The Koshas: Manamayakosha
Who am I? What am I? Why am I here? These questions inevitably arise on our spiritual journey. The koshas explain the human being in terms of having different layers, bodies, or sheaths. Understanding ourselves and our different aspects can help guide us from feeling separate and disjointed to whole and complete. It is easy and inevitable to identify with our physical layer because we can see and touch it. This physical layer is called our annamayakosha. We know there is more than our physical because we breathe. This opens the door to our energy body, our pranamayakosha, or that which enlivens the body. Not only do we move and breathe, but we also think thoughts and feel feelings, this is our manamayakosha or our mental body and the topic of which we will explore.
Manas means mind and much of our yoga practice is focused at this level of being. I won’t pretend to fully understand what is mind, not even close! What I do know is that my mind has the mold-ability to expand or contract dependent upon the quality of thoughts that I am thinking, the truths of the beliefs that I afixate to, and the judgements that I am casting. The experience that I have, based on the previous stated, is one of presence and reality or one of imagination, either past or future.
The external stimuli of life is like a daily hurricane of people, places, and things layered with our dialogue about those people, places, and things. It’s overwhelming! And yet, we are addicted to the overwhelm and the rush of the drama and distraction it causes. When we are fooled by the importance of the hurricane, all we ever do is run away from the hurricane, or towards it, or obsessively track it, or worry about it, or take photos of its' damage. We strip ourselves the opportunity of ever getting to experience anything other than the hurricane’s inevitable chaos.
Yoga reminds us that there is an eye to every storm and that we can develop the awareness, the intellect, and the discernment to filter the hurricane. We can learn to channel its' rains to quench our thirst or navigate its’ winds to hoist our sails and venture inward to the island of atman, where our beloved awaits. Just as the body and energy need to be nourished, so does the mind. When we blindly expose her to fear based agendas, we will develop a mentality or mental body of fear. On the other hand, when we feed our mental body a diet of love based intentions and filter our exposure to the onslaught of toxic misaligned propaganda, we can cultivate and environment of which allows for the limitless nature of love to flourish within our own beings and beyond. Not only do we save ourselves, but we provide lifeboats for others who are still lost in the storm.
Dearest Reader,
As always, I am so grateful for your time and dedication to learning yoga philosophy with me. May these blogs serve you and encourage you to continue your studies.
Blessings,
Andrea Dawn
