A channel is a channel: veins, arteries and nerves.

You can add to this the

lymphatic system, though they are considered to act as a support for bring
moisture to the nervous system among their other functions.
A cakra in this view is any place in the body where there are clusters of arteries,
veins and nerves. You can readily see five such clusters in the body. There are
many more.
The channels we visualize are just a method why! because when we are
visualizing ourselves as a deity, we visualize our bodies as completely hollow,
made of light, with no internal organs.
The e"plicitly stated point of view of Tibetan #edicine is that the avadh$t% is all
channels of air i.e. arteries& the rasan' is all channels of fire i.e. the blood vessels,
and the lalan' all channels of water i.e. the nerves in the body. This is detailed at
length by (urkhar )odo *yalpo, is based primarily on the understanding of the
anatomy of the body indicated by the Third +armapa in his (abmo ,angdon and
reinforced by -esrid .angye *yatso. The latter two were both great -zogchen
masters as well though, (urkharwa was not.
/or e"ample, the +agyu 0istorian, Thubten 1hunstog, has written an interesting
commentaries on Tibetan #edicine, .i" Yogas of ,aropa, and well as (abmo
,angdon. 0e makes the case that if channels are not physical structures in the
body, then practices like gtum mo would have no effect. Then there is the very
interesting doctor in *olok, #enpa Tenzin, who wrote a book based on doing many
years of dissection of cadavers which contain very detailed drawings of his
research. 2ne may think this unnecessary given ,etter3s Anatomy and so on, but
it is interesting and his dissections were guided from a Tibetan #edical
perspective. 0e really e"plained this principle to us very well when we are
interning in 4ining. 0e is a disciple of +henpo #unsel and 5n Tibet, he is a well
respected -zogchen master.
5n reality, the three channels meet in each of these five 6or si"7 locations in the
body, according to the presentation 5 gave above from +alackara. This simply
means you will find clusters of arteries, veins and nerves at these locations in the
body. Again, to restate, when we are doing deity yoga, our bodies are conceived
to be hollow thus we visualize the channels in various ways depending on what
system we are practicing. 0ence, according #enpa Tenzin, et al, our visualization
does not correspond with the manner in which the three channels actually e"ist in
the body, and more importantly, it does not need to.
The reasons behind this again become very clear when one studies embryology
according to Tibetan #edicine, +alacakra, or -zogchen ,yinthig. A very good book
on this subject has been published by /rancis *arret.
0owever, again, in the 8est, our idea of 9':is has been very influenced by the
acupuncture idea of ;meridians; as well as 0indu ideas of cakras and 9':is. The
<panishadic idea of cakras and 9':is is related to the concept of pa=cako>a
originating in the Taittiriya <panisha 6which makes this idea a bit older than the
?uddha3s teaching7, where they are e"plicitly connected with the pr'9amayako>a.
2n the other hand, the <panishads are very important to understand, because
they contain many ideas and concepts which reappear in altered form 6i.e. revised
in accordance with ?uddha ideas7 in @ajray'na, AyurvedaATibetan #edicine, and
even in -zogchen.
That B#ind ofC Dkyi semsE is the unmi"ed totally complete essence, the
primal nature of the eight consciousnesses endowed with a luminous DFod
gsalE identity which inherently never wavers into any e"treme at all, free
from all e"tremes, naturally pure and unwavering in the three times.
,ow then, if it is asked B5s it not impossible for such a pure primal nature to
appear to the mind of a person!C, it is possible, called Bvidy'C Drig pa, the
knowing aspect of the mindE. The vidy' of migrating beings itself appears
as the mental consciousness in terms of apprehending subjects and
apprehended objects. 8hen vidy' manifests its own primal nature, the
mental consciousness manifests as selforiginated wisdom, and then the
pure basis of the mental consciousness 6free from the root of an
apprehending subject and apprehended objects7 bring samsara to an end.
The wisdom of oneGs vidy' 6without root or leaf7 H naturally perfected as it
allencompassingly subsumes everything H is the true state Dde kho na
nyidE.
The .un That 5lluminates the #eaning