An open library in progress. Explanations are editorial drafts, with sources for further study. Translations await specialist review. How to read our labels.
Begin with the question
A diagram can look anatomical without being a diagram of anatomy. Centres and channels in a traditional text may organize a practice, express a cosmology or connect the person to a ritual world.
Reading source: Tirumantiram · Tantra Seven ↗
See verse 1823 for the body-as-temple image. The linked modern translation is not reproduced here.
Hold on to the differences
Compare each map’s purpose before comparing its shapes. A nāḍi and a Daoist vessel may offer a rough functional parallel in a carefully limited discussion; that does not establish that they are the same structure.
Reading source: The Way of the Golden Elixir ↗
A scholarly introduction with translated primary material. Internal alchemy and modern qigong must be distinguished.
A useful way to compare
- Name the particular tradition and text.
- Keep the native term next to its English explanation.
- Ask what the term does in that text.
- Describe a resemblance as a rough functional parallel when appropriate.
- Record the differences and the limits of the comparison.
A good comparison can leave questions open. It becomes more useful when the reader can see which steps come from a source and which come from an editor.
Open the comparison explorer