September/October 2005

Your energy bodies

By RAVI DYKEMA

"In Tantrism [and hatha yoga], the human body acquires an importance it had never before attained in the spiritual history of India... The (earlier) pessimism and asceticism are swept away. The body is no longer the source of pain, but the most reliable and effective instrument at man's disposal for "conquering death" (achieving freedom, moksha). And since liberation can be gained even in this life, the body must be preserved as long as possible, and in perfect condition, precisely as an aid to meditation." - Mircea Eliade, Yoga, Immortality and Freedom (Princeton University Press, p. 227)

The body referred to above is not just your flesh-and-bones body. When you reach your arm skyward while in the triangle pose, can you feel that you are moving more than just your visible arm? You are also moving your emotional arm, and your mental arm, even your blissful arm! These are parts of your energy bodies. And involving your energy bodies in your yoga practice makes you feel more alive and happier. Anyone can learn to feel their energy bodies; in fact most of us already are.

According to yoga theory, yoga practices produce mental clarity, increased energy levels, and calmness in large part by producing a change in your energy bodies, which in turn creates a change in your physical body.

The Five Bodies

Hatha yoga teaches that we each have a physical body as well as other "bodies" that are not physical, that is, not made of atoms and molecules. These other bodies are considered to be made of "energy,"somewhat like the electrical energy by which your nervous system functions. That is why some scholars translate "hatha yoga" as the "yoga of balanced energy."

This idea of a nonphysical body is shared by most other spiritual traditions. Parallel traditions around the world suggest that life, consciousness, and spirit manifest in a person in more than their physical body.

The most common model of energy bodies in yoga is the theory of the "five sheaths" (pancha-kosha, pronounced pan-cha ko-sha), or five bodies, first described in the Taittiriya-Upanishad (ninth century BCE) and discussed thereafter in many other works.

The five bodies, pancha kosha, include the physical body and four energy bodies.

1. The "body composed of food" (anna-maya-kosha), the physical body.
2. The "body composed of life force" (prana-maya-kosha), sometimes called the emotional body or the body of breath. This is the body that contains channels through which the energy, prana, flows. These channels are called nadas (pronounced nah-dees).
3. The "body composed of mind" (mano-maya-kosha), the intellect.
4. The "body composed of awareness" (vijnana-maya-kosha), also called the body of understanding or wisdom.
5. The "body composed of bliss" (ananda-maya-kosha), the body through which one experiences the Absolute, the ultimate Truth, which is said to be intensely blissful (ananda). (This list is according to Georg Feuerstein, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Yoga, p. 157, and The Yoga Tradition, p. 132.)

The energy body that is the easiest to feel and to influence is your body of prana, or life force. Hatha yoga emphasizes breath awareness and breath control because altering your breathing pattern is the most potent way for you to affect your energy bodies. (See March/April 2005 column, "High potency yoga: breathing," available online at nexuspub.com.)

Feeling your energy body

Try this exercise to feel your body made of the energy called prana. Sit comfortably with both feet flat on the floor and your back erect, not leaning back in your chair. Notice for a minute how you feel, and how your body feels.

Now close your eyes and take 10 deep, slow, easy breaths, feeling your chest and belly move as you breathe. Keep feeling your breath move, returning to these sensations if your attention wanders.

After you are finished, notice how you feel again. Do you feel tenser, or more relaxed? How calm or agitated do you feel? How heavy do you feel? Is your mind cluttered with thoughts or is it spacious? Open your eyes and notice if your surroundings look different.

When your energy bodies change, your physical body changes and your perception changes. Hatha yoga practices represent a kind of holistic fitness regimen for your consciousness, your instrument of perception. And a super-fit yogin perceives the unblemished picture; she sees reality just as it is. Seeing reality that way is what the ancient Yogins called liberation.

This is adapted from Ravi Dykema's just-released college textbook, Yoga for Fitness and Wellness, available at Wadsworth.com. (Type Yoga" into the search window.) He has a private practice in yoga therapy and publishes Nexus.

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