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BSY
Benefits: Jnana mudra and chin mudra are simple but impor
tant psycho-neural finger locks which make meditation asanas more powerful. The palms and fingers of the hands have many nerve root endings which constantly emit energy. When the index finger touches the thumb, a circuit is produced which allows the energy that would normally dissipate into the environment to travel back through the body and up to the brain. When the fingers and hands are placed on the knees, the knees are sensitized, creating another pranic circuit that maintains and redirects prana within the body. In addition, placing the hands on the knees stimulates a nadi which runs from the knees, up the inside of the thighs and into the perineum. This nadi is known as gupta or the hidden nadi. Sensitizing this channel helps to stimulate the energies at mooladhara chakra. When the palms face upward in chin mudra, the chest area is opened up. The practitioner may experience this as a sense of lightness and receptivity, which is absent in the practice ofjnana mudra. An understanding of the relationship between prana and the ki energy of oriental acupuncture brings another interesting aspect to some of these mudras. There are meridians of ki energy (related to prana in the nadis), which have their terminal points (sei or well points) in the fingertips. The sei point of the lung meridian is located on the thumbs; the large intestine meridian at the tip of the index finger; the heart constrictor vessel at the tip of the middle finger; the triple heater meridian on the ring finger and small intestines and heart sei points on the
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