Kosha Love, 02/25

You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. Upanishads

I’m sure you have studied the koshas, these gems of insight and treatment protocols! I find their study absolutely bottomless and so I thought I would share how timely they are in this time of global lunacy.

Taking a step back, the koshas originate in the understanding of the three bodies – the Causal, the Subtle, and finally the Physical. I think of the causal as the one that I leave up to forces far smarter than me. I feel like my soul is much better driving its bus than my feeble human mind could ever be. The causal body holds our akashic records – past life samskaras and stories. The causal holds our ‘reason’ for being born. Again, I’m going to leave that navigation to the far more masterful force of my soul.

The subtle body however is truly the Yogins wheelhouse. Did you know that this is the most effective realm of yoga practices? The physical body is the domain of Ayurveda. In an era where yoga is taking on some awfully physical pursuits, it is important to remember that we are actually practicing to impact and balance our subtle body.

The subtle body contains your Nadis, Chakras, and also your mind. Why your mind? Because you can’t really locate it anywhere specific. It is light, highly mobile (sweet Lord), and thus rapidly changeable.

The physical is dense, predictable, and slower to change. Imbalances here will be addressed through diet and herbs. The subtle body needs yoga practice with all of the 8 limbs in mind.

Its important to remember that the first manifestation of you was subtle. You were a thought, a glimmer. All of the physical came out of this subtle energy of an ego. First a soul, then an ego, then a body!

The subtle manifests the physical. Thoughts create matter.

You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. Upanishads

What you put your thoughts into will become your deed. This deed will create your destiny. So, let’s look at how to grow our awareness through the magic of the Koshas.

Koshas

I like picturing nesting dolls. The outermost doll would represent your physical sheath or Annamaya Kosha (food sheath). This is found in your skeleton, myofascia, nerves, and sense organs. It is built from the food we eat and therefore it is also healed by food and herbs. It is comprised of the earth element as it contains the most density and structure of all of the sheaths.

Each kosha digests or metabolizes something that we consume. Annamaya Kosha metabolizes food and makes our bodies out of it! If this kosha needs healing, we can work through the five senses and we can build Ojas.

As an aside, ojas is the subtle energy of kapha. As such it holds our resilience and our immunity. It is built through things like walking in nature, slow yoga, oils, and generally slowing down.

Pranamaya Kosha is the next sheath and is seen as a bridge to the third sheath – the mind or manomaya kosha. As such, pranamaya kosha is the bridge between the physical body and the subtle body.

You might assume that this sheath is governed by air because it is intertwined with breath but remember that prana also means life energy and life energy is carried in our waterways. The element that is metabolized here is actually water. Imbalances in this kosha affect the physical and the mental and are remedied through breathing practices as well as Neti (cleansing the nostrils) and Nasya (medicated oils in the nostrils).

Now we are firmly in the subtle body as we transition into Manomaya Kosha. Manas means mind but it is like the ‘base’ mind, deeply connected to the sensory organs. Manomaya kosha metabolizes fire. This sheath digests sensory impressions and draws conclusions from them. Those conclusions become our thoughts.

What stabilizes manas? The yamas and niyamas for one. Adopting a lifestyle of healthy choices of self care and care of others makes our minds calm and steady. Manomaya kosha is constantly metabolizing the energies coming from our environment into our bodies and our mind. That is a lot! The more we can refine what we are taking in via the yamas & niyamas, the more digestible those inputs become.

The other strategy, because we are now in the subtle body, is to balance the subtle energies of prana, tejas, and ojas. This is a much larger conversation but following the yamas & niyamas will get you there. Prana as life energy, needs to be moderated so as to not be in excess (jitters) or deficiency (lethargy, hopelessness). Tejas as fire/discernment also has a sweet spot. In excess we can be really judgemental. In deficiency, indecisive! All three of these energies, including ojas are a constant balancing act with each other. Paying attention to them allows us to care for manomaya kosha.

As an aside, Mary Thompson, my all time favourite ayurvedic teacher asked “how will you get to the third nesting doll without touching the first two?” Can you strictly do talk therapy without including your body and breath? Not really successfully.

Vijnanamaya Kosha, like pranamaya kosha, is a bridge. This is our intelligence or intellect sheath. Remember Jnana (Geeana), the root of this kosha's name, is wisdom. Now we are being bridged into the causal body. Like the heart chakra (are you seeing the correlation of the chakra elements and the koshas?), this kosha is governed by the air element. Air organizes our minds and our intelligence.

Manas is the lower mind and now we are experiencing buddhi which is a higher mind. It is here that we have the capacity to reason, deduce, discriminate, and discern. Remember that as a bridge, this sheath straddles both realms. As such, it takes the impressions from manomaya kosha and develops a bank of understanding of the world.

On a higher level, buddhi discriminates between Satya (absolute truth) and Maya (illusion). These impressions are from the soul, the causal body.

Imbalance in this sheath presents as confusion, disorganization in the mind, and poor discernment. There might be choices made that are less than ideal but imbalances could get as dire as severe mental disease.

In this sheath we look toward the same balancing of prana, tejas, and ojas. We can turn to meditative practices like Trataka or candle gazing which is profound for toning tejas. Pratyahara is a very powerful tool for nourishing vijnanamaya kosha, as is the study of scripture or philosophy.

Buddhi is said to be the inherent intelligence behind all of creation. Hence, it can be a tool to penetrate the physical, subtle, and causal bodies.

Drumroll please. If you are still with me, here we land in the midmost of all of our nesting dolls, the Anandamaya Kosha. Ananda means bliss and so here we are in the bliss sheath, smack dab in our causal body and in the ether element.

Anandamaya kosha metabolizes joy. It flows directly from one’s connection to something greater than oneself.

In my mind, bliss includes sorrow. I must have really loved if my grief is so sorrowful, right? Sweet sorrow breeds bliss.

Faulty metabolism causes unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and a feeling of separation from God. These diseases are spiritual and so remedies revolve around sattvic practices and the raising of ojas. The mantra that we all need to repeat daily is “Cultivate Sattwa and raise Ojas.”

There are 2 more layers although they are not so much considered koshas, but more as shared bodies of all existence. These envelop all people and are the subtlest aspect of nature. These affirm the illusion of separation while they bind together all of creation.

Sat is existence absolute. It is absolute truth. It is what exists beyond the illusion of creation. Sat in individuals becomes prana.

Chit is consciousness absolute. This is the ocean with which all are connected. In individuals it becomes one’s personal field of consciousness.

These two levels of existence connect to individual creation through anandamaya kosha. Together, they are Sat-Chit-Ananda and make up the reality of Purusha and Prakriti. Anandamaya kosha gives us the ability to touch this bliss.

The practice of yoga shines most in its application to anandamaya, vijnanamaya, and to a lesser degree, manomaya, and pranamaya koshas. Ayurveda is best applied to annamaya, and somewhat pranamaya, and manomaya koshas.

Why this matters​
What sends me to the moon in the most exciting way is looking at the koshas in conjunction with chakras, nadis, and even the doshas and gunas. Breaking down into the elements, we can see how all of these concepts are related and intertwined.

Caring for our elements, our bodies, minds, and spirits is really the only job we have. I don't feel like I need someone to tell me that X chakra is blocked. I think we can know that if we look at how we are in relationship to the koshas and the elements. I get way more from monitoring the way I am balancing my use of the elements; my creativity vs work; and my giving and receiving. I have a sense of a wider scope of self-care that resides in small acts of kindness and discernment from within.

We could get bogged down in it all or we can say one simple intention, which is: Cultivate Sattwa, build Ojas! That is really all we need to know.

There is a glorification in the ascension out of the body in many disciplines including yoga. There is a message that the body is dirty and the spirit is the only path forward but the koshas entirely dispute that. Yes, we want to experience bliss, but it is best cultivated through application of the yamas and niyamas for our healthy minds; good single ingredient foods to purify instead of antagonize our gut; and reading inspiring and illuminating texts to stimulate our intellect.

The first version of you is a thought, a spark, an intention! You then become an ego, Ahamkara. Without it, there would be no manifestation of a body or a life. Yes evolve, but don’t forget that you are here to fully live in this body (and ego)! It is the vehicle that will carry your mind to your blissful causal body.

As our world gets more chaotic, I find I am drawn more inwardly. I don’t mean that I am in denial or behaving like an ostrich. I am however keeping my focus on me and my well-being. This is the one thing that I can do for the planet, I can stay well. I can care for my sheaths or koshas, and in so doing, I create a softer footprint, a more inspiring way of leading others, and I might live longer to impact more!

What can you do with the lunacy that is currently in the world? Not much. But you can tend you and I think this is the big gift of this time! When the noise is loud enough we finally have to learn how to create quiet.

When the battles are raging, we have to learn how to create our own peace in small but steady moments. This is our gift in this time and the koshas are one tool to get us there.

The koshas teach us that a small act carries huge consequences. A choice in the food you eat; a moment of turning off the violence and tuning into a good book; or following a yama for a month, will ripple through your life and the lives of those around you.

We are here to separate from the ocean of bliss so that we may experience humanity and evolve our souls. We spend our lives seeking to remember, to return to the ocean. The koshas can be our ticket to being in this body while also living a soulful life.

Welcome to bliss.