April 15, 2025

What is Lungta?

Lungta is a Tibetan word that literally means ‘wind horse’ and refers to the inner vibrancy that is unleashed when the power within our hearts and minds is optimized.

Raising lungta arouses the confidence of fearlessness, the passion of gentleness and the incorruptible power of wakefulness, and distills them into a unified display of dazzling authenticity. When accomplished musicians perform with lungta, their audiences are swept along for the ride. When a figure skater skates with lungta, gliding as effortlessly as a gust of wind across a frozen pond and leaps into a double axel that defies gravity, we gasp in awe. I am sure each of us, at some time or other, feels the power of our own personal brilliance.

The world’s greatest spiritual and cultural traditions have found ways to access and cultivate that magic. In uplifted societies, people value lungta as the fundamental basis of individual and societal wellbeing. The Maori warriors of the South Pacific perform a windhorse-raising ritual that practically explodes with tribal potency. Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest have similar dances. People in all parts of the globe can find communal lungta-raising rituals that sew the sacred and the practical aspects of life together. Rousing lungta unifies the forces of the natural world and empowers the tender, sad, joyful heart. Simply stated, when we meet the power of sincere immediacy with a focus on simply being in the present moment, our connection to reality is amplified. When our lungta is raised, our batteries feel fully charged: strong, awake and radiant with confidence. One way you can raise your own lungta is to hang prayer flags or a wind-spinning prayer wheel outside your home.