Articles

The Buddhist religion was recently witness to a landmark event that could mark a watershed in the Dharma Teachings. The induction of B-N teaching and traditions, as the fifth principle of Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual School, has great significance for the concept of the Chakras and its interpretation in the Buddhist culture.  The B-N tradition, supposed to be established by Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche, also has a strong similarity to the concept of mind-body synergy through the existence of prana as described in ancient Indian literature. Some scholars have made a comparative analysis of the Buddhist religion to that of the B-N.

B-N is based on the existence of five elemental processes i.e. Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. It is considered the essential pre-requisite for the existence of all external, internal and secret energetic forces of nature.  These five elements are related to all the energy existing in the world. Earth is solidarity, water is cohesion, fire is temperature, air is motion and space is the spatial dimension. These elements are correlated to the different emotions, temperament, directions, moods, thinking styles and character. It is here that the concept of B-N begins to become akin to that of the Chakras. In B-N, there is the description of the five primary pranas or vital energies. These energies are associated to the mental state and the physical well being of the body.

As per B-N teaching, the movement of pranas is associated with all experiences a human undergoes. It is claimed that movement of pranas cannot be separated form the experience of any human. Each of the six major Chakras, (it is assumed that there are six major chakras) are linked to the six stages of existence of a human. An interesting comparison is made by a modern B-N teacher where he compares the computer to the human body. He states that the main chakras are like hard drives. The drive has many files stored in it. One file in each hard drive is always open and the open hard drive governs the state of the particular chakra.  The file which is open shapes the experience of the human at that point in time. The Chakra can be open using Yogic practices and the opening of the chakra leads to permanent bliss.

It is claimed that proper practice of this form of teaching coupled with tantric and yogic teachings can transform all our experiences into bliss. The teachings are akin to those found in other interpretation of the Chakras, the expressions are slightly different though.