Five Koshas: Your Nervous System And Deeper Meditation

The five koshas are the layers of your being, from the physical body through breath, energy, thought, and wisdom, all the way to the light of your True Self at the core. This session looks honestly at what gets in the way of deeper meditation, and it is usually happening in those outer layers: physical tension, shallow breath, and a thought stream that is trying very hard to keep you safe. We move through a cyclic physiological sighing practice to settle the nervous system, then watch the thought stream without being pulled into it, and finally rest in the stillness that was there all along. You do not have to find your Being. When the outer layers quiet down, it is simply revealed.

Transcript

Spiritual depth. What's in the way of going deeper? Coming into the moment. And as we look around and we establish that our body is most likely to be safe while we're doing the practice, We could take a few deeper breaths and soften our shoulders and move around. And as you're doing that, This moment of taking it all in. Saying hello to ourselves. So we're just checking in. How am I arriving? When we're looking at going deeper spiritually, It's even more important. Koshas k-o-s-h-a-s are the layers or sheaths that cover our true self or our divine light inside our consciousness our being however we describe that it's in the core of us So we have this brilliant light of the true self, Of our being, Our consciousness. One of the phrases that we use is ever pure, Ever wise, Ever free. Our being, The inherent nature of our being. Ever pure, Ever wise, Ever free. Touch into your core for a moment. Into your consciousness, Your inner light. It's always here. And there's never anything wrong in our pure awareness. We're not affected by the nervous system. We're not affected by our neighbor's noise. Other layers of our being are affected by those things. But our true self, Our inner being is ever pure, Ever wise, Ever free. That's something we could come back to and we could touch into occasionally. Our being, Our true self, Is always here. It's always peace and joy. It's the true nature of the mind, The deeper layers, Higher layers of the mind, Is joy, Light, Peace, When we're talking about the five koshas, The layers, The first layer is very close to the light of our being. So there's not much in the way of knowing our light of our being. And that's called ananda, Maya kosha. Ananda is bliss, The layer of bliss and joy. One more layer out. Sometimes people think about this as a scarf covering a light. We get to the Vijnanamaya Kosha, Which is the layer of the higher mind. Our wisdom and intuition. These are the layers that we want to be aware of when we're going into meditation. Then we get to the problem areas, Which are the lower level of our mind, Our thought stream, Which can be very compulsive. It can be very insistent, Especially if we are in a nervous system response, A survival response. So the next three layers is manomaya kosha, The lower level of the mind. Pranamaya Kosha, Which is the layer of life force and energy and breath. And then the anamaya kosha, Which is the layer of the body made of food. So we have physical pain, We have concerns about our health, We have adrenaline and cortisol, We have tightness in our muscles because we always brace ourselves against trouble. The physical body has a lot of intensity. We also experience pleasure sometimes through our body. Through things that we see through our eyes. Remember the five senses, Things we touch. None of this is bad. What we're talking about going deeper into meditation or into spiritual depth, It can be helpful for us or it can be a distraction, An obstacle. So next layer in of the Pranamaya Kosha, If you're working with your body right now and you're noticing how am I breathing. If you're holding your breath, If your breath is short, Jerky, That signals to the nervous system that there's something wrong. And a lot of what we do is try and make our neuroception more accurate, Because actually there's no immediate threat. There are lots of threats in the world. Lots of things going on in our personal life. Right now in this moment, Could we afford to take our attention away from that? Breathe more deeply and then signal to our nervous system. It's safe enough for me to move to make a bit of noise with my breath. You might hum or the syllable voo. Something that would indicate to your nervous system. Must be okay because I'm moving I'm breathing more deeply. I'm making some sound. And there's no threat coming up here. So that's another layer, The pranamaya kosha, Also the energy and sensation in our body. We often have a feeling of dread as sensation in our body. It might be tense up through our shoulders and upper back, Or we might feel it in our stomach. And then we have thoughts in our mind, The lower level of the mind, Which correspond to that. So we have a feeling of dread, And then we might have catastrophic thinking. Well, What if this happens? And then what am I going to do? It's a nervous system response. We're trying to figure out how to keep ourselves safe. So that's happening on those layers. The thinking thought level mind. Energy and breath and the physical body. When we're talking about an obstacle to spiritual depth, It's those three layers. Because once we can settle those three, Then we can open into higher levels of the mind and into the layer of bliss. And into awareness of our being. Let's do a practice. Decide how you're going to position yourself. What is going to be helpful. You don't have to look like a picture of a meditating person. Get into a position where you can be comfortable and your body isn't hurting because that gets kind of insistent and it distracts us if that's happening. And as you're breathing in and breathing out, Notice how you feel. There might already be a certain amount of stillness. We can't order our nervous system to stand down. It's urgently trying to keep us safe. And some practices like breathing and coming into our body and being aware of it could help. Sometimes we might have to keep coming back again and again and again because we have a lot of momentum and other times it gives way a little bit easier. We've got our body more comfortable. Let's do a bit of cyclic physiological sign. So it's a deep double inhale through the nose and then out through the mouth like you're breathing out through a thin straw. Let's do this for like three minutes and let ourselves really experience the effect of that. So inhaling. Again. Long exhale through pursed lips. Work at your own pace, There's no rush. Really see if you can find a rhythm and a length of breath that is enough volume to really support your body, But is not creating any sense of, I'm exhaling so long, I'm gasping for air. You want to still have a lot of ease in the breath. So inhaling deeply. Again. And our mind will often get bored after three or four breaths. Notice the more subtle things. So for two or three breaths, You could just soften your forehead, Eyebrows and eyes, Maybe your mouth and jaw. Sometimes you might want to move your body a little. Bring your shoulders up on an inhale, Let them release on an exhale. So as you're doing this practice, We're noticing what's in the way of stillness in my body and mind. And then what could I do that will help? We can almost always soften our body. We can almost always smooth out our breath. Let your mind be focused. If it's gone somewhere else, That's natural, That happens all the time. Just bring it back. Double inhale, Long exhale like you're breathing out through a straw. And then let your breath come back to whatever rhythm it's wanting to be in. Notice now, How do you feel? How does your body feel? Are you feeling more relaxed? If we're in a hypervigilant or anxious state, We often have an edginess in our body. What would it feel like to rest your body back? Take in the support of the chair or the floor, Whatever you're supported by. And let go of that, I've got to be ready. If we have that forward moving, I need to be vigilant. It's not gonna be very easy to find the stillness in the mind. So let's settle back in the body. Notice if your body could help with this. Let yourself be supported. Relax your shoulders, Your upper back. Notice your breath. And what did you observe about yourself so far during the practice? Specifically the last three minutes of the cyclic physiological sighing. Is your breath different? Is your experience different in that three minutes? This tends to be a practice that creates an immediate grounding and relaxation. And it's not the same for everybody. It's not the same for all of us all the time either. It might really work one day and then not quite as much the next because we have a lot on our mind perhaps. Notice if there's anything else in your body that it would be helpful to soften. Ear, Mouth, And jaw. Neck and shoulders, Upper back. If you've got some edginess in your body, You might want to shake it out. Shake your arms, Shake your legs, Move around, Make some noise. The layer of the mind that generates thoughts, A lot of them nervous system related, Is more likely to be a little slower, Calmer now than it was before we started. And it might still have a lot of movement, A lot of compulsion in it. Watch the mind, The thought stream for a moment. One of the things I love about this is that we don't actually have to find the wisdom and intuition in the mind, That layer. We don't have to find the list layer. We don't have to go looking for it. We don't have to go looking for our being, Our consciousness. When we settle these three layers of body, Breath, Energy, And the lower level of the mind, The thought stream, Then as that softens and comes into stillness, The other is revealed. The real secret to spiritual depth is in our nervous system and in our thoughts. So let's pretend that we're sitting behind our head and you're noticing what are the thoughts coming through your mind. We'll give this a few minutes as well. Thoughts come in as words, So we hear or see if they're written out. Images, Colors, And shapes that our brain interprets. Let's watch our thoughts. And as you're watching thoughts, Notice if their background can go through. They don't really cause much of a response. Is there a train of thought? And how is it affecting your nervous system and your body? If you have a thought that's kind of alarming, Often our body will tense up. Maybe we'll hold our breath. Maybe there will be some energy in our gut or our heart. We might be anxious about the future. We might be worrying about the past. To watch for thoughts for another minute or so. What are the energy and the content of your thought stream? And whatever is going on in your thoughts, See if you could let yourself go below the level of the thinking mind, Go into the stillness of the mind. Using a metaphor of a lake would be the thought waves on the surface, And as we come deeper into the lake, It's very still. We don't actually have to follow our thoughts. We don't have to deal with anything in particular right now. The next 10 minutes we could allow ourselves to be still. Let your guard down. We've already looked around, You can look around again. There's no imminent danger. Our intention is to go into stillness. Let go of other times and other places. Bring your attention, Your awareness to your being. That light at our core. Pure consciousness. And we might also notice the wisdom and intuition mind and the layer of bliss. That's fine. Let's rest in stillness, Aware of our being. Our being ever pure, Ever wise, Ever free. So we're not thinking about our being, We're resting our awareness in consciousness, Our true self, A light. And deeper than the layer of thought. If you're distracted, Just come back, Come back into the depth. Awareness of consciousness. And if your mind wanders, That's okay, Just bring it back. If you find yourself thinking about consciousness, See if you can let go of the thoughts as well, Come into the actual stillness. We can come back to thinking in a few more minutes. I am the awareness that's having this experience. Gradually bring your body back into awareness, Your breath. Take your time. We've been working with these layers and awareness of the layers. In the sense of I am aware of, And also working with I am the awareness, I am consciousness. Getting in touch with our being. Before we come out of the practice completely, Notice if there's anything that you had insights about or that you're inspired to follow up with or that you're curious about. It's so helpful to take time first to come into the moment, Settle our body, Breath, And thought stream. Let our nervous system know that it's okay for us to do this. So we have our everyday experience and we kind of pause for a moment and we look around and we're like, I see a lot of nervous system activity again. Then I know what to do. I could do some cyclic sighing. I could relax my body. I could go back in to the stillness. So one of the things about our thoughts is that it just automatically takes over. And then we can pull back and go, You know, I could actually afford to take a few minutes and not have that going on, Not be really focused on my thoughts. I could go into this stillness.