Monthly Archives: November 2025

MIND

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STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN    VII

MANOMAYA KOSHA (Mental Body)

The sheath of the mind, the Manomaya Kosha is often called the mental body. It is the tool consciousness uses to perceive the world. The mind uses the brain to process information and performs at every level of the body. It utilizes the sense organs to gather stimulus and the mind stores and sorts information drawing conclusions.

The intellect’s sense of self, the ‘I” that is the ego (composed of memory, everything you’ve been taught about the world and about yourself) is also within this sheath. The Manomaya Kosha is also the seat of the emotions. The Manomaya Kosha must be tamed to allow you to be at home in the more subtle koshas.

'Beyond Vanity' artist Kate Clark

‘Beyond Vanity’ artist Kate Clark

 

 

SELF

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STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN    III

Yoga technique allows direct personal experience of complete SELF. We exist as physical enigma. What animates our chemical and mineral composition into a living being? What intelligence organizes the multitudinous balanced relationships vital to a single cell? A sentient being?

All spiritual traditions assume that the physical body isn’t the only vehicle in which consciousness can express itself or in which the Self or Spirit manifests itself.

KOSHAS

KOSHAS

In yoga, five sheaths (the five koshas ) are recognized as occluding the pure light of the transcendental SELF.

BODY

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STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN    V

ANNAMAYA KOSHA (Physical Body)

The outermost of the koshas is the physical body (the Annamaya Kosha). ‘Anna’, in Sanskrit means food, and this is the body formed by the ingestion of food. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘gross body’, the least subtle of the koshas. The physical body is the temple of the soul. It houses organs that make it possible for consciousness to exist on this physical plane. It deserves care and respect. The reasons for being on the physical plane are the lessons that can only be learned in this material form. If the physical body is not properly maintained, it can be more difficult to advance spiritually.

Another paradox: the Annamaya Kosha is the most gross and dense of the koshas, but it is the most malleable. It is actually a manifestation of the unseen, more subtle koshas, and balanced sincere effort toward spiritual awareness echoes throughout the body and is reflected in the physical form.DSC0020-web

YOGA REVERES BALANCE

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If the earth were a little closer or further away from the sun, if the moon wasn’t balanced in orbit acting as a stabilizer, the planet wouldn’t have been able to foster consciousness in this human form. An intricate balance of hot and cold gasses, liquids and solids form this womb, Mother Earth.

BALANCE IN BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT weight loss through yoga, jewel in the lotus

BALANCE IN BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT weight loss through yoga, jewel in the lotus

The human body is a finely balanced vessel for awareness. Multitudes of balanced chemical and functional relationships are requisite for our being. Just as the earth revolves in its perfect orbit without the coaching of our minds, so our infinitely complicated bodies draw upon a higher order. Our bodies are always woking to maintain a proper relationship among the gases, liquids and solids animated by the life force into a living organism. This sacrosanct coalesce is constantly going on without direction from our thinking mind.

 

Weight Loss Through Yoga, Jewel in the Lotus        Page 44