Hello dear readers, and welcome [or] welcome back to AveriWithAWord. Thanks for continuing to follow, read and devote a little bit of your free time out of your day to come and sit with me.
Many of us are drawn to yoga through asana practice [yoga pose known as "corpse pose" at the end, when you just lie there and breathe.], but this is just the beginning of a multi-layered journey....
Just as salt dissolved in water becomes one with it, so the union of Self and Mind is called samadhi.
When the breath becomes exhausted, and mind becomes still, they merge into union called samadhi.
This equality, this oneness of the two, the living self and the absolute self, when all desires end is called samadhi.
Hatha Yoga Pradpika
The Subtle Layers
Many yoga practitioners are drawn to the practice through
the asanas: the physical postures, of which there are thousands representing all aspects of existence. There is a pose to represent everything, from a boat (Navasana), to a lion (Simbhasana), to enlightened sage (Vasisthasana). These poses and movements help keep the body healthy, as well as unblocking energy channels so that after yoga practice we feel strong, healthy, vibrant, and peaceful.
But what actually is happening to make us feel this way? Through asana practice, we fine-tune our awareness of the body and become more aligned and aware of what signals our bodies give us about the overall state of our health. This is the beginning of a process of fine-tuning that starts with the body, and grows ever more subtle through layers of our being -- which perhaps we have yet to realize even exist.
The Eight Limbs of Yoga
Yoga has eight limbs: These limbs evolve in a process of fine-tuning from the grossest levels of our understanding to the most subtle:
1. Yamas, and 2. Niyamas: these are codes of conduct and qualities of Self-realization which are to be cultivated within the life of a yoga practitioner. By cultivating these principles within our own lives, a shift in consciousness can occur which is then mirrored in our experience of external world.
3. Asana: typically known as physical practice involving the body. Patanjali defines asana as: a steady, comfortable posture.
4. Pranayama: defined by Patanjali as regulation and control of the inhalation and exhalation of the breath, creating luminosity and preparing the mind for one-pointed focus (dharana).
5. Pratyahara: withdrawal of the senses, which results in a calm, non-stimulated mind.
6 Dharana: focusing the mind on one element or single area (concentration).
7. Dhyana: an unbroken flow of perception between mind and object in the form of one, continuous thought (meditation).
8. Samadhi: the knower, knowing, and that which is known become one pure essence/awareness (mystical absorption) - the aim of all yogic practices.
Five kosas (pronounced Koshas) of our existence *`~
We will next examine the Kosas, or layers of our existence, and how these eight limbs of yoga Sadhana stated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali relate to and weave their way through them.
According to the Tattiriya Upanisad, there are five layers, sheaths or kosas to our seemingly individual existence. Similar to the eight limbs of Raja Yoga, they range from the densest part of our being (the body), to the most vast and subtle (inner joy/peace). Although presented in a linear fashion here, these layers are interconnected and each subtle layer comprises and encompasses the layers denser than it. In becoming aware of and examining, these aspects of our being through the eight limbs of Raja Yoga, we can help bring our lives into balance and integration on all these levels and eventually transcend them through a deep knowing of them and the rest is in the Self - - the loving awareness and practice which allows it all to be possible.
1. Annamaya-kohsa (food sheath, Earth element)
Annamaya-Kosa consists of your physical-material body, the grossest, densest part of our existence and it is comprised of, and fueled by , the food we ingest. Annamaya-Kosa is usually the sheath with which we identify the most, because it is through this instrument that we sense and feel and move - it is our field of activity (ksetra). Asana (and pranayama) as well as a healthy diet help to keep this physical layer in optimal condition so that we can experience life through our bodies with ease, free from dis-ease!.
2. Pranamaya-Kosha (vital sheath, Water element)
This surrounds and penetrates the physical body as the vital energy which flows around the body. One familiar aspect of Pranamaya-Kosa is influenced and fueled by the prana absorbed through the breath, through food, and from the cosmic Universal life- force that surrounds and permeates us. The practice of pranayama helps to keep this energy flowing freely, which also affects the health of the physical body.
3. Manomaya-kosha (mental sheath, Fire element)
Even more subtle than the first two koshas, Manomaya-kosa consists of the thinking mind and emotions and permeates the vital and food sheaths. The thoughts and emotions we experience affect the energy flow in and around us, which in turn affect our energetic and physical health. So, by becoming aware of our thoughts, judgements, and emotions as they arise and dissolve through sense-withdrawal (pratyahara) and one-pointed concentration (dharana), giving space to all of our thoughts and emotions without pushing them away and by applying this also in pranayma and asana practice (and also in life!!), we can deeply enhance the overall state of our wellbeing.
4 Vinanamaya-kosha (intellect/intuitive sheath, Air element)
Permeating the 3 denser layers (manomaya, pranamaya, and annamaya) is the home of our inner knowing and wisdom. It is this aspect of our being which knows Life intimately at the deepest level and from which we receive messages from beyond what we could ever understand, Within this sheath, there is still the illusion of duality, where there is a knower, the knowing, and the known. However, through the process of asana, pranayama, dharana, and then through meditation (dhyana), the mind becomes still and we can truly listen to the silent messages that Life speaks to us through all that exists.
The second and third sutras in the very first chapter in Patanjali's Raja Yoga Sutras state:
1.2 Yogas Chittavrittinirodha - Yoga is the cessation of the activities and pattering of the mind.
1.3 Tada drastuhsvarupe'vasthanam - When this happens, the perceiver rests in his/hers/theirs true nature.
"It is by resting in this true nature, free from the influence of thought, emotion, and experience, that we can listen with an inner hearing that transcends what we do with our ears and hear Life's messages to us"....
It is by resting in this true nature, free from the influence of thought, emotion, and experience, that we can listen with an inner hearing that transcends what we do with our ears and hear Life's messages to us, allowing this message to align itself into our thoughts (manomaya-kosa), our energy field (pranamaya-kosa), into our field of activity, the body (annamaya-kosa), and thus into our actions and experiences. This develops into our svadharma, our deepest purpose or calling in Life.
5. Anandamaya-kossa (bliss sheath, ether/space element)
Beyond the other 4 kosas, and yet permeating and comprising them all, is the sheath of bliss. This is the aspect of our being which we recognize as deep inner peace and joy, free from our thoughts, emotions, energy and body, and yet at the same time embracing them all. It is sweetness of All Life that we feel when the mind is still, also known as sat-cit-ananda- absolute truth- wisdom- bliss. It can be known as a super-conscious state of samadhi, the 8th limb of Raja Yoga, but even in this layer, there remains the duality between a knower of the sweetness and the sweetness itself.
These 5 koshas are, as James Reeves so beautifully says in his Koshas Ekhart Yoga series, "the Gateways to the Soul" . In the study of Vedanta (Upanisads), they are also referred to as 'veils' which are created for us to examine, to know and to transcend in order to lead the way back to our true nature - the Self
The Kosas are intimately related to our states of awareness (waking, dream and sleep) and three bodies (gross, subtle and casual). As we get to know and understand each kosa from the densest to the most subtle, and how much each works within our existence, we can open each Gateway and experience the path we are treading as the road to knowing and being Oneness.
Okay guys I know that was a lot of information to take in, but hear me out. Yoga and mindfulness meditation are associated with improvements in physical and mental health, according to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The study followed participants in a three-month intensive yoga and meditation retreat. Participants showed improvements in biological markers of stress and inflammation. Participants also reported lower levels of anxiety and depression.
Participants in the study experienced increases in the so-called cortisol awakening process (CAR). CAR is a measure of how and when the body releases the stress hormone cortisol. This is one way to measure resilience to stress.
This strengthens evidence for a link between mental and physical health, suggesting improvements in mental health.
So is meditating going to take you to another world where you can be a live in a mansion in the middle of nowhere and drive the newest nicest CAR (; yeah that'd be great. However it will help you learn how to cope better with your emotions, it will help you become more aware of your own thought process and most importantly it will help you find your center, where your true Self lives.
Until next time, take good care of yourself & each other
Namaste,
A🎕❧❦☙❦❦❧❦
