Often we hear that we are not our bodies, we are not our breath, our thoughts, our feelings. But what and who are we? Sometimes such statements might resonate and make sense and even be welcomed, and other times they might feel jarring and be immediately rejected. According to Vedanta and yogic philosophy the world as we know it, is made out of matter (Prakriti- nature) and energy (Purusha-consciousness), including ourselves. As living, breathing, human beings we are multi-layered and multi-dimensional. In fact the yogic view is that we are in essence spiritual beings having a human experience.
My experience is that in our day to day lives and our everyday interactions we are largely in relationship, with others, with our environment and most importantly, and always, with ourselves. In and through these interactions we are, and can be many things, to ourselves and to other people. Think about the roles that you have for a moment: a daughter/son, a partner, a mother/father, a friend, a colleague. The list goes on... And each of these will mean different things to each one of us, and different things to those that these roles relate us to. We also attach to ourselves our dimensions and our likes and dislikes - I am short, I am big, I like dancing, I like reading. Somehow such things give us a sense of composition of who we think we are. But such things can change over time, our relationships change, our environments change and inevitably how we relate and think about ourselves can also change. With this in mind, I have found stability and a sense of feeling orientated through relating to the yogic view of ourselves as composed of the Pancha Koshas. This is an extensive subject, impossible to really capture in a blog, but I hope a synopsis of it might be useful to you. This has also been the theme of our weekly classes in the past term so I hope it might also serve as a helpful reminder for those that attended.
The Taittiriya Upanishad (2.1-5) describes the Pancha koshas, the five sheaths, layers of ourselves or dimensions of our experience. I've heard it be described many things in an effort to convey a concept that can only be understood experientially. One description that might make sense to some is the idea of these layers as a russian doll - our spiritual essence and 'divine spark' housed within the very centre, the atman. Each layer in turn then moves a little closer to the surface and contains within it the most deeper layers closer to the core. As we move closer to the surface we become more visible, or rather that layer of ourselves is that much more visible, until we come to the outmost layer, our physical body. Others can name us through it and we tend to also identify ourselves with it.
Each layer as we move closer to the core becomes more subtle, more energy than matter, with the physical body on the surface being more matter than energy. In Sanskrit it is called the Annamaya Kosha, which in fact translates to the 'food body' - sustained and made out of matter, of food. It is the physical vehicle that allows us to interact and exist in the manifested world we are living in. Underneath this layer we exist through our breath and our energy, the Pranamaya Kosha, the breathing body. It is thought that this layer is made out of 72,000 nadis, energy channels, and energy wheels, chakras, at the points of intersection of the main nadis. Chakras can be understood as these points of intersection and also the points of energy distribution. How this energy is distributed and the effects it has translates to five different pranas and movements of energy. Both the Chakras and the Pranas are big subjects in themselves and require a lot more space than this but it is worth mentioning them briefly.
The third layer is Manomaya Kosha, the mental body which is composed of thought and feeling energy. Before we look at this more closely however it is worth keeping in mind that although we speak of these layers separately they are so closely interrelated that whatever affects one layer it will also have an impact on the rest. In fact the breathing body, although it is understood to have an energy of its own, it is energising and gives life to all the other layers. In a simplified way, how we breath will affect how we experience our physical body and vice-a-versa the posture that we hold will have an impact on the way we breath. Similarly, the mental body is responsible for attending to our basic every day needs. It receives feedback from the environment through the 5 senses and through our bank of memories as well as our sense of self it makes decisions on how to respond. Again this is a very simplistic view of the ways we have composed ourselves mentally, which includes not just our thoughts but also our feelings in relation to things, people, situations, and ourselves.
As we move into the higher levels of our intellect we also start to move into the fourth layer, Vijnanamaya Kosha, often translated as the wisdom body, but over time I have come to understand it more as the body of observation, the space through which one witnesses the other three layers described above. Our sense of self is still present here however it might feel less attached to being a specific way, but rather a sense of curiosity might start to develop about the way things are. It is called the wisdom body, because from this space of more detached observation we can perhaps take better, wiser decisions as these appear to come from a place of deep inner knowing about what is right and what is wrong for us to do at a given moment. It is also a space through which, we can bring better alignment in the other three layers so we can start to experience more coherency and connection within ourselves.
The closer we get to such feelings, the closer we get to atman, and we start to move into the last layer, Anandamaya Kosha, translated as the Bliss Body. This is the space where the observing and witnessing changes into a beingness. We don't experience peace, love and happiness but we are peace, love and happiness. Perhaps you've had glimpses of such a state, or lucky enough to have experienced this for longer. I think our yoga practice can offer opportunities for experiencing this space, and consequently to start understanding ourselves as this innermost sea of pure love and peace that is ever-present and unchangeable.
I appreciate that this is easier said than done, in fact I suspect it is never done, but rather an ongoing process. I appreciate that what surrounds us 'out there' is enticing and alluring and incredibly easy to get distracted by. But for what you find on the inside, it is surely worth the try.
We have been exploring each layer in turn in our yoga day retreats Finding Wellness so if you want to join us we have the next day retreat on the Wisdom Body, Sunday 2nd of July, followed by a day retreat on the Bliss Body, Sunday 17th of September.
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