The Five Sheaths

[Guest guest]

>From _Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism_ by Lama Anagarika Govinda

 

Part Four: 'HUM' : The Path of Integration

 

5

THE DOCTRINE OF THE PSYCHIC ENERGIES

AND OF THE 'FIVE SHEATHS'

 

The invisible channels and subtle vessels, serving as conductors of the

forces, which flow through the human body, are called nadis (Tib.: rtsa),

as we have mentioned already.

It is better to leave this word untranslated, in order to avoid

misunderstandings which would inevitably arise from translations such as

'nerves', 'veins' or 'arteries'. The mystic anatomy and physiology of Yoga

is not founded on the 'object-isolating' investigations of science, but on

subjective - though not less unprejudiced -observations of inner processes,

i.e., not on the dissection of dead bodies or on the external observation

of the functions of human and animal organisms, but on the self-observation

and on the direct experience of processes and sensations within one's own

body.

The discoveries of the nervous system and the circulation of the blood

belong to an entirely different epoch; and even if the word nadi was

adopted by a later medical science of India as being the most suitable

expression for nerves and blood-vessels, this does not justify the

substitution of these physiological concepts for the original meaning of

the yoga-term.

What has been overlooked by most writers on the subject of pranayama

(the yoga of controlling the prana) is the fact that the same energy

(prana) is not only subject to constant transformation, but is able at the

same time to make use of various mediums of movement without interrupting

its course. Just as an electric current can flow through copper, iron,

water, silver, etc., and can even flash through space without any such

medium, if the tension is high enough, or move in form of radio-waves - in

the same way the current of psychic force can utilize the breath, the

blood, or the nerves as conductors, and at the same time move and act even

beyond and without these mediums into the infinity of space, if effciently

concentrated and directed. For prana is more than breath, more than

nerve-energy or the vital forces of the blood-current. It is more than the

creative power of semen or the force of motor-nerves, more than the

faculties of thought and intellect or will-power. All these are only

modifications of prana, just as the cakras are modifications of the

akasa-principle.

Though the nadis may partially coincide with the courses of nerves and

blood-vessels and have, therefore, often been compared with their

functions, they are nevertheless _not_ identical with them, but stand in

similar relationship to them as the cakras to the organs and bodily

functions with which they are associated. In other words, we are confronted

here with a parallelism of bodily, psychic, and spiritual functions.

This parallelism is well demonstrated in the doctrine of the five

sheaths (kosa) of human consciousness, which in ever-increasing density

crystallize from or around the innermost centre of our being. According to

Buddhist psychology this centre is the incommensurable point of

relationship upon which all our inner forces converge, but which itself is

empty of qualification and beyond all definitions. The densest and

outermost of these sheaths is the physical body, built up through nutrition

(anna-maya-kosa); the next is the subtle, fine-material sheath

(prana-maya-kosa), consisting of prana, sustained and nourished by breath,

and penetrating the physical body. We may also call it the pranic or

ethereal body. The next-finer sheath is our thought body (mano-maya-kosa),

our 'personality', formed through active thought. The fourth sheath is the

body of our potential consciousness (vijnana-maya-kosa), which extends far

beyond our active thought, by comprising the totality of our spiritual

capacities.

The last and finest sheath, which penetrates all previous ones, is the

body of the highest, universal consciousness, nourished and sustained by

exalted joy (ananda-maya-kosa). It is only experienced in a state of

enlightenment, or in the highest states of meditation (dhyana). It

corresponds in the terminology of the Mahayana to the 'Body of Inspiration'

or 'Body of Bliss': the Sambhoga-Kaya.

These 'sheaths', therefore, are not separate layers, which one after

another crystallize around a solid nucleus, but rather in the nature of

mutually penetrating forms of energy, from the finest 'all-radiating',

all-pervading, luminous consciousness down to the densest form of

'materialized consciousness', which appears before us as our visible,

physical body. The correspondingly finer or subtler sheaths penetrate, and

thus contain, the grosser ones.

Just as the material body is built up through nourishment, while being

penetrated and kept alive by the vital forces of the prana, in the same way

the active thought-consciousness penetrates the functions of prana and

determines the form of bodily appearance. Thought, breath, and body,

however, are penetrated and motivated by the still deeper consciousness of

past experience, in which the infinite material from which our thought and

imagination draws its substance, is stored up. For want of a better term we

call it our subconsciousness or depth-consciousness .

In advanced states of meditation, however, all these conscious and

subconscious, fine-material, vital, and physical functions are penetrated

and transformed in the flame of inspiration and spiritual joy (ananda),

until the universal nature of consciousness becomes apparent. This is the

foundation on which rests the 'Yoga of the Inner Fire' (Tib.: gtum-mo),

which we shall discuss in chapter 8.

It is therefore only the spiritual body, born of inspiration (No. 5 in

the diagram shown above; Skt.: ananda-maya-kosa), which penetrates all the

five layers and thus integrates all organs and faculties of the individual

into one complete whole. In this process of integration, of becoming whole

and complete, lies the secret of immortality. As long as we have not

attained this completeness (holiness = wholeness) and identify ourselves

with lesser values, with 'parts' or partial aspects, we are subject to the

laws of matter and of all component things: the law of mortality.

Yet, it would be a mistake to underestimate the value and meaning of

our physical body (sthula sarira), built up through nourishment

(anna-maya); because even though this body is by nature the most limited,

in so far as it is not able to penetrate the other 'bodies' - yet, itself

it is penetrated by _all_ other 'bodies' and thus becomes the natural stage

of all spiritual actions and decisions. The body is, so to say, the stage

between heaven and earth, on which the psycho-cosmic drama is enacted. For

the knowing one, the initiate, it is the sacred stage of an unfathomably

deep mystery play. And it is for this reason that the knowledge, or what is

more, the conscious experience of this body is of such paramount importance

for the Yogin and for everybody who wants to tread the path of meditation.

The body, however, is rendered conscious through the spiritualization of

prana in its most accessible form: in the process of breathing.

Attachment: (image/gif) Sheaths.GIF [not stored]