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Frank Answers About Yoga Harnessing the Wind and Releasing the Spirit

There is a relationship between wind and spirit. In the Genesis 1 creation story they are one and the same.

As a liturgist I have an interest in the seasons of the year. The natural seasons often relate to the liturgical seasons. We regard the natural seasons as beginning with the solstices and equinoxes. But when the body’s sensory experience of these seasons are considered, phenomenologically as well as meterologically the seasons really straddle the equinoxes and solstices. The climate as we usually experience it is the same on both sides of these astrological moments.

Yoga practice relates the body’s experience of the seasons to the elements of Earth (late summer/early autumn), fire (late autumn/early winter), water (late winter/early spring), and wind or air (late spring/early summer). I also relate these elements to the liturgical times of harvest/Thanksgiving (earth), Christmas/Epiphany (fire), Lent/Easter (water), and Pentecost (wind). Yoga knows a fifth element: space, which fits between any of these other elements. I relate it liturgically to the Ascension of Christ between Easter and Pentecost. But, of course, we’re never without the elements at any time of the year, just as we’re never without the spiritual realities celebrated by the annual festivals at any time. However, just as the spiritual realities of the liturgical seasons are experienced throughout the whole liturgical year, so the cosmological elements can be experienced in the body at any time. The yoga practices I offer to relate to these seasons are always available for what the body needs.

Pentecost and Spirit

As I post this article we are approaching the Day of Pentecost (June 5 in 2022). I see Pentecost as the liturgical corollary to the element of air or wind. Coming fifty days after Easter, it also ushers in summer in the northern hemisphere. The festival commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles of Jesus with “a sound like the rush of a violent wind” (Acts 2:4). Indeed, Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3 that the Spirit is like the wind. It is unpredictable. “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:8). This Spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism (observed at The Epiphany) and is bestowed on the newly-baptized (baptism is preeminently celebrated on Easter and confirmation often on Pentecost). 

“Spirit” in Greek is pneuma (“breath”, “wind”, “energy”). Pneuma is the equivalent of the Hebrew ruach, the wind of God that swept over the waters of the pre-created world in Genesis 1:1, bringing order out of the pre-existent chaos. It is similar to the Sanskrit prana, which is usually translated “breath,” “energy,” or “life force.” The Latin spiritus also means “breath”, “energy,” or “life force”. The psalmist says, “when you send forth your spirit (breath), all are created; and you renew the face of the ground” (Psalm 104:30).  The life-giving Spirit, like the air we breathe, like the wind we feel, is everywhere. But you can only tell its presence by what you feel on your body or see set in motion (for example, swaying branches of trees or swirls of dust).

My friend J-L breathing in the sea air in his native St. Martin/St. Maarten in the Caribbean.

Air and Wind

We animals breathe, and most of the time we’re unaware of doing it, just as we’re unaware of the air we breathe, unless it is stirred into movement that we call wind that we feel on our bodies. Wind is caused by a difference in pressure from one area to another area on the surface of Earth caused by uneven heating of Earth’s surface by the sun. Air naturally moves from high to low pressure.

Because of the uneven temperatures of Earth’s air masses, instability is created in the atmosphere when warm and cool air masses meet. This can create strong winds and heavy rains at the front of the air masses. In the middle of North America (the American Midwest) tornadoes are formed by the collision of warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cool, dry air from Canada. Early spring produces the most optimal conditions to form tornadoes.

Tornado over Manitoba

The rotation of Earth causes air to move.  Because Earth’s shape is approximately spherical, the force of moving air currents is greatest at the poles and least at the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, air currents are deflected toward the right; in the Southern Hemisphere they are deflected to the left. Winds become stronger when the air currents have to move around stationary objects like tall mountains or buildings or trees.  Air is invisible to us unless we see its effects in moving objects such as tree branches or windmills, like this one at Kinderdijk in The Netherlands..

When our bodies move quickly through the air, for example by riding in a vehicle or running, we push against the air and generate wind. Water evaporates in the air; it evaporates more quickly in windy conditions. Runners and other athletes experience the cooling effect of the air as sweat evaporates from their bodies.  Other mammals don’t sweat, so their body temperatures run much higher than ours. When they get overheated they pant. Humans are unique in that we can direct heat off the body by sweating, and when our sweat evaporates in the air the body cools down. The cooling of the body is energizing, and this additional energy gives us more endurance.  

Yoga and Breath

Yoga has a great interest in breath work. We should note that most of the time our breathing is shallow. It becomes more intense as we need more oxygen in the lungs for more vigorous exertions.  Yoga has developed a practice of inhaling to fill the lungs in three stages, which are seen in the extension of the belly outward and to the sides, then the ribs to the sides, and finally the upper chest. (The lungs are big organs.) Belly breathing is not sufficient in itself since in some poses the abdomen is constricted and chest breathing is required. We can practice inhaling in three stages from the upper lungs (upper chest) to the middle lungs (solar plexus) to the lower lungs (belly) and then exhale from the belly up.

Assisting hands pressing on the upper chest and the solar plexus.

The Five Vayus

Yoga also provides a way of harnessing wind power by moving prana into, throughout, and out of the body. The ancient yogis observed specific ways prana could be regulated and controlled in the body. This form of pranayama (breath control) is called the vayus or “winds.” Five main vayus have been identified: Prana vayu, Vyana vayu, Udana vayu, Samana vayu, and Apana vayu. These winds are not only physical forces moving within the body; they also affect mental and emotional energies.

Patrik Bitter of Essen, Germany, in high lunge.

Prana vayu means “moving air forward.” This is the energy that receives air, food, and water into the body. Its’ “seat” is the heart, and it is most associated with the element of air. This energy moves into the center of the body from the nostrils to the core (between the navel and the throat).

Vyana vayu means “outward moving wind.” This is the energy that connects the functions of the body. It has no particular seat, and is most associated with the element of water. It governs our internal sense of coordination, balance and physical integrity or cohesiveness.

Udana vayu means “wind which carries upward.” This energy addresses the region of the throat and head, and is seated specifically in the throat. It also governs muscle function and strength in the extremities as well as the sensory function of the eyes, ears, and nose. It is associated with ether or the element of space.

Samana vayu means “the balancing wind.” This energy moves primarily in the region between the navel and the heart (solar plexus), and its seat is said to be in the navel. It is the controlling power of metabolism or “digestive fire” and governs the digestive organs and glands. It also governs the assimilation of oxygen from the air we breathe. It relates to the element of fire.

Apana vayu means “the wind that moves away.” The dominant energy of apana vayu is downward and outward movement.  It governs the ejection of whatever is not needed in the body. It is the force behind elimination of waste and also the process of reproduction from insemination to childbirth. It relates to the element of earth.

The directions in which these vayus move in the order in which I have presented them is from outside the body into the core (prana), from the core to the peripheries (vyana), from the core upward to the throat and the head (udana), from core to the navel (samana), and from the navel to the pelvic floor (apana). These directions of the movement of prana will govern the asana practice. Suggestions would be:

Prana vayu – backbends to open the heart

Vyana vayu – standing laterals to extend the prana throughout the body to the extremities of the arms and hands and legs and feet

Warrior II in the Himalayas

Udana vayu – inversions to bring the prana into the head

extended wheel pose

Samana vayu – abdominal work and belly breathing (kapalabhati or bastrika) to generate digestive fire

Apana vayu – forward folds, twists, and mula bandha (abdominal lock) to send prana down into the earth and out into the world

We can also do meditations on the five vayus, which I adapted as follows:

Prana vayu – invoke a sense that prana is all around. With arms outstretched draw prana into the heart center, bringing the hands to prayer position over the heart.

Vyana vayu – place hands in an upward-pointing triangle over the heart, then extend them out and bring them together over the heart in the upward-pointing triangle mudra five times.

Udana vayu – bring hands over the head in the upward-pointing triangle mudra chanting OM loudly five times.

Samana vayu – draw awareness to the navel center by placing hands in the downward-pointing triangle on inhale. On exhale draw the navel in and up (uddiyana bandha). Hold and release. Do this several times.

Apana vayu – draw attention down to the pelvic floor. Place the inverted triangle mudra over the pubic area. Take a long breathe in with root lock and on exhale release root lock and send all the energy down to the floor. The upward-pointing triangle represents shiva (consciousness); the downward-pointing triangle represents shakti (energy). The triangle is really a yantra being used as a mudra.

Workshop on Yoga and Theology

In July 2015 I did a workshop at Hartwick College on “Yoga and Theology” in which I led participants through this vayu series as I had practiced it. I asked them to consider St. Paul’s teaching that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19). As yoga imagines a subtle yet real body energized by the prana, can Christians conceive of a spiritual yet real body that is energized by the Holy Spirit? “Therefore glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

I adapted the above meditation into a meditation invoking the Holy Spirit, chanting the Latin invocation, “Veni Sancte Spiritus” (“Come, Holy Spirit”). This posture meditation uses this sequence: extend arms outward while chanting “Veni.” Bring arms overhead in a triangle for the Trinity chanting “Sancte.” Bring hands down to prayer pose over heart chanting “Spiritus.” An inhale breath will be needed before each arm movement since one can’t exhale and chant at the same time.

[This whole vayu asana sequence and the “Veni Sancte Spiritus” meditation are included in my book, Embodied Liturgy: Lessons in Christian Ritual (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016), pp. 291-93 in Chapter 10, “Breathing Bodies, Singing Bodies.”]

In reality, the life force is one even though yoga divides it into five types according to its movement within the body, just as the air in Earth’s atmosphere is one no matter the wind currents and patterns, just as the Spirit is One. Doing a sequence that includes all five vayus in one practice helps to reinforce the unity of energy/breath/Spirit.

Drawing the air into the body, sensing it circulating throughout the body, and expelling the used oxygen from the body as carbon dioxide, which is used by plants for photosynthesis, helps us to realize that we are a part of this planetary air oasis that constitutes the biosphere. Keeping our air from being polluted by gases that are toxic to animal life is in human self-interest as well as for the good of the whole biosphere.  As summer approaches yogis should take their practice outdoors, enjoy the biosphere, and do what we can to maintain and renew it.

Surging forward and upward, empowered by prana

Because we exhale as well as inhale, the practice of the vayus both summons and sends the life-giving breath or Spirit into and throughout the body and out into the world again. This is what the Holy Spirit does to sanctify us wholly. The Spirit is invoked on us in Holy Baptism, strengthened in Confirmation, nourished in Holy Communion. Summoned within, the Holy Spirit energizes us for mission in the world.

In the end, the Holy Spirit, “the Lord and giver of life,” will raise up the dead and breathe new and eternal life into our mortal bodies that we may glorify God forever. In the meantime, the life-giving Spirit empowers us for worship and service in this world where “we live and move and have our being,” as St. Paul quoted from an ancient Greek poet.

Yogi Frank

Full of prana in all directions

Frank Senn

I’m a retired Lutheran pastor. I was in parish ministry for forty years and taught at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for three years. I've been an adjunct professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. Since my retirement in 2013 I've also taught courses at Trinity Theological College in Singapore, Satya Wacana Christian University in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia, and Carey Theological College in Vancouver. I have a Ph.D. in theology (liturgical studies) from the University of Notre Dame.