The Five Koshas: the layers of our being
In yoga philosophy, there’s a beautiful concept for the human experience called the koshas, a Sanskrit word that translates to “sheath” or “layer.”
Just as we talk of the layers of an onion, the term kosha describes our layers. These aren’t just physical layers like skin, muscle, bone, but subtler aspects of our inner experience, of our body, mind and spirit, that together make up who we are.
As yogic concepts tend to do, the idea of koshas directs our attention gently inwards, and invites us to notice and slowly deepen our awareness of what is happening at subtler levels inside, as outlined below. This is a pathway to connect us with the essence of who we are. Like all parts of life, these layers are not separate but deeply interconnected. Yoga shifts our thinking toward a holistic, systems-level perspective, which is beneficial in myriad areas, from a personal level of having an interoceptive ‘compass’ that we can refer to as we make choices for our life on the daily, to the organisational and leadership requirement to be strategically adaptive.
Let’s take a gentle journey through them - and the invitation for each, is to take a moment to pause, close your eyes, and start to tune in to awareness of that layer.
1. Annamaya Kosha – The Physical Body
This is the outer most and also most tangible layer, our muscles, bones, organs, and skin. Anna means food, reminding us that the body is built from the nourishment we take in.
Through asana (yoga postures), nourishing food, rest, and mindful movement, we keep this layer strong, supple, and balanced. You might now close your eyes and notice your feet in your shoes, feel the connection with the soles of your feet, flex the muscles in your calves, feel your heartbeat, touch your skin. Maybe even sink your attention into an organ - your liver, heart, kidneys - this is our annamaya kosha.
The magic of the interconnectedness of the koshas is when we practice noticing how each effects the other: when I have a thought - how is that thought affecting my heart? My energy? My emotions? We start to see how we are conductors of so much of our experience…
2. Pranamaya Kosha – The (Vital) Energy Body
Beneath the physical is the vital energy that animates us, our prana, or life force. This is carried through the breath and subtle energy channels (nadis). Just as you have a physical “look,” you also have a personal energetic signature. When practicing yoga, we might gradually start to become aware of rivers of energy flowing as we move through certain poses. Sometimes we start the practice feeling sluggish, tired or slow, but just 10 to 15 minutes into the sequence, there is often a noticeable shift in our sense of energy or vibrancy. This effect on its own is enough to keep us coming back to yoga - as we start to move stagnant or blocked energy, and the ‘energetic pathways’ flow more easily and in a connected way.
We nurture this kosha through pranayama (breath practices), time in nature, and anything that helps us feel truly alive and vibrant. This layer is also where we start to pick up vibrational energy - have you ever noticed how you feel calmed in the presence of certain people? This is our energetic or vibrational signature.
3. Manomaya Kosha – The Mental Body
The realm of thoughts, emotions, and the senses, the ‘mental body’ - in which you think, daydream, or practice mantra and affirmations. Manomaya kosha is where we process our experiences and form our habitual patterns of mind. I often think of the topographic lines on a map as akin to our koshas. There is a beautiful way that the fluctuations of the mind is described as the ripples on the lake surface. When we have a thought, it leaves an imprint perhaps like a small stone on the bottom of the lake. Each time we repeat that thought or mental pattern - another stone is added to the pile on the lake-floor, creating more waves at the surface. These accumulations are akin to mental structures formed by beliefs, opinions and assumptions that you’ve absorbed from your family and culture, as well as accumulated thought patterns. Called ‘samskaras’ in Sanskrit, these deep thought grooves in the mental body cause your perceptions of yourself and your life to run in certain fixed patterns, potentially limiting us and our experience of life and the world.
The power of this kosha is when we choose to notice our thoughts, beliefs and opinions, and then notice how they are effecting our energy and emotions (pranamaya kosha), this awareness provides the space or opportunity to CHOOSE.
The choice becomes, ‘how do I want to feel? And if that thought or opinion blocks me from feeling [insert desired emotion here: loving, empowered, kind, connected, compassionate, aligned with my potential']; then how is that belief or opinion really serving me? Or the collective? Do I really need it? Who would I be without it? (this is resonant with the work of Byron Katie.) Do I really know it to be true? (generally we don’t - it was just a thought we had in one moment in time, often our automatic thus conditioned interpretation of a single interaction - that we never challenged ourselves on or fact-checked with the other party!)
The brain loves ‘certainty’, so it creates stories to fill in any blanks. This is where the patterns become deeply worn grooves, in psychology known as ‘confirmation bias.’ For example, “I don’t get along with that person”, “I don’t enjoy that activity so I won’t go”, “I’m an introvert so…”, “they’re wrong about.. X,”, “she doesn’t like me”, “all people from that country are X”, “I’ll never be good at X”, “we’ll just never get along”. This layer we see playing out in around us in society constantly, and they can become a source of great destruction, the battle of beliefs pitted against each other, creating rifts and wars that benefit no-one. A mind left unchecked can become pretty stormy, when we are beholden to ever-repeating, accumulated thought patterns.
Meditation, mantra, and mindful living help us quiet mental chatter and cultivate clarity in this layer, rippling benefits out to all the other layers. How to increase awareness of this kosha: you might notice your thoughts, and the direct experience emotionally and physically that they generate, and then choose a thought that leaves you feeling more empowered, real and spacious, such as “I am free to choose my attitudes’, or ‘there may be another way to see this’ or, ‘I cannot know their intentions for certain, maybe it wasn’t about me.”
4. Vijnanamaya Kosha – The Wisdom Body
This kosha is about insight, intuition, and inner knowing, the ability to see beyond surface appearances.
The great Nicholas Janni describes intuition as arising when our heart, mind and body are aligned and coherent.
We cultivate this kosha through self-reflection, study, and practices that connect us to our deeper values and truth. The wisdom body is responsible for insight. Those moments where ideas just seem to come to you - or when you become engrossed in a creative task - this is accessing the wisdom body. Often when we’re sitting at our desk waiting for the answer to a problem to come, we can feel stuck. But getting outside for a walk, moving, swimming, writing it down and then going to sleep - will so often result in a ‘flash of insight’. This is the journey of yoga, and as I often say in class, the journey is the destination. The process is the goal.
5. Anandamaya Kosha – The Bliss Body
The innermost sheath is pure joy, not the fleeting happiness of external events, but the quiet, steady bliss of simply being, when you feel that ‘glow’ that cannot be extinguished. If I said, recall a time that you felt filled with joy - analogous to wedding party vibes, reconnecting with a loved one, or the exhilaration of your favourite sport, or just lying on a beach gazing at the ocean, or lying in savasana, or listening to live music - it is a deep humming of contentment and connection and oneness. Our essence is innately blissful. We touch this state in moments of stillness, deep meditation, or connection to something greater than ourselves.But we often need to learn (or unlearn) how to turn deep inside to recognise it. So in many ways, as we tend these inner layers, we see more clearly the ways and places where we are blocking our access to our bliss.
Bringing the Koshas into Practice
The koshas aren’t separate boxes, they interweave and influence each other. When we care for the body, we support the mind. When we calm the mind, we touch our wisdom and bliss.
Yoga offers tools for tending to every layer, inviting us into a more integrated and harmonious way of living.
A gentle invitation: Next time you’re on your mat, notice which layer you’re most aware of. Is it the stretch in your hamstrings, the flow of your breath, the quieting of your thoughts? With practice, you may find yourself moving closer and closer to that innermost bliss.
