Foundations · Reading
Prana
The vital force that moves through the body and the breath.
Awaiting subject reviewWritten from our source material and not yet checked by a teacher of this practice. Read it as reference, and learn the practice from someone who teaches it.
A traditional model
Prana means the vital force. The tradition describes it as what animates every living being and moves through the body along the nadis.
The breath is not prana itself but its most tangible movement. The Hatha texts say that when prana moves, the mind moves, and when prana is steady, the mind is steady. That is the reason pranayama exists. The tradition also divides prana into five vayus, or currents, each with its own region and function.
Terms
- Prana
- The vital force.
- Vayu
- A current or wind of prana.
Ideas behind it
Sources and tradition
- YOG Union App Content Map, 2 November 2026, pp. 2–3, philosophy and foundations