Lecture Part 4: Intro to the Koshas
The postures of yoga are not the goal, they are the tools we use to reveal the goal. The Renaissance artist Michealangelo said of his process: The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there,
I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” That is how the yogic tradition looks at our practice of asana, pranayama and meditation. Our true nature is already fully formed and complete within us— we don’t need to create it or even understand it, we are it. The practices of the Yogic Tradition are the chisels we use to reveal our True Nature, much like chipping away the marble to reveal the deity within.
The Yogic tradition describes the layers that surround our true nature as Koshas, literally translated as sheaths, that cover our true nature. They are often depicted like a Russian doll set, or concentric circles, that show that layers of the Koshas surrounding our True Nature.
For the devoted yogi, the path becomes a process of accumulating enough energy and con- sciousness to surrender our attachments to the outer layers and begin moving through the deeper layers, ultimately reconnecting to
the source or Self within . The koshas are linked together, affecting each other intimately . Purifying each layer and bringing them into balance and harmony frees up energy and allows consciousness to move within . Having knowledge of the koshas provides a valuable map of how we are structured inside . As we deal with the surface layers or move into hidden and uncharted territory, this understanding can offer helpful guidance to keep us moving along the path .In keeping with the opening quote, I also think it is helpful to imagine the Koshas as the layers of a sculpture. The outer layers of the Koshas are often described as ‘coarser’ or ‘more gross’, meaning that their qualities are more obtuse, like the shape of a sculpture in it’s initial stages. Each successive stage requires more refined tools, and this quite literally reflects our work as yogis as we move to more subtle layers of our Koshas.
When sculpting out of marble, for example, your first tools are large— literally the size of your whole body. These chisels are your asanas, the physical postures of your practice, that when used begin to shape the Murti underneath— a murti is a sacred sculpture of the divine.
The Annamaya kosha is the first layer, the first sheath we encounter in our practice. It is the physical sheath surrounding our true nature, and is literally manifested as the body you inhabit which is a result of the food you eat— the organic matter you call yourself that is born, grows and eventually goes back to the earth.
Revitalizing the physical body allows us to access the subtle body. Yoga and meditation provide the means to purify, balance and nourish the physical, encouraging inner focus and deeper energy flow . Poor diet and lack of sleep and exercise create imbalances within the subtle channels and eventually cause disease, which can consume energy and make it difficult to bring awareness in . Posturing of the body affects the circulation of our inner energy . Quieting the body helps bring stillness to the mind and the grounding necessary to experience deeper states of consciousness . In meditation we establish our seat with a straight spine and move inward .
Yoga and Anatomy instructor Gary Kraftsow describes health in this Kosha as “No aches and pains, a feeling of lightness, the ability to withstand change, and a sense of stability and ease”. We would look at this list as the experience we seek in our yoga practice and in our daily lives.
In the yogic map of manifestation, the Tattvas, this level of manifestation is the last formations of Shiva, and therefore the most veiled form of Shiva. This means it’s a thick kosha. This means that the effort used at this stage is greater, and the though it would seem we are making big progress by chipping away big chunks of marble, the energy itself is coarser and less refined, so even though we use more effort, we don’t necessarily gain more energy— but you will probably gain more followers on your favorite social media network. You can think of it like the difference in energy released when burning a log or splitting an atom, the subtler the state, the more power it releases.
This in no way diminishes the power or our physical yoga practice, because without health and wellness here its hard to go any further into our practice— it simply means that the subtler practices that grow from here aren’t as showy, but have an even greater potential to support your growth.