Lung (Tibetan Buddhism) - Usages

Usages

Some of the different usages of the term lung include:

• the psychic winds (sanskrit: prana) that travel in the internal channels, or nadi (Sanskrit) of the subtle body and are manipulated in certain Vajrayana yoga practices.
• specifically the five psychic winds that are a manifestation of the Mahabhuta. These five are the lifeforce that animate the bodymind (Sanskrit: namarupa) of all sentient beings and are key to certain tantric Buddhist and Bon sadhanas and Traditional Tibetan medicine.
• to the vayu and prana of ayurvedic medicine.
• as a component of the term for a type of prayer flag, named after the allegorical Wind Horse (Tibet: lung ta).
• a type of tantric buddhist empowerment that involves the transference of spiritual power from master to augment or refine that of the disciple through the recitation of scripture or song. This oracular transmission received aurally defines Mantrayana and Ngagpa traditions and provides them with their nomenclature.
• the "reading transmission" of sutrayana texts, in which the entirety of the text is read aloud from teacher to student.