“Physical things come and go, your everlasting soul is forever.”
– Christopher Sartain, The Sacred Science of Yoga and the Five Koshas
As a recovering control addict (my body weight & shape being my poison) I’ve learnt a thing or two about what does and doesn’t make me happy; what brings me closer to nature and what plunges me back into illusion, what evolves and what revolves.
More of a spiritual malady, an eating disorder or any disordered eating plays to the physical body. It’s through my spiritual practices and receiving the wisdom of traditions that I relate to that has helped my relationship with my physical body change. I’ve been graced with introductions to systems and pathways that help me see the insanity of being over associated with how I look.
And I know I’m not alone in this body obsession insanity.
Australians spend an enormous amount of money and resources on beauty products, surgery, quick fixes and anything else we can get our hands on to make us look more alluring. And it’s not our fault our perceptions of self are warped. We’re cheated and lied to on every corner about what’s acceptable physically and what’s not. Women in particular get the message early on that to look better than the girl next door, you have to do A, B and C and that to look better than the girl next door is to win the guy, the job, the popularity, the ‘success’. It’s terrifying…if we let be.
But we can actually take radical responsibility over this for ourselves and for generations to come.
I think every conscious decision we make to believe in and stand behind authenticity and graceful ageing as well as applauding our female friends and colleagues for how they contribute to the world is a re-direction of how society in general will value the totality of who we all are on a multidimensional being.
The Yogis believe in and pass down knowledge on a system that talks to this multi dimensional being-ness of us all and provides suggestions on how we can get closer to the truth – that we are all one, that we are all required and that how we look doesn’t make the mark of success.
The Five Koshas provide a multi-dimensional description of the human being at all levels: physical, energetic, psychological, intuitive and spiritual.
One of the visual depictions, that can help us understand more fully, how these layers work is the Russian Matryoshka dolls. You know the ones where a bunch fit into one big doll? Visualise the Physical body (which is the first of the Koshas) being that outer body. It is the most ‘real’, tangible and dense of our five bodies. But it’s only one of them. And our way through to the others is…through. And to go through is to get closer and closer to who we really are on a soul level when we peel back all of our conditioned ways of being.
Annamaya Kosha: Physical Body
Pranayama Kosha: Energy Body
Manomaya Kosha: Mental/Emotional Body
Vijnanamaya Kosha: Intuitive Body
Anandamaya Kosha: Bliss Body
So as a start let’s remember that we’re more than just this physical body and that perhaps we really are spiritual beings having a human experience. The next five posts will address each of the Five Bodies.
KK x