The Three Human Powers

 

Coming Home to Your Wholeness

Yachay, Munay and Llank’ay form the foundation of embodied awareness, loving presence, and purposeful action.

The foundation of embodiment and inner leadership

 

In the Andean tradition, a human being is not seen only as a physical or mental being, but as a living field of awareness, love, and creative action.

 

These three human powers, Yachay, Munay and Llank’ay - form the ground in which you learn to come home to yourself.

They remind you that you are always more than your thoughts, your emotions, or your history.

 

When these powers come into balance, life is no longer about survival. It becomes a life lived from clarity, presence and connection.

 

 

Yachay – Awareness and Understanding

 

Yachay is your ability to perceive and understand.

It is more than the thinking mind: it is lived knowledge, the awareness to see yourself and life as they truly are.

 

It includes:

  • your perception and reasoning

  • your self-awareness

  • your experience and insight

  • your ability to discern

 

As Yachay grows, you begin to notice where your energy is blocked, how you yourself create hucha (heavy, stagnant energy), and how to restore flow and clarity.

 

Strengthened Yachay makes you someone who not only thinks, but truly understands, who sees what drives you and how you are connected to everything around you.

 

 

Munay – Love under Your Will

 

Munay is love, not fleeting emotion or romantic longing, but the conscious choice for love, guided by will.

It is empathy, compassion, peace and joy that are not dependent on circumstances.

 

Emotions shift constantly, but Munay runs deeper.

It is a quality that develops when you choose presence and release hucha.

 

When you embody Munay:

  • you can stand in chaos and remain at peace

  • you can grieve without closing your heart

  • you can love without losing yourself

 

Munay is often called the treasure of the Andes, clear, mature, and free from need.

 

 

Llank’ay – Action and Creation

 

Llank’ay is your capacity to act. To bring intention, will and body into creation.

Where Munay opens your heart and Yachay gives you clarity, Llank’ay moves you into action.

When Llank’ay flows, you dare to create, to take responsibility, and to give your presence a place in the world.

 

 

 

Tawantin – The Unity of the Three

 

You are fully present when these three powers work together:

  • Yachay helps you see

  • Munay helps you feel

  • Llank’ay helps you do

 

 

This integration is called Tawantin a life lived in ayni (reciprocity) and balance with yourself and all of life.

It is not an ideal to strive for, but the natural outcome of living your wholeness.

 

 

 

The Deeper Layer – The Energetic Tawantin of the Self

 

 

In the Andean view, a tawantin represents the whole like a mandala with four gates and a centre. The integration of the human being is also seen in this way.

 

Here, Llank’ay is understood more deeply. It carries two capacities:

  • Atiy – your personal power to act in the present, bringing impulses under your will

  • Khuyay – your passion and motivation to act, your emotional intelligence, and your ability to sustain effort

 

With Atiy and Khuyay included, the three human powers unfold into four gates of the Self:

  1. Munay — love and choice

  2. Yachay — perception and understanding

  3. Atiy — personal power and will in action

  4. Khuyay — passion, affection, and emotional bonds

 

The tension most often lies between Munay (feelings) and Yachay (thoughts). You may think one thing while feeling another, and your actions may not reflect either.

 

The work of integration is called Mast’ay, the structuring and ordering of the Self, much like the ordering of a despacho.

Through mast’ay, the four gates align and you return to the centred, whole Self.

 

This is the deeper teaching of Tawantin: not a distant ideal, but a lived wholeness where thought, feeling, power and passion come into coherence.