Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The last chapter of part one, "...And Now Yoga", elaborates upon the true nature of yoga, the concept of the five koshas, the types of yoga, and finally the idea of finding the perfect alignment with existence. Part 2 of the book explores the concept of layers or sheaths in a human being's identity.
A kosha (also kosa; Sanskrit कोश, IAST: kośa), usually rendered "sheath", is a covering of the Atman, or Self according to Vedantic philosophy. The five sheaths, summarised with the term Panchakosha, are described in the Taittiriya Upanishad (2.1-5), [1] [2] and they are often visualised as the layers of an onion. [3]
The subtle body is composed of the five subtle elements, the elements before they have undergone panchikarana, [citation needed] and contains: sravanadipanchakam – the five organs of perception: eyes, ears, skin, tongue and nose [2] vagadipanchakam – the five organs of action: speech, hands, legs, anus and genitals [2]
Early concepts of the subtle body (Sanskrit: sūkṣma śarīra) appeared in the Upanishads, including the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad and the Katha Upanishad. [7]The Taittiriya Upanishad describes the theory of five koshas or sheaths, though these are not to be thought of as concentric layers, but interpenetrating at successive levels of subtlety: [8] [9]
In Advaita Vedanta the Anandamaya kosha is the innermost of the five koshas or "sheaths" that veil the Atman or Supreme Self. Unlike the next three more outer koshas, it constitutes the karana sarira or causal body. It is associated with the state of dreamless sleep and samadhi.
The book was one of the first three reference works on asanas (yoga postures) in the development of yoga as exercise in the mid-20th century, the other two being Selvarajan Yesudian and Elisabeth Haich's 1941 Sport és Jóga (in Spanish: an English version appeared in 1953) and Theos Bernard's 1944 Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience. [2]
Pratyahara [1] [2] (Sanskrit: प्रत्याहार, romanized: Pratyāhāra) or the 'gathering towards' is the fifth element among the Eight stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga, [3] as mentioned in his classical work, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali composed in the 2nd century BCE. [4]
Five different techniques are presented: (1) counting the breath, (2) observing how each of the five aggregates is involved in the breathing process, (3) observing dependent arising through the breath, (4) observing the four noble truths, (5) the exercise of the sixteen aspects (ṣoḍaśākāra-paricaya) of ānāpānasmṛti.