This is an online event.

3 occasions (3 Tuesdays) to understand and dwelve into the Koshas.

The dates: 

16, 23, 30 June

Tuesday 6.30 - 8.00pm

£35 (for 3 occasions)

£15 for one occasion

Yoga views the whole person as having 5 layers. These layers are called the ‘koshas’; you may have heard of them if you have studied the Yoga Sutras, or perhaps your teacher has mentioned them. 

The physical body is the first and most outer layer, which, as we said earlier, is the foundation for the rest of your being (the other 4 koshas). Stretching and strengthening the body affects largely this first kosha.

The second layer is the pranic, or energetic one. This is the realm of our breath and of our life force. It is the glue that cements all of our koshas together; without it we would cease to exist. Breathing is the main practice to work with this kosha. It is well known that good breathing serves to harmonize the entire being and bring us health and radiance.

Yoga maintains that true health only manifests when all of the koshas are functioning harmoniously. Since breathing is the fundamental practice for the pranic layer and since the pranic layer in in charge of maintaining harmony in the whole being, it makes sense to focus on good breathing during your practice.

In fact, originally (back in the day), Hatha Yoga practices focused mainly on breathing and much less on physical postures. No matter how much you do physical postures, it is essential that you breathe well and be very careful with the quality and consistency of your breath! Eventually, when one progresses with yoga, more and more of your attention and efforts are focused on the breath. This stage is called Pranayama.

The third kosha is the layer of the mind and the mental activity, which includes emotions to some degree as well. This is the part of us that ‘thinks’, reasons, figures, feels and contemplates. You can experience it easily when you sit still and try to meditate. The thoughts and feelings can come thick and fast and carry your attention away from the meditation quite easily. The mental layer is a constantly moving, active force within you. It is a useful and necessary part of your being, and can be both a help and a hindrance, depending on what you are trying to do.

Meditation is the main practice to work with the mental layer, because it forces you to come to grips with your mind.

Diving underneath the sea of emotions in the manomaya kosha, we reach the wisdom body of the fourth kosha —Vijanamaya. It’s here that we develop awareness, insight and consciousness. Emotions left unchecked by awareness are destructive. The awareness of vijanamaya kosha illuminates our deeper desires and motivation and allows us to see the choice we have in all things. Instead of simply feeling or acting, we choose to feel or act with intention. Sometimes the intention is simply to move past the emotion into pure sensation and bliss. 

The fifth and last kosha drops from conscious awareness into the pure and radiant bliss body. Within the anadamaya kosha, you might experience connection with all things, liberation from suffering and a state of being often described as “in the flow.”