Embodied Awakening Through the Koshas
I have always admired and been deeply drawn to how the practice & foundational eternal teachings of yoga encompass & embrace every aspect of who we are, leaving no dimension excluded from the whole.
Yoga, which means to yoke, to unify, provides a systematic approach in returning to the integration of body, mind, heart & soul, through both the study & management of the subtle bodies, called the Koshas.
The Koshas are the mapping of embodiment from formless to form, and from form back to formless.
Formless is undifferentiated consciousness (Shiva) called Purusha. It is the ocean of formless potential. Form is differentiated consciousness, but not separate from Purusha, it is energy (Shakti) called Prakriti. It is the wave that has taken form from the cosmic ocean of consciousness, i.e. body, thought, object. The form (wave) is impermanent, and yet the formless (ocean) is eternal.
In meditative energy based yoga, we consciously move in a structured way through the sheaths of embodiment Koshas, back to our formless nature. Recognising that you are not the changing thought, feeling and sensation, and through witness consciousness you can more easily establish yourself in your changeless timeless True nature. One is unreal, and the other is Real.
The understanding of the Koshas allows us to connect & experience both the density of the physical body through the felt sense (form), aswell as access the most refined and subtlest of condensations of the Bliss Body, which is closest the the Source (formless).
Yoga is Atman & Paramatman merging; that is the individual soul becoming one with the cosmic soul. This is experienced through embodiment of the subconscious Pranic field and is the reservoir of infinite potential.
The journey of awakening holds the fundamental principle of ‘energy follow attention’. Each technique serves to quiet the mind & enhance the flow of Prana and there is time to absorb the energetic effect. The beauty of the energetic practice is it requires no will or effort, just awareness & surrender. i.e. letting go of all doing, the energy is then free to do its evolutionary work.
We often imagine awakening as something that happens beyond the body; as though consciousness must somehow escape its human form in order to become free.
But what if the body is not the obstacle?
What if it is the doorway?
Yoga offers a different possibility; that the body, breath and subtle currents of prana become a vehicle for awakening. As we learn to inhabit the body more fully, something begins to shift.
There is an intentional shift from doing & thinking, to feeling & Being. The mind becomes quieter. The senses become more refined. Energy begins to move differently, and beneath the familiar patterns of thought and misidentification, we discover a deeper field of awareness.
This is the territory of embodied awakening, not simply understanding something about consciousness, but allowing consciousness to be experienced through the living body.
There is nothing to force and nowhere to get to.
The invitation is simply to become available, to listen more deeply, to feel what is moving through you, and to discover what becomes possible when the body, breath and energy are used as a doorway into consciousness.
I invite you to experience this for yourself in my signature offering of the
Remembrance Series; a 3-hour immersive deep dive into the energy of yoga & meditation, Yoga Nidra, philosophy & transformation which has been created as a space to go beyond the familiar and explore the deeper dimensions of embodied awareness.
Love Julie