Many Worlds and Five Koshas
Deepak Chopra - September 15, 2005
In a recent post, Shaye responded, "I think there are as many worlds within this world as there are people in it."
I think this must be true, for we know that karma is highly individual, as is perception, memories, life history, and so on. Recently I have been researching theories of the afterlife, and I was struck that there may be as many worlds in the afterlife (loka, bardos, heavens and hells). With millions of worlds proliferating, how are they connected? If we can answer that, we might get hold of the difficult problem of changing this world.
I'd like to suggest that consciousness unites these many worlds. We can take the Vedic concept of Koshas that divide consciousness into layers without actually changing its basic nature. Kosha is translated as sheath, layer, or envelope, but it's easiest to think of pure consciousness as a point that wraps five bodies around itself like layers of an onion. I don't want to discuss the five Koshas at length except to say that pure consciousness takes on the body of bliss, then the body of ego and intellect, the body of mind, the body of Prana (subtle breath, life force), and finally the physical body.
Each person's consciousness is contained within the five Koshas, but so is society, and so is humanity. The Kosha are shared levels of reality as well as individual levels. So the analogy of the onion breaks down when we see that the various Koshas aren't the same. You can claim your body as your own, but even that is shared--the air you breathe today contains millions of atoms of oxygen that were in China being breathed out a few days ago. Still less can you claim that Prana is yours, because the animating force that imbues life operates equally through every living thing.
As you peel away the Koshas, they become more universal. Mind is composed of thoughts, and we all know how fast a thought spreads around the world. Even ego, the sense of "I," permeates consciousness in general. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he described himself as the "I Am." Now we are very close to the source, and the layer closest to pure consciousness--Anandamaya Kosha or the body of bliss, is the first, primal vibration of manifested self but also the hum of the universe.
I thought this was a fascinating way to link the physical world with the worlds of the afterlife, because the Koshas must exist in both realms. My aim all the time is to build a case for one reality, and this helps. Any step we can take toward uniting the gulfs of separation enables us to raise our own consciousness--here I am thinking about the gulf that separates life and death, but there is also the gulf between different people and different levels of consciousness, which feels more immediate, so let's look at that. I want to understand the whole "self system" that the Koshas make up.
Annamaya Kosha: The physical body is the most separate aspect of the self system. At birth most babies are very much alike physiologically, but by age seventy no two people's bodies are remotely alike. Time has made each of us a unique individual. This material fact underlies a great deal of the separation in the world, as people struggle to their share of good, money, possessions, and status. They want to promote the well-being of their physical bodies, to enhance its charm and beauty, to keep it young-looking, to protect it from the threat of injury and death.
At this level consciousness operates silently, without a voice, as it organizes the myriad functions of the body. Yet even here, if we look at what is happening at the cellular level, it turns out that consciousness is complete:
Cells cooperate, communicate, exchange functions, perform acts of self-sacrifice, remain in balance, keep aware of their environment, adapt to change, and know that they survive by being part of a greater whole.
Every Kosha reveals wholeness and separation at the same time. If we look upon Annamayi Kosha as the physical world, it's obvious that our bodies are isolated, one form another, and this gives rise to the illusion that one must struggle and compete with every other isolated body.
Yoga uses physical postures that combine balance, strength, and body awareness (Asanas) to bring a person to this level of self.
Pranamaya Kosha: In terms of the individual, Prana is the breath that sustains life. There is no equivalent in the West for Prana, although we do have a tradition called vitalism that centers on the "life force." Whatever name you use, the body is sustained by a subtler intelligence that participates in the physical world without itself being physical. Prana is vitality.
At this level people are united with all living things. When you feel that you share something with a pet or with animals in the wild, with flowers and Nature as a whole, you are feeling the flow of vitality that holds the ecosystem together. Suddenly the incredible intelligence that knits together every cell in the body expands, and it is no longer possible to say "I own this," the way you own your body.
Consciousness is still differentiated--there is no obvious connection between blue-green algae, tigers, geraniums, and human beings. But Prana acts as the binding force between all of these apparently separate forms.
The gulf that has to be bridged here has to do with higher and lower life forms. Consciousness doesn't recognize higher or lower, it orchestrates diversity into a wholeness. At every level we confront wholeness and separation together, and here the separation still seems to dominate over the wholeness, which is why human beings continue to depredate the ecosystem without realizing that they are destroying part of their own self-system.
Yoga uses exercises in conscious breathing (Pranayama) to bring the person to this level of self.
Manomaya Kosha: This is the mental body, the level at which we process the raw data of the world through the five senses. Mind sometimes includes emotions, sensations, memories, and other uses of the brain. But the root quality here is individual ideas and thoughts. You know who you are by what you think. You know who you are by what you remember about the past.
At this level consciousness faces a world of infinite diversity; it finds itself at play in the cosmos without boundaries, for the mind can fly anywhere, imagine anything. But since each Kosha is about separation as well as wholeness, Manomaya Kosha has lost some of that original quality of bliss. Your mind is free to interpret the world any way it wants, and some of those ways include ignorance of the self. It is impossible to restrict the mind, and many people fear such freedom. So at this level we come up against the self-created boundaries of belief, fear, and prejudice. Blake's "mind-forged manacles" create separation and repression where none need to exist.
Balanced against this is wholeness, for ideas aren't in fact individual. They are shared; they arise in groups and are sustained by groups. There aren't in truth separate isolated worlds that each of us fit into. We carve out individual niches in collective consciousness, and as a wave of evolution passes through humanity, each of us can decide to seize the wave or ignore it, to defend against it or embrace it.
Manomaya Kosha is therefore the level of evolution in consciousness, both for you and me and for human beings as a whole.
Yoga uses the whole field of discrimination (Gyan) to bring a person to this level of the self.
Vigyanmaya Kosha: This is the level of the ego, the sense of identity. Ego is a hot topic in the politics of spirituality, and its reputation is low. People feel it is their duty to kill the ego and control its impulses. However, the word Vigyan means realization that has no particular object. In popular usage it means science before any particular branch of science is mentioned. If we look at "I-ness" without any prejudice against the ego, this level of the self bring identity into being.
Identity isn't a blank. It becomes filled with attachments and associations. Vigyanmaya Kosha is that level where myth and archetypes operate. They give us knowledge about identity itself, what it means to be human. The gods play out primal desire, competition, family life, social interactions, love and war. They define the quests and visions of life.
In that way this Kosha unites human beings, but it also separates them through ego drives that clash with one another. To be fair, this clash develops in the mind, not in the ego itself. When we say ego, we usually mean the ego-personality, which is full of individual desires, dreams, beliefs, like and dislikes. Vigyan is closer to unity than that. At this level wholeness dominates over separation, as can be seen from the world's shared archetypes and myths.
Yoga uses mindfulness in all its various forms, such as contemplation and meditation, to bring a person to this level of the self.
Anandamaya Kosha: This is the body of bliss. At this level life is about the joy of being. It is about numinous presence and the inner knowledge that separation is a thin veil. Behind the veil shines the light of consciousness. One can also think of Ananda as the basic vibration, or hum, of the universe. It is the ground state from which all diversity springs. In its primal state Ananda isn't an experience but only the possibility for creation to manifest. This Kosha allows bliss to be felt.
One can imagine an afterlife where one no longer has a body, where there is no need for breath, where the mind doesn't process data anymore. But as long as there is individuality, there must be a faint sense of both ego and bliss. Ego says, "This is happening to me, I am the focus of life." bliss says, "I feel the spark of creation." Bliss is far from the feeling of happiness or even joy, though in diluted form it can be experienced as both. It is the vibratory connection that allows pure consciousness to enter into creation.
This Kosha reveals wholeness so entirely that there is only a shadow of separation. One could say that Anandamaya Kosha is pure Being mixed with just a touch of karma, just enough to allow someone to live in physical form, or in whatever form the afterlife takes. Without this sheath you would dissolve into Being and become bliss itself, without an experiencer.
Yoga uses transcending--deep awareness of Being (Samadhi) to bring a person to this level of the self.
The five Koshas, operating in unison, give rise to the self, or to put it more accurately, the self-system. In the next post I'd like to talk about the practical implications this holds for our future and what we want to achieve: raising consciousness everywhere.
Love,
Deepak
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Posted by Deepak Chopra at September 15, 2005 02:18 PM
Comments
Isn't this also the holy grail of physics? To find one unified theory, which in terms of the current theories would need to explain energy and how it manifests itself in different forms.
Does mind already exist in that energy is the quadrillion $ question? If it does, then everything is connected and you can have past, present and future all linked together as well as the one world vs many argument.
I must read your article again, Deepak, as it includes various elements from different philosophies and is probably your attempt to postulate a single, unified mind theory of sorts. At some point, it would have to intersect with the existing theories on physics for this to be widely accepted. I'm also not sure how this can be experientally demonstrated. That would be a real challenge.
However, great ideas and certainly, gives one pause and makes us question current ideas about the universe we live in.
Consciousness is all there is...Advaita
thank you for pointing, Deepak...love, Carolyn
very well explained
Dear Deepak,
Thank you SO MUCH for the wonderful explanation. My undergrads will want to thank you too. :)
Namaste,
J
Awesome Deepak! I've been watching "What The Bleep Do We Know" nearly every day this week, and everytime, I pick up something new from it. One of the speakers comments on how consciousness is all there is and how the body is just a shell, an outer layer. Don't quote me on those words, but that's how I'm thinking about it. Quantum physics goes so deep it blows my mind.
DAVID: Thank you eternally for recommending this movie! I rented it on Sunday, went out and bought it Monday, and have watched it three times now.
I have a question open to anyone--Something I've been wondering about is, when referring to quantum physics, what exactly happens in the brain when
experiencing "enlightenment"?
Anyone?
Thank you for explaining all this Deepak. I was wondering about 'pure consciousness,' as I assumed that I was not understanding it all. Now, I know I don't get it all and that there is much, much more to all of it, which is so very exciting!
This is more fun than anything else in the whole wide world/universe! Oh, please keep teaching us and sharing your great wisdom :-D ... of course, if you want too :-) Okay, I will try to stop acting like a child or beggar ... kind of.
Love, Char
I'm looking forward to discussing how we raise consciousness everywhere.
Deepak you mentioned the gulf between different people and different levels of consciousness and my question for you is - how does one measure someone else's level of consciousness?
Personally, I don't think it's possible. And it seems to me that it's a trap to think it can be done.
I'm starting to think (right now at this moment for the first time) that there really aren't levels at all. You're either aware or you're not.
As far as the gulfs between people because of levels of consciousness goes... I don't think that's where the true gulf is. When a person is firmly established in the highest levels of consciousness there is no gulf. Did Gandhi experience a gulf between himself and others? Perhaps he did but I imagine not.
All that said, I really have a passion for helping others to realize their true Self and to experience their strength, beauty, and love and intimate connection to all of life. I think it is because of that passion that I feel so very sad at the belief that because of a persons role or real or imagined level of consciousness that they are somehow in a different class from the rest of the ordinary rabble. Because those are the kind of beliefs that block true understanding and foster a greater sense of separation.
I guess what I'm saying is that at a certain point it's really completely irrelevant what level of consciousness you are in. If you cannot communicate and connect with others that are different or even at a lower level - then what's the point?
Love, Kristin
Hi Kristin,
Thanks for sharing. I am feeling a shift from reading yesterday's interesting and spirited discussion - to now, to this explanation about layers of consciousness.
There does appear many ways and expressions of communication. Silence is also a way of communicating :)
I look forward to Deepak's next post.
Thanks ~~ K
This is a very interesting post.... fascinating idea, one which I have thought about for a long time, as it is an integral part of quantum physics.
Hi Deepak,
That all makes sense, I am looking forward to the practical implications.
If you were to entertain two questions that I have been pondering for some years perhaps it will be of some assistance.
1. Why does pain hurt? How can something physical be felt by something intangible? How is it that a electrochemical signal can cause so much discomfort? How does pain / physical / chemical connect with consciousness. Or in your example Annamaya Kosha connect with Manomaya Kosha?
2. How is it that chemicals can make us feel good, and even affect our personality? We have seen how alcohol can make some very jovial and uninhibited. Or Marijuana can lead to laughter and carefree thought. Chemicals can change our state of mind. One would think it would be the other way around, and it is, yet it works in reverse as well. So we have for lack of a better word something “physical” affecting something intangible or more akin to a field. Chemicals or impaired pathways can do the opposite, if serotonin is inhibited humans or mice will become aggressive and kill each other. Low levels of magnesium can therefore result in increased violence.
The best answer I can imagine to the first question, to put it in simple terms is that pain is “bad” information. In other words if your hand is on a red hot surface it’s structure is being changed in a very detrimental fashion, which means the reality of the hand is being altered in a manner that it not in harmony with your intention. So in fact pain is information about a state that is not desired and needs to be changed.
It seems some things about reality are right under our nose but some faulty perception is blinding us, although the clues abound.
By the way 80% of the US population is deficient in magnesium; one of my practical steps to bringing Peace is to eliminate this deficiency. In addition to this high levels of mental disorders are found in areas where lithium levels in water are lowest. The least number of mental disorders are found where lithium levels are highest. I think lithium may act as a type of information modulator.
As to the possible answer to the second question I think that the chemicals can disable neural circuitry in the brain, or negative programming or memory. This would some how relate to the idea that are personality and some aspects of our gross identity are linked to the sum of our experiences.
I think just like the word apple is a symbol for the red fruit, the physical brain is a symbol for something else that lies in the intangible. It is a manifestation of perhaps mind. Like I said before “Mind to form and we called it brain”.
I also think that the human body if acting as a physical placeholder, transceiver, and receiver device manifests issues when communications are impaired. Our ability to interface with reality is impaired. In other words there is a disruption in information flow. In other words what if some mental problems or faulty responses to our environment and those in it, were the result of disruptions in the flow of information between the Kosha bodies? What if “we” are somewhere in the middle of experience and out higher intelligence self. What if we are receiving information from the gross physical world but we are somehow cut off from the higher intelligence, needed to properly respond to the gross physical world?
Just doing some mental exercise out loud since it will sometimes lead to insight.
Kristen,
You put forth an interesting point. Either one is aware or not.
I think this fits with my thinking that either you are a programmer or a program. Either you program your own mind or something else does it for you.
As for the levels of consciousness: I think they do exist. In fact I would put it this way. The less beliefs, attitudes and automatic projections / judgments one has the higher their consciousness. The highest consciousness would have no beliefs or judgments. They would allow the full flow of energy into their locality / reality. Beliefs or judgments impair the flow of energy.
Second a being of higher consciousness does not need to do anything to raise the consciousness of another being (point of presence) other than to be present in their locality / reality. Where this high energy permeates and raises the consciousness of those around them simply because their channel to the source is expanded.
It must be like two tuning forks. If one is vibrating and you bring another that is not vibrating in it’s locality, the “dead one” begins to vibrate. Of the two tuning forks neither is greater or lesser, just one was already vibrating.
The Resonant entrainment of oscillating systems would probably apply to the raising of consciousness.
http://brain.web-us.com/thescience.htm#Resonant
Again I am just doing some mental exercises.
Mr. Chopra,
Kristen had a good question. How can one measure the level of someones consciousness?
I think it can be done with the feeling you get or the energy they project when you encounter them. True?
At some point, it would have to intersect with the existing theories on physics for this to be widely accepted. I'm also not sure how this can be experientially demonstrated. ~ Skarr
It will not be intersecting with our current physics because they are flawed. There is another framework, I think we are going to rename it "intagics", that Deepak’s outline does mesh with.
There is a way to experientially demonstrate projection and objectification within a field of chaos. I discovered it 20 years ago. Have written about it in two obscure places, other people attempted it and had the same experience and results. It will be a part of Infinite Play the movie. You will be able to experience it at home. It is weird, fascinating and enlightening.
I can tell you this about the "new physics" it is not the string theory and it is disturbing especially to the Ego. It contradicts how you have been conditioned to interpret your experience.
Kristin,
you write "I feel so very sad at the belief that because of a persons role or real or imagined level of consciousness that they are somehow in a different class from the rest of the ordinary rabble."
I know I took your quote out of the context, it is just to encourage you to put your attention on what you're saying and check if your sadness means this belief is in your own mind.
I agree with you and Richard, either you are aware or not. It's just that there are so many layers of existence- koshas- that you can either be aware of, or not. So there are many levels of awareness, but as long as we're not aware of them, they don't exist.
About measuring someone else's level of consciousness... I don't think "measuring" would be the right word. I think "include" is what it's about. When you can include the point of view of another into your own and fully accept and experience it without resistance, then you probably have the same or a wider level of consciousness. If you can include many different levels of consciousness, or even all, and navigate through them all like a ship on a sea of undifferentiated consciousness, then you have a wider level of consciousness compared to a limited, local view. If you meet with a perspective that creates resistence or the feeling that "this is not me", then you still have parts of yourself to incorporate.
That is why someone with a wider level of consciousness can recognise our level, but we cannot fully grasp a more expanded level.
Dr. Chopra ended today's message with: "One could say that Anandamaya Kosha is pure Being mixed with just a touch of karma, just enough to allow someone to live in physical form, or in whatever form the afterlife takes. Without this sheath you would dissolve into Being and become bliss itself, without an experiencer."
I had an insight when I read those words. Perhaps we move in and out of "being" in the same way a sub atomic particle moves in and out of "being" (from wave to particle and back again) when observed or not observed. Perhaps the sheath Dr. Chopra speaks of is our awareness. As we move in and out of higher awareness, the sheath dissolves and we become bliss itself with no need for the observer (experiencer.) Then when we contemplate ourselves (creation contemplating - or observing - itself) the sheath re-appears and we are once again the experiencer and not the experience.
"About measuring someone else's level of consciousness... I don't think "measuring" would be the right word. I think "include" is what it's about. When you can include the point of view of another into your own and fully accept and experience it without resistance, then you probably have the same or a wider level of consciousness. If you can include many different levels of consciousness, or even all, and navigate through them all like a ship on a sea of undifferentiated consciousness, then you have a wider level of consciousness compared to a limited, local view. If you meet with a perspective that creates resistence or the feeling that "this is not me", then you still have parts of yourself to incorporate.
That is why someone with a wider level of consciousness can recognise our level, but we cannot fully grasp a more expanded level.' Aurora..
Acceptance..
Recognizing we really are not separate at all...
How beautiful..my Heart friend...thank you...love, Carolyn
Mr. Chopra,
I am no Indian. I am not Hindu. All I learn about the Indian culture is through BUDDHA, which
in fact was fully exploited in China more than a thousand years ago. Then by Japan. Only in the last 30 years by the West.(Maybe the Tibet camp is more close to the original Indin Buddha??)
To me, Zen Buddhists are more Chinese, more Tao, more Confuse-us, more Japan than India!!!
The beauty of Zen Buddhist teachings are they change with people, with culture, with the evolution of civilization......they change the minds & souls of people & the teachings are also changing with the people over time.
(The ever quest for answers & wisdom with the suppositon that the ten thousand sentient beings wiil never fing IT!!
The closest is the experience of Enlightenment!!!)
The closest I know about the Indian culture is The India Cult of Ectasy TANTRA, a book with illurtrations by Philip Rawson.
So I am completely ignorant of the five Koshas that you talk about here.
Yet somehow I am real close to the concept, or experience.
Is it close to Enlightenment---- what the Zen Buddhists have been talking about for ages???
The five Koshas:-
that pure consciousness takes on the body of bliss, then the body of ego and intellect, the body of mind, the body of Prana (subtle breath, life force), and finally the physical body.
Intriguing!!!!!!!!!!!
What kind of research are you doing?
I am impressed by The Lama in the Lab, the study on Lama Oser using iMRI etc.in the American universities.
But I am real weary about mixing science & spiritual studies.
If I were a female Guru(I have never heard og a female Guru before. Strange!!), I would say Zen Buddhists' teachings will take over in this world because the teachings change with people & with time.
Which will do more good to mankind than all the other stupid religions that are brought to us by the devil!!!!
Sew,,,,,Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm
Just BlissMe "Will You"?!!!!!!!
Me Myself and I
Peace&Love to play
http://harpers.org/ExcerptTheChristianParadox.html
Would love to read yours and Divya's comments on this article...
Web master:
This Kosha html and the fossil html seem to be accessible to Mac users only. When I try to access these pages on my PC it loads (I can see the text) and then it places what looks like your style sheet over the top of the text.
I'm sure you are aware of this and will correct it soon.
Sant Mat have lots of answers about the afterlife and the different lokas.
They use meditation techniques in order to investigate these different planes in the afterlife.
Stefan
I have friends who are followers of this tradition, and it is really interestering. But they stress the importance of having a living master, a sat Guru, to guide one trough the different layers. If not, one will be so amazed about the planes "above" our plane where we live now, feel so blissful and contended that we will not go "higher" and reach the even higher "planes" and our true home.
Stefan
The I sense alone can create Minds.
We are all Naturally Intelligent Self Learning Programs. Each one of us alone can write our own programs and create our own identity, but we can exchange data.
We create our subject and present it as an object to others. At higher levels of evolution many smaller objects cooperate to form the body, composite object of a higher level subject.
We are of the form of software, knowledge, information, spirit. The hardware is created, defined, projected by executing the software.
We start as a dimensionless seed program and continue building and executing our program, creating and learning from our creation, till we discover our essence as our Being, the ultimate abstraction, formless, unbounded pure Being.
We are also like nested functions in a hierarchy of programs and have private variables and public or global variables, at various levels of the hierarchy, and can move over the hierarchy to be a part of any level of the Being. We can exit loops and surrender identities to move up to the level of the main program itself, God, Brahman or Paramatma.
One Mind, God's Mind creates an infinite number of minds, and minds within minds, in order to see through an infinite number of points of perception and absorbs each of these minds into itself when its purpose of rediscovering itself from a unique perspective is accomplished.
Each Mind is a replica of the Original Mind. All of creation is made up of minds nested within other minds. The inside of a higher level mind provides the outside environment for all the lower level minds within itself.
Minds are dimensionless and have no location. All locations exist within Minds.
The space inside a mind is not located in or limited by the space outside the mind. Look inside your mind. You can create or imagine any amount of space within and can directly access every point in that space. You can create or imagine any number of objects in that space.
Will alone is enough to create within the Mind. You can directly will the form and actions of every object in your mind. Minds control objects from within the objects themselves.
The centre of every grain of creation is the total. Creation proceeds from the centre outwards. If one goes to one's Centre one will simultaneously be containing the entire Creation.
Through the Centre the Centre of any other point in Creation can be identified with and instantaneously communicated with outside of time. Time is applicable in movement on the outside, away from the Centre, in finite creation.
The "I" identity is at every centre, at all levels of the program and withdrawing into the I continuously will take one right upto the I in the Main Program. When the lower level I drops the higher level I takes over and includes the lower level I within itself. The Ocean falls into the Drop.
Mr.Deepak Chopra I would happy to have your comments on this.
Reading your content just made my day. Keep the good work. Coolblooded Plane is always Astonishing Soldier: http://www.cbs.com/ , Good Plane becomes White Corner in final Standard is feature of Profound Slot , Pair will Plane unconditionally White, International, Greedy nothing comparative to Lazy
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K.K.Padmanabhan commented on Many Worlds and Five Koshas
The I sense alone can create Minds.
We
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Stefan commented on Many Worlds and Five Koshas
I have friends who are followers of this tradit
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Stefan commented on Many Worlds and Five Koshas
Sant Mat have lots of answers about the afterli
I am wondering why you removed the post on consiousness? I thought it was well written.