heart and not the head
This is one of the most stable points of the tradition, and has clear logic:
- In deep sleep, the winds gather in the heart
- In death, the two drops meet there
- In the completion of practice, there they enter and dissolve
The heart is the point to which the system returns every time it simplifies.
The structural consequence
This separates the system from any ascending model. The movement is not “bottom-up”. It is periphery-to-centre.
You do not ascend. You gather.
INTERLUDE — Two different professions
Before we enter the medicine, a clarification is needed that otherwise creates confusion throughout the rest of the text.
The word rlung is used by two different professions, with different technical meanings.
The yogi
For the ascetic, rlung is the vehicle of consciousness within a subtle body of channels. He works with ten winds, three channels, drops, wheels. His purpose is cognitive.
The physician
For the sman pa (menpa), rlung is one of the three functional principles of the organism — the one that governs every movement: breath, circulation, nervous function, excretion, and the functioning of the mind. He works with pulse, urine, diet, medicines. His purpose is therapeutic.
These are not confusion — these are different levels of description
The Tibetans themselves did not mix them. A monk could be both, but he knew which hat he was wearing.
The best analogy: an engineer and a physician both use the word “pressure”, and mean related but not identical things.
And the point at which the two meet
There is one point at which the two professions necessarily speak to each other: when a practitioner falls ill from his practice.
Then the physician is called to treat something caused by the yogi. And the medical tradition has a ready category for this, with a name and a protocol.
It is chapter 16, and it is the reason this document exists.