THE FIVE LAYERS OF BEING

There is a part of us that we can see, touch, and measure. We call it the body, and most of our lives are spent caring for it. We exercise, eat, rest, and seek medical care when something goes wrong. We understand that the physical body must be maintained if we are to remain healthy.

But the ancient yogis believed that the physical body is only the outermost layer of who we are.

Beneath it, they said, are four increasingly subtle dimensions of being. They called these layers the koshas, or sheaths. Each sheath surrounds and penetrates the one beneath it, moving from the densest expression of our existence toward the most refined.

The first is the annamaya kosha, the physical body. It is literally the body made from food. Everything that becomes our physical form comes from the material world. The earth sustains us, and eventually we return to it.

Yet the physical body does not operate on its own. Within it is the pranamaya kosha, the sheath of life energy. Yoga calls this energy prana. It is the force that animates the body and coordinates the countless processes taking place within it.

We breathe without consciously commanding every breath. Our hearts beat. Digestion occurs. Blood moves through the body. Cells perform their functions.

We tend to think of these processes as simply biological events. Yoga asks us to look more deeply and recognize the animating intelligence behind them. When prana withdraws, the physical body can no longer sustain itself.

The next layer is the manomaya kosha, the mental sheath. This is the level of sensory awareness, reaction, memory, thought, and ordinary mental activity. It is the part of us that experiences the world through the senses and responds to what happens around us.

Most people live much of their lives here. Something happens, and we react. Someone says something, and we become angry. Something pleases us, and we pursue more of it. Something frightens us, and we retreat.

The mind is constantly being shaped by what we allow to enter it. What we watch, hear, read, and repeatedly think about becomes part of the mental environment in which we live. But there is another layer beyond the restless activity of the ordinary mind.

The fourth sheath is the vijnanamaya kosha, the faculty of discernment. It is more than intellect. It is the capacity to observe, judge, choose, and act according to something deeper than impulse.

This is where conscience and will begin to emerge. The distinction is important. The ordinary mind asks, “What do I want?” The higher mind asks, “What is right?” The ordinary mind reacts to circumstances. The deeper intelligence learns to respond. This is one of the great transitions in human development. We begin to understand that we are not required to be prisoners of our impulses, our habits, or the circumstances surrounding us. We can become conscious participants in our own lives.

The fifth sheath is the anandamaya kosha, the sheath of bliss. This is the most difficult of the five to understand because it does not describe an ordinary emotional state. It is not pleasure, excitement, or temporary happiness. It is a deeper condition of being in which the sense of separation, fear, desire, and deficiency begins to disappear.

The ancient yogis believed that this state lies very near the deepest Self. And yet, even the five koshas are not the Self itself.

They are sheaths through which consciousness expresses itself. Imagine a light shining through five layers of increasingly transparent material. The layers affect the way the light appears, but the light itself remains untouched. In the same way, our physical body, life force, mind, intellect, and even bliss are expressions through which consciousness becomes known. This changes the purpose of spiritual practice.

Yoga is not simply a method for stretching the body or calming the mind. It is a process of moving inward through the layers of our own existence. We begin with the body. We become aware of the breath and the life force. We learn to quiet the mind. We develop discernment and will. Then, beneath all of this, we begin to discover a calmness that was present before our thoughts and desires arose.

The journey isn't really about acquiring something new. It is about removing what prevents us from recognizing what has always been there. We spend much of our lives looking outward for fulfillment. The yogic path reverses the direction of attention. It asks us to enter ourselves. And as we move inward, we may discover that the person we thought we were, the body, personality, thoughts, fears, and ambitions, is only the outer expression of something truly greater.

The five koshas provide a map of that journey. They tell us that human beings are not just physical creatures having occasional spiritual experiences. We are consciousness expressing itself through layers of existence. To comprehend those layers is to begin understanding ourselves.

Take a closer look and really see yourself as you truly are.

Meditate