Philosophy
We start with the physical body because the body is the grossest. With a dedicated, regular yoga practice, every muscle in the body is brought under control. Once some control over the body is established, the breath is examined. Everyone knows that your mental/emotional state effects your breath. For example, how would you breathe if you were really angry or scared? And how would you breathe if you were content lying on a beach with the frozen beverage of your choice? Your state of mind clearly affects your breath. The inverse of this fact is one of the biggest ‘secrets’ in yoga: how you breathe has a great affect on your state of mind.
This process from the gross to the subtle happens on a small scale in each class and also over the course of the months and years of a regular hatha yoga practice.
Physical / Annam Kosha
The physical body has different layers, the outermost of which is the skin. As you experience life you become aware of the inner working of the physical body, you cut yourself and see blood, you walk and fall and play and feel your bones, you are taught about your intestines. Even though I may never see or be consciously aware of my bone marrow, that doesn’t make it not there, and it doesn’t make it more or less important. The bone marrow is just as important as skin, one outer layer, one inner layer, one seen, one unseen – equally important. A healthy co-dependence.
The complete human has layers of being beyond the physical body.
The first, or grossest layer of being is however, the physical body- in Sanskrit: Annam Kosha.
I generally think this is the layer of being that most people most strongly identify with. As you go through the other layers some of you will think, well of course that is part of being a human. It is rational and something you’ve experienced, but maybe not thought of as a layer of being.
The ancient yogis loved to use their brain to classify things, and they ‘divide’ up the layers of being in a way that makes it easier to understand ourselves (which is not an easy task to do). It is a classification system, the map of the territory, not the territory itself. Just as you can’t have a body without skin and fascia and bones, you can’t have a live human without the next layer:
Energy / Prana Kosha
