# The Rainbow in a Prison **1) What does the expression “rainbow in a prison” mean?** We dearly love our bodies of flesh and blood, but imagine how they would seem to a person whose body had already changed to light.  Sort of a slimy prison.  A dangerous place to be stuck in. Incidentally, you maintain the general outer form of a human being when your body does change.  Other people (remember the pen and the dog) might even see you the same as before.  You and others like you, though, see you as the most exquisite being you can imagine right now, magnified a thousand times over. And so sometimes the body of light is called the “rainbow” body, because from a distance a rainbow looks like solid stuff, but up close you can pass your hand through it: no more guts and blood. Since a dog in the end is only the seeds to see things as a dog, a person again who really understands seeds could take on various outer forms, and appear to be born as various different people, if this would help us.  They know it’s easier for us, on a day-to-day level, to relate to someone fairly much like ourselves.  And so at the beginning they come to us that way. **2) How does the inner prana in general become a specific one of the five primary winds?** When the inner winds race to a specific part of the body and gather there, even momentarily, to perform a necessary bodily function, we identify them as one of the five primary winds. **3) Give the Sanskrit name for “inner wind” in the sense of the five primary winds, along with its root and some related English words.** The Sanskrit name for “inner wind” is vayu vayu.  This comes from a root √va va, which means to blow.  We see this root in the word nirvana, which means to blow out  the fire of one’s negative emotions, forever.  Other related words are wind, weather, vent, and wing. **4) Describe the function of the “pervasive” wind.  Then give the Sanskrit word for it, and some related English words.** The “pervasive” wind covers the entire body, governing the flow of all other winds to whatever place they are needed.  The Sanskrit name for this wind is vyana Vyan.  This word has two parts, vi and ana.  Vi here means out, or throughout.  Ana means breathing, and comes from the root √an An! , meaning to breathe.  Related English words are animated, anime, and animal. **5) Describe the function of the “life” wind, clarifying some confusion that might come up about its Sanskrit name.  List finally some related English words.** The “life” wind maintains life itself and also the passage of breath.  Its name in Sanskrit is the prana wind, and so it can be confused with the general prana that moves throughout all the channels of the body.  This confusion is magnified because of the multiple senses of “wind” in both Sanskrit and Tibetan: as breath; as prana; as the outer wind; as one of the doshas or humors of the body; as one of the five primary winds; or as a disorder of one of this wind. The Sanskrit word prana àa[ has two parts, pra and ana.  The prefix pra à  means before or great, and is found in the English proud and prow.  Ana has a basic meaning of life and comes from the root √an An! , meaning to breathe.  Related English words are animated, anime, and animal. **6) Describe the function of the “downward-clearing” wind; give its Sanskrit name; band some related English words.** The “downward-clearing” wind assures the elimination of feces and urine.  Its name in Sanskrit is apana apaana.  This word is composed of two parts, apa and ana.  The prefix apa Ap  here means down or off; it is found in the English words after, off, ebb, and post (as in post-war and so on).  Ana again has a basic meaning of life and comes from the root √an An! , meaning to breathe.  Related English words are animated, anime, and animal. **7) Give the two functions of the “upward-running” wind, then its Sanskrit name and related English words.** The “upward-running” wind here relates to eating and speaking, also assisting the upward movement of any other wind. The Sanskrit name for this wind is udana %dan.  The ud here is the prefix ut, meaning up, and found in the English words up, above, and hypo.  The ana part of this word is the same as before. **8) Describe the short-term and the ultimate results we attain when we use our knowledge of seeds to gain mastery over the upward-running wind.** When with knowledge of seeds we gain mastery over the upward-running wind, we can move quickly—even over obstacles like lakes or thick brush—if someone needs help.  In our final evolution, we pass through planets and galaxies at the speed of thought—the speed of a seed ripening. **9) Describe the meaning of the name of the wind that “resides together,” as well as its two functions.  Include the Sanskrit name of the wind, and related English words.** This final primary wind “resides together” with both digestive fire and mystic fire near the navel.  On the first level, it distills nutrients from food and distributes them throughout the body.  On the second level, it triggers a downward flow of the radiant nectar at the tip of the head, engendering knowledge, bliss, and our angelic transformation. The Sanskrit name for this wind is samana sman.  Sama  sma means together or equal here, and is found in the English words same, simple, and similar.  Ana as before means to breathe, run, or flow. **10) Explain the role that two of the five primary winds play in the idea of hatha yoga.** The classical yoga texts sometimes relate the uniting of the energies of the upward-running and downward-clearing winds to the union of the sun and moon channels (ha and tha) as they dissolve into the central channel.  This union is facilitated by both yoga asanas and locks which aid in the reversal of these two energies, so that they flow towards each other rather than away from each other.  Examples would be in the inverted poses, or with the diaphragm lock. **11) Explain the “three skies,” clarifying why the last one might enable us to hear sounds even light-years away, or to fly even to other worlds.** The word here for “space” had three meaning in ancient times.  One was simply sky, space, the distance between things. The second meaning was place itself: that unchanging thing which objects enter, stay in, and then exit. The third was space in the sense of the void that’s left when you find out that something you thought was there never was.  The feeling you get when you reach into your pocket after a meal at an expensive restaurant, and realize you’re left your wallet at home. We get the same feeling of absence when we realize that everything around us is not coming at us, but from us.  Seeing how this space allows us to hear, seeing how this space allows our body to be there, allows us again to adjust the “switches” on both these objects.  Unheard switched to heard, heavy switched to light. Again we use the resulting powers first to help a limited number of people.  As we grow, the number becomes infinite.  All the powers evolve this way—from mundane, to helpful, to enlightened.  In the end the mind flies free through the sky of what was never there anyway.