བླ་༌གནས།

The Cycle of 'LA'

The LA (bla) is a physical element related to a person's vital force which makes the link with the
external world. It is luminous and it moves in the body in a lunar monthly cycle. When it is
unimpaired, it says within the body and includes the protective forces of the individual.
Although it is attached to the human body, the LA can also have an external substratum to which the
person's life is thereon tied. It could be a hill, a mountain, a tree, a lake or even stone like a life
turquoise. It such a case, the individual LA connects with the LhA or local deity. Among other
reasons, this is why in Tibet men have always maintained a harmonious relationship with their
environment: since the vital energy is bound to the external LA forces, defiling or destructing their
abode is tantamount to endangering the individual's life itself.
When the life forces weaken or when one faints or collapses, the LA can break away from the body
and roam the external world. It can then also be lured and taken away by damsi (devils) - this is
considered as a case of possession - or attacked with black magic practises - this is seen as spell
throwing. In such a case, the person is exhausted, affected by illness, and if appropriate practises are
not performed to end this situation, it is said one cannot survive more than six months. After death,
the LA can linger on somewhere - for example at the grave; it cannot incarnate again, but it can visit
the living.
According to the Kalachakra Teaching, the movement of LA occurs in the left part of the body in
men, and in the right part in women. At the first day of the lunar month, the LA is located at the
soles of the feet, and during the lunar month, it proceeds in the shape of a bright letter throughout
the body, until it returns to its initial location.
It is considered that the LA is predominantly found in specific body locations at different periods of
the day, and it is thus said that: "at dawn the LA dwells in the bladder, at sunrise in the neck, in the
morning it is at the lips and nape, at noon it is in the chest and ribs, in the afternoon it is in the
abdomen, in the evening it is in the heart, at sunset in the back, and from nightfall to sunrise in the
whole of the body".
According to Tibetan Medicine, it is very important to avoid wounding, bleeding, cauterizing or
otherwise operating a body part while it is the location of LA, as this could shorten and even destroy
life. It is therefore recommended to respect tho monthly cycle of LA according to the lunar calendar,
so as to avoid loss of vital energy even in the course of minor operations.
This is the cycle of LA during lunar month (according to the Men ngak tchewa ringsel):
1st: sole of foot*
2nd: ankles
3th: (medial side of) thighs
4th: waistline
5th: (interior of) mouth
6th: chest
7th: back
8th: palms of hands
9th: liver
10th: waistline
11th: nose
12th: stomach
13th: shoulder blades
14th: blood vessel above thumbs
15th: whole of body
16th: neck
17th: throat
18th: pit of the stomach
19th: ankles
20th: sole of foot**
21st: big toe
22nd: left shoulder blade
23th: liver
24th: palms of hands
25th: tongue
26th: knees
27th: knees
28th: sexual organs
29th: pupils
30th: whole of body
* It is the sole of the left foot for the men and the sole of the right foot for the women.** Right foot for men and left
foot for women. Generally the LA circulates during the waning moon in the side opposite the one of the waxing moon's
circulation.