"The longest journey of any person is the journey inward."
~Dag Hammarskjold
Let’s start with a quick meditation (5-10 minutes). Sit comfortably in a quiet place. Read through each step, then close your eyes and do the practice:
1) Bring your attention to your body. Where is it in space? Notice the points of contact to the chair, the floor. Notice any tension as you travel through your body from feet to head in your mind’s eye. Release tension with each exhalation, making space for calm.
2) Bring your attention to your breath. Follow it into your body, noticing how it moves and flows.
3) Notice your thoughts and feelings. Watch them come and go.
4) Notice the space between your thoughts. Feel the empty space that is full of silence and pregnant with possibility.
5) Bring your attention past the boundary of your being in this space. Imagine your connection to the energy around you, to everything and everyone. Sit with that knowing.
Bring your attention back to the room, your body, and this moment. Open your eyes.
You just traveled through your bodies in that brief meditation. Yes, I said “bodies”. In yoga philosophy, we are described as multi-dimensional beings, made up of three bodies containing
5 koshas or sheaths:
THE THREE BODIES
PHYSICAL BODY
Our physical body is made up of a combination of five elements- earth, water, fire, air and space. Our habits balance or disrupt the five elements. Practicing yoga postures decreases, increases, and/or balances these elements. Breathing practices and what we eat affects this body.
ASTRAL BODY
Our astral body contains the intellect, mind, subconscious, ego and higher intellect, allowing us to navigate the world through our thoughts and feelings.
CAUSAL BODY
The causal body contains our past life experiences, habits, and memories. The astral and the causal bodies are often partly to fully out of our awareness and don't become present until we begin a meditation practice. It is the place from which karma originates. Both the astral and causal bodies are linked and leave the body upon death.
THE FIVE KOSHAS OR SHEATHS
The three bodies contain five koshas or sheaths-
The PHYSICAL BODY contains-
1) Annamayakosha - the food sheath
Also called "the food body", it is made up of all the elements. What we eat creates this body.
The ASTRAL BODY contains-
2) Pranamayakosha - the energy sheath
It contains 5 pranic energies that flow throughout the physical body, nadis and chakras. It energizes and is the organizing field that holds the physical body together, governing breathing, digestion, blood circulation and all biological processes. Without prana, life ceases.
3) Manomayakosha - the psycho-emotional sheath
We experience thoughts and feelings through this sheath to include the subconscious and ego. Thoughts and emotions are energy and move prana. Practices that allow us to clear energy in order to healthily process information include sense withdrawal, restorative yoga and yoga nidra. These reduce reactivity/limited awareness and make space for direction from the fourth kosha or vijnanamayakosha wisdom to come through.
4) Vijnanamayakosha - the wisdom sheath
Wisdom and the powers of discernment (higher intellect) are contained here. It consists of the intellect which analyses the information we receive and controls the ego. Decisions and
judgments that support well-being come through this sheath. Signs that this kosha is developing include making proactive choices from a strong sense of right/wrong and a felt sense of compassion. The Yamas and Niyamas in yoga teachings are the foundational practices for developing the vijnanamayakosha. Meditation, Jnana yoga, witness consciousness, and self-inquiry also open us to our higher inner guidance in connection to this kosha.
The CAUSAL BODY solely contains-
5) Anandamayakosha - the bliss sheath
It is the part that knows the oneness of everything, generally out of our awareness. Through the space between our thoughts in the silence of meditation, sacred chants, mudras, and affirmations, we begin to access this part of ourselves bringing joy, equanimity, and peace, allowing a sense of the unity of all consciousness and divine being to come through. As limiting beliefs and unhealthy habits are released through the four koshas, the bliss sheath is revealed.
Knowing our potential opens us to a rebirth. We are born unconscious to who we really are and with the practices mentioned above, transformational coaching, meditation and self-inquiry, we can begin to see ourselves from a three body/five sheath perspective, opening us to our true nature. Once in that space, we start to make choices that enhance physical/mental health and dismantle the stories that inform reactive thought processes so we can choose proactive thoughts/actions. We reconnect to our higher powers of discernment, going from perceived unilateral physical beings to knowing ourselves as multi-dimensional spiritual beings, and that makes all the difference to our well-being!
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