Each month Mind Your Body Oasis teachers encourage students to focus on a particular aspect. This may be in how we practice yoga, our daily lives, how we interact with our world or how we understand ourselves. July's theme asks us to explore our true selves through a series of layers, like a onion, and how these layers interact with each other and the external world.
The yogic perspective is to embrace the totality of one's being. In order to understand yourself fully, you have to dissect the layers of your being in order to see how they are all related and effect one another.
These layers of an individual are called the koshas, the five layers of physical and mental being composing the personal self. They are the covering, or the "lampshade", over the light of of your being, that light is called Atman, your soul, which is the spiritual life principle of the universe. The lack of ability to distinguish between self and non-self is termed "avidya" (ignorance) which is the main cause of human suffering ("klesha") (Patanjali yoga sutras 2.3 thru 2.9).
It is our identification with the ‘mind-body complex’ that prevents us from realizing our true nature (the self) which is represented by our soul (Atma). Once we develop an understanding of the five koshas, it helps us slowly peel off these layers and bring us closer to our true identity. According to Vedanta the wise person, being aware of the subtle influences of the five elements within each kosha, ever discerns the Self amidst appearances.
With the privilege of being humans interacting with life itself, through the five elements: (earth, water, fire, air and space), the constant practice is to see the light of Atman illuminating the rest of the layers of one's individual existence. The practice is to understand the rest of the layers, how they work individually and collectively but to know that these layers are a pathway of discovery, not the gold at the end of the rainbow.
The five sheaths (pancha-kosas) are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. From gross to fine they are:
With the privilege of being humans interacting with life itself, through the five elements: (earth, water, fire, air and space), the constant practice is to see the light of Atman illuminating the rest of the layers of one's individual existence. The practice is to understand the rest of the layers, how they work individually and collectively but to know that these layers are a pathway of discovery, not the gold at the end of the rainbow.
The five sheaths (pancha-kosas) are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad. From gross to fine they are:
- Annamaya kosha, "foodstuff" sheath (Anna)
- Pranamaya kosha, "energy" sheath (Prana/apana)
- Manomaya kosha, "mind-stuff" sheath (Manas)
- Vijnanamaya kosha, "wisdom" sheath (Vijnana)
- Anandamaya kosha, "bliss" sheath (Ananda)
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