a center for
personal and planetary
awakening

Mystic River Yoga
196 Boston Avenue
Suite 3900
Medford, MA 02155

781 396 0808
info@MysticRiverYoga.com

Intro Page

Yoga/Yoga Teaching

Non-Dual View

Collective Awakening

Shadow, Psychology and Emotions

                      The 5 Egoic Confusions

In the Vedic system, 5 bodies or sheaths, (koshas in Sanskrit), are described that are areas of possible self-confusion. These sheaths are vehicles through which the Divine shakti functions as human embodiment and action, but the ahamkara, the "I maker", the aspect of mind that creates a false, separate sense of self, can attach a personal self -sense to any and all of these vehicles. It is the path of discriminative wisdom, viveka, to disentangle these self-confusions in the mind and to realize the Atman, Primordial Awareness as the True Self.

The five sheaths are:

1. anamaya kosha

(ana - food, maya-illusion, kosha-body/sheath)

2. pranamaya kosha

(prana - life energy)

3. manomaya kosha

(mano - organizing mind)

4. vijnanamaya kosha

(vijnana - intelligence)

5. anandamaya kosha

(ananda - limitless bliss)

The sanskrit word maya is poorly understood in modern philosophical writings. It is usually translated as illusion or illusory, as not real, which, in a sense, is true, but there needs to be a deeper understanding of what is meant by illusion and reality. In classical Vedic teaching, there are two 'reality words" that are clearly differentiated, satyam and mithyam.

Satyam refers to the Absolute reality, the fundamental "is-ness" of all forms, that cannot be further reduced to something more primary, more basic. It is One Whole, independent reality, not requiring any other support. It is the Formless source of all forms.

Mithyam, on the other hand, is a dependent reality, composed of the world of forms. As an example, take the object  'shirt'. The question arises is the shirt real ? The Vedantins would say no and yes. No, the shirt is not Absolute Reality, it is a limited form, but yes, the shirt has a relative reality. You can see it, touch it, wear it. But if you undo the seams, all you have is a few pieces of fabric, the shirt is gone. Unravel the fabric into fibers and the fabric is gone. Undo the fibers into molecules and the fibers are gone. Each of these objects or classes of objects is dependent upon another for its existence. They do not have independent existence.

Maya as illusion refers to the dependent reality and the tendency to mistake this for the Absolute. The illusion is not the world of time and space, creation, which are mithya, but confusing any name and form for the Whole. Many people interpret the concept of maya as a total denial of the creation which is a fundamental misunderstanding

Ana-maya-kosha: the food illusion body. I am my body. I am tall, short, thin, fat, blonde, grey, bald, old, young, whatever.  The attributes of the body are mistaken to be attributes of the self. Much suffering arises over these confusions.

Prana-maya-kosha: the physiological/energy illusion body: I am hungry, thirsty, feverish. I am angry, depressed, excited. The attributes of the physiological functioning are taken to belong to the self. More suffering ensues.

Mano-maya-kosha: the mind illusion body. I am my thoughts, my beliefs. I am smart or dumb. I am a Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Hindu. I am a conservative, a liberal, a radical. My beliefs become a part of me and when they link with the collective egoic structures of others, I must defend them, to the death if necessary. Serious large scale karmic suffering on this level

Vijnana-maya-kosha: intelligence illusion body. I  am the doer, the performer of action. There is a separate me who acts in the world, somehow independently of the whole. This is a very subtle and challenging confusion to work with. One of  the fundamental themes of the Bhagavad Gita is dispelling the myth of doership. Deep surrender to what is is the path out of the confusion.

Ananda-maya-Kosha: bliss illusion body. I am the enjoyer. There is a separate me who enjoys the delights of existence. This is the most subtle confusion and usually requires an enlightened teacher to help discriminate the highly refined egoic structures that pop up here.