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
Prāṇa, qi and vāsi are often brought into the same conversation. Calling all of them “energy” can make an introduction easier, while hiding the very distinctions that make a comparison useful.
Reading source: Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali ↗
Original Sanskrit; see 1.1–1.3, 2.29 and 4.34. Our English renderings are provisional editorial translations.
Hold on to the differences
Ask whether the passage discusses ordinary breathing, a life principle, a practice vocabulary or a cosmological process. A shared English translation is not evidence that two traditions describe an identical phenomenon.
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