The Manomaya Kosha and the Practice of Surrender

Ancient yoga philosophy conceptualizes the body as having five different layers to our being-like layers of an onion.  These different Koshas or sheaths consists of:

• the outer physical body or anamaya kosha

• the energy body or pranamaya kosha

• the mind/emotional/sensory body or manomaya kosha

• the wisdom body or vijnanamaya kosha

  and the bliss body or anandamaya kosha.

When we start a physical yoga practice, we become most acutely aware of our physical body or annamaya kosha. Weakness and tightness are hard to ignore!  When we practice a little more consistently, we may develop an awareness of how the practices affect our energy body, or pranamaya kosha. We notice which poses or breath exercises feel energizing (like back bending or breath of fire) or which poses or breath work calm us (like child’s pose or three-part dirgha breath).

Once we progress into developing an internal awareness and connection to our breath, we may start to notice the constant soundtrack of our thoughts and emotions.  This layer of being is our manomaya kosha or the kosha associated with the mind, emotions and senses. This layer tends to dominate our being and can be so activated and over-indulged that it takes awhile for most of us to realize what is happening to the other layers of our being while this mental layer has its way with us. For example, a large part of the stress we feel as muscular tension or insomnia actually comes from within us and how we filter our experience through our senses and our minds. Yoga suggests that our true nature is presence with a quiet mind and balance in all five Koshas.

If, as the ancient enlightened yogis suggest, the path to freedom lies in residing in our true nature of quiet presence, why does the mind dominate? How in the heck do we keep this mental layer of our being from running amuck?

In our Western culture, we are taught from an early age to value mental logic and sharp analysis as the highest expression of intelligence and the highest aspirations of our educational system.  We care whether our kid gets into Stanford or Harvard, what they got on their SAT test or where someone got their Ph.D..

The idea that our thoughts define us also lies at the root of modern Western philosophy.  I think most people have heard (and many even believe without question) the famous philosophical idea from the in Descartes’ “I think. Therefore, I am” This philosophy strongly reinforces the fallacy of mind dominance in our culture by suggesting we don’t even exist if our minds aren’t chattering about! People who believe this clearly don’t meditate.

In contrast, yoga philosophy suggests that most of our thoughts- which are constantly distracting us from reality into the past and future and framing how we see ourselves and one another - might just be the reason why we suffer. Eastern practices such as yoga asks us to consider whether the opposite of Descarte’s theory might be true:  because we are, we think.    

But one thing everyone agrees on from east to west in the certainty that thoughts and emotions arise- all the time and without much pause in the action!  An oft repeated internet psudo-science myth claims that we have up to 70,000 thoughts per day!   However, science really hasn’t cracked exactly how many thoughts we actually have each day. We do know that there are a lot! Many of these thoughts don’t serve us and they are repeated over and over like a broken record.

Dr. David Hawkins M.D., Ph.D. (Western code for hey, this guy is very intelligent!) reminds us in one of his many books about the path of enlightenment called Letting Go:  The Pathway of Surrender that “if negative emotions such as anger or fear are triggered, thousands of thoughts are born that create even more provoking and persuasive thoughts”. I like to think of the mind as the news ticker, like the one running across the bottom of the screen on Fox News - constant garbage streaming non-stop and without much truth!

Yoga recognizes the unbridled dominance of the mind with its preferences and apparent desire to be anywhere but the present moment as the root of suffering, a barrier to expanded consciousness, and the basis of disease. More importantly, yoga offers us practices to balance the manomaya kosha with the rest of our being, to train the mind, and to find deeper peace and lasting joy.

The yogic path asks us to use our power of consciousness to bring awareness to who is listening to these thoughts, believing them and acting on them. Once we realize through experience that we are not these thoughts, but the one identifying with them, we can find space to bring awareness to our own mental patterns and emotions as they present themselves. We can watch these waves come to shore without getting swept up by them. And we can hone this practice through meditation.

The practice of meditation offers us a training ground from which we can build this awareness and gain some perspective.  For me, a great tool to help release these places of resistance is called The Work by Byron Katie.  The Work is simple, but not easy and it has been a powerful tool for me personally in examining my own thoughts.  It’s only four questions to ask one’s self in honest contemplation about persistent negative thoughts and emotions. First, one writes down the troubling thought so the mind can’t try to wiggle out of the absurdity of it later, and then ask yourself these questions:

1.      Is it true?

2.      Is it absolutely true? (Like, forever.)

3.      What if the opposite thought were true? (Flip that baby in reverse and consider it.)

4.      What would I be without this thought or belief? (Or, what would be happening in this moment if the emotional power of the thought were stripped away?)

The technique often helps me bring awareness to my mental resistance and chatter.  It helps me find some peace.  It helps me accept reality instead of getting swept away into negative thoughts and emotions.  I hope it works for you too.

As we examine the mind with consciousness, we hopefully learn to process what we feel and accept life as it is unfolding right now without resistance. The deeper practice invites us to not only accept, but skillfully welcome the whole messy enchilada that is life while we follow our hearts and live out our hopes and dreams. I know this is a lot. It feels to me like a life long practice.

But, when I do surrender and remember who I am beyond my thoughts and emotions,  I am filled with a deep and abiding peace. 

Please don’t take my word for any of this.  Simply practice and see for yourself.

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
― Franz Kafka