Subtle body

The subtle body in Indian mysticism, from a yoga manuscript in Braj Bhasa language, 1899. A row of chakras is depicted from the base of the spine up to the crown of the head.

A subtle body is a “quasi material”^[1] aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. This contrasts with the Mind–body dualism that has dominated Western thought. The subtle body is important in the Taoism of China and Dharmic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, mainly in the branches which focus on tantra and yoga, where it is known as the Sūkṣma-śarīra(Sanskrit: सूक्ष्म शरीर). However, while mostly associated with Asian cultures, non-dualistic approaches to the mind and body are found in many parts of the world.^[1]

Subtle body concepts and practices can be identified as early as 2nd century BCE in Taoist texts found in the Mawangdui tombs.^[1] Although “evidently present”^[1] in Indian thought as early as the 4th to 1st century BCE when the Taittiriya Upanishad describes the Panchakoshas, a series of five interpenetrating sheaths of the body.^[2] a fully formed subtle body theory didn’t develop in India until the tantric movement that affected all its religions in the Middle Ages.^[1] In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism the correlation of the subtle body to the physical body is viewed differently according to school, lineage and scholar but for Completion stage purposes is visualised within the body.^[3] The subtle body consists of focal points, often called chakras, connected by channels, often called nadis, that convey subtle breath, often called prana. Through breathing and other exercises, a practitioner may direct the subtle breath to achieve supernormal powers, immortality, or liberation.

Subtle body concepts have become part of Western developed perspectives. In esoteric studies the Theosophy movement were the first to translate the Sanskrit term as "subtle body" although their use of the term is quite different from Indic usage. This makes the term problematic for modern scholars, especially as the Theosophist view often influences New Age and holistic medicine perspectives.^[1] Western scientists have started to explore the subtle body concept in research on meditation.^[4]

Asian religions[]

The Yogic, Tantric and other systems of Hinduism, Vajrayana Buddhism, as well as Chinese Taoist alchemy contain theories of subtle physiology with focal points (chakras, acupuncture points) connected by a series of channels (nadis, meridians) that convey subtle breath (prana, vayu, ch'i, ki, lung). These invisible channels and points are understood to determine the characteristics of the visible physical form. By understanding and mastering the subtlest levels of reality one gains mastery over the physical realm. Through breathing and other exercises, the practitioner aims to manipulate and direct the flow of subtle breath, to achieve supernormal powers (siddhis) and attain higher states of consciousness, immortality, or liberation.^[5][6]

Hinduism[]

An illustration of a subtle body system of seven chakras connected by three major nadi channels, as commonly adopted by contemporary yoga

Early[]

Early concepts of the subtle body (Sanskrit: sūkṣma śarīra) appeared in the Upanishads, including the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad and the Katha Upanishad.^[7] The Taittiriya Upanishad describes the theory of five koshas or sheaths, though these are not to be thought of as concentric layers, but interpenetrating at successive levels of subtlety:^[8][9]

• The anna-maya ("food body", physical body, the grossest level),
• The prana-maya (body made of vital breath or prana),
• The mano-maya (body made of mind),
• The vijñana-maya (body made of consciousness)
• The ananda-maya (bliss body, the subtlest level).

Subtle internal anatomy included a central channel (nadi).^[8] Later Vedic texts called samhitas and brahmanas contain a theory of five "winds" or "breaths" (vayus, pranas):^[8]

• Prāṇa, associated with inhalation
• Apāna, associated with exhalation
• Uḍāna, associated with distribution of breath within the body
• Samāna, associated with digestion
• Vyāna, associated with excretion of waste

Later[]

A millennium later, these concepts were adapted and refined by various spiritual traditions. The similar concept of the Liṅga Śarīra is seen as the vehicle of consciousness in later Samkhya, Vedanta, and Yoga, and is propelled by past-life tendencies, or bhavas.^[10] Linga can be translated as "characteristic mark" or "impermanence" and the Vedanta term sarira as "form" or "mold".^[11] Karana or "instrument" is a synonymous term. In the Classical Samkhya system of Isvarakrsna (ca. 4th century CE), the Lińga is the characteristic mark of the transmigrating entity. It consists of twenty-five tattvas from eternal consciousness down to the five organs of sense, five of activity (buddindriya or jñānendriya, and karmendriya respectively) and the five subtle elements that are the objects of sense (tanmatras) The Samkhyakarika says:^[12]

The subtle body (linga), previously arisen, unconfined, constant, inclusive of the great one (mahat) etc, through the subtle elements, not having enjoyment, transmigrates, (because of) being endowed with bhavas ("conditions" or "dispositions"). As a picture (does) not (exist) without a support, or as a shadow (does) not (exist) without a post and so forth; so too the instrument (linga or karana) does not exist without that which is specific (i.e. a subtle body).

— Samkhyakarika, 60-81^[12]

The classical Vedanta tradition developed the theory of the five bodies into the theory of the koshas "sheaths" or "coverings" which surround and obscure the self (atman). In classical Vedanta these are seen as obstacles to realization and traditions like Shankara's Advaita Vedanta had little interest in working with the subtle body.^[13]

Tantra[]

In Tantra traditions meanwhile (Shaiva Kaula, Kashmir Shaivism and Buddhist Vajrayana), the subtle body was seen in a more positive light, offering potential for yogic practices which could lead to liberation.^[14] Tantric traditions contain the most complex theories of the subtle body, with sophisticated descriptions of energy nadis (literally "stream or river", channels through which vayu and prana flows) and chakras, points of focus where nadis meet.^[15]

The main channels, shared by both Hindu and Buddhist systems, but visualised entirely differently, are the central (in Hindu systems: sushumna; in Buddhist: avadhuti), left and right (in Hindu systems: ida and pingala; Buddhist: lalana and rasana).^[16] Further subsidiary channels are said to radiate outwards from the chakras, where the main channels meet.^[17]

Chakra systems vary with the tantra; the Netra Tantra describes six chakras, the Kaulajñana-nirnaya describes eight, and the Kubjikamata Tantra describes seven (the most widely known set).^[18][19]

Modern[]

The modern Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba stated that the subtle body "is the vehicle of desires and vital forces". He held that the subtle body is one of three bodies with which the soul must cease to identify in order to realize God.^[20]

Buddhism[]

A Tibetan illustration of the subtle body showing the central channel and two side channels connecting five chakras

In Buddhist Tantra, the subtle body is termed the "innate body" (nija-deha) or the "uncommon means body" (asadhdrana-upayadeha),^[21] or sūkṣma śarīra, rendered in Tibetan as traway-lu (transliterated phra ba’i lus).^[22] The subtle body is sometimes known as nanomaya-kāya, the “body made of mind” and is the means for synchronising the body and the mind, particularly during meditation.^[23]

The subtle body consists of thousands of subtle energy channels (nadis), which are conduits for energies or "winds" (lung or prana) and converge at chakras.^[21] According to Dagsay Tulku Rinpoche, there are three main channels (nadis), central, left and right, which run from the point between the eyebrows up to the crown chakra, and down through all seven chakras to a point two inches below the navel.^[24]

Lati Rinbochay describes the subtle body as consisting of 72,000 channels, various winds and a white and a red drop whilst a further very subtle body is a wind abiding in a drop at the centre of the heart chakra. The central channel is then described as being squeezed by two channels that encircle it at each chakra and thrice at the heart chakra, ensuring the winds do not move upward or downward until death.^[25]

Buddhist tantras generally describe four or five chakras in the shape of a lotus with varying petals. For example, the Hevajra Tantra (8th century) states:

In the Center [i.e. chakra] of Creation [at the sexual organ] a sixty-four petal lotus. In the Center of Essential Nature [at the heart] an eight petal lotus. In the Center of Enjoyment [at the throat] a sixteen petal lotus. In the Center of Great Bliss [at the top of the head] a thirty-two petal lotus.^[18]

In contrast, the historically later Kalachakra tantra describes six chakras.^[18]

In Vajrayana Buddhism, liberation is achieved through subtle body processes during Completion Stage practices such as the Six Yogas of Naropa.^[26]

Other traditions[]

Other spiritual traditions teach about a mystical or divine body, such as "the most sacred body" (wujud al-aqdas) and "true and genuine body" (jism asli haqiqi) in Sufism, the meridian system in Chinese religion, and "the immortal body" (soma athanaton) in Hermeticism.^[27]

Western esotericism[]

The Subtle body and the cosmic man, Nepal 1600s

Theosophy[]

In the 19th century, H. P. Blavatsky founded the esoteric religious system of Theosophy, which attempted to restate Hindu and Buddhist philosophy for the Western world.^[28] She adopted the phrase "subtle body" as the English equivalent of the Vedantic sūkṣmaśarīra, which in Adi Shankara's writings was one of three bodies (physical, subtle, and causal). Geoffrey Samuel notes that theosophical use of these terms by Blavatsky and later authors, especially C. W. Leadbeater, Annie Besant and Rudolf Steiner (who went on to found Anthroposophy), has made them "problematic"^[28] to modern scholars, since the Theosophists adapted the terms as they expanded their ideas based on "psychic and clairvoyant insights", changing their meaning from what they had in their original context in India.^[28]

Post-theosophists[]

The later theosophical arrangement was taken up by Alice Bailey, and from there found its way into the New Age worldview^[29] and the human aura.^[30] Other authors treated the subtle body in varying ways. Max Heindel divided the subtle body into the Vital Body made of Ether; the Desire body, related to the Astral plane; and the Mental body.^[31] Samael Aun Weor wrote extensively on the subtle bodies (Astral, Mental, and Causal), aligning them with the kabbalistic tree of life.^[32] Barbara Brennan's account of the subtle bodies in her books Hands of Light and Light Emerging refers to the subtle bodies as "layers" in the "Human Energy Field" or aura.^[33]

Fourth Way[]

Subtle bodies are found in the "Fourth Way" teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, which claim that one can create a subtle body, and hence achieve post-mortem immortality, through spiritual or yogic exercises. The "soul" in these systems is not something one is born with, but developed through esoteric practice to acquire complete understanding and to perfect the self. According to the historian Bernice Rosenthal, "In Gurdjieff's cosmology our nature is tripartite and is composed of the physical (planetary), emotional (astral) and mental (spiritual) bodies; in each person one of these three bodies ultimately achieves dominance."^[34] The ultimate task of the fourth way teachings is to harmoniously develop the four bodies into a single way.^[34]

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn[]

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a secret magical Order originating in 1888 in Victorian England, describes the subtle body as "The Sphere of Sensation".^[35] The occultist Israel Regardie published a collection of Golden Dawn magical texts which state that "the whole sphere of sensation which surroundeth the whole physical body of a man is called 'the magical mirror of the universe'. For therein are represented all the occult forces of the universe projected as on a sphere..."^[35] Regardie connects the Sephiroth of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life to this sphere as a microcosm of the universe. The Kabbalistic concept of the Nephesch is "the subtle body of refined Astral Light upon which, as on an invisible pattern, the physical body is extended".^{[35][non-primary source needed]}

"Ancient Egyptian" esoteric anatomy[]

The 19th century occultist Florence Farr (writing under the pseudonym "SSDD") studied the ten parts of a human being which she claimed were described in Ancient Egyptian writings, including the Sahu, the elemental or astral body; the Tet or Zet, the spiritual body or soul; and the Khaibt, the sphere or aura, radiating from the Sahu, and symbolised by a fan. Farr wrote that the Ancient Egyptian adepts "looked upon each body, or manifested being, as the material basis of a long vista of immaterial entities functioning as a spirit, soul and mind in the formative, creative and archetypal worlds." She described how the Khaibt forms a sphere around a human being at birth.^{[36][non-primary source needed]}

Aleister Crowley[]

The occultist Aleister Crowley's system of magick envisaged "a subtle body (instrument is a better term) called the Body of Light; this one develops and controls; it gains new powers as one progresses".^[37]

Meditation research[]

Western scientists have started to explore the subtle body concept in relation to research on meditation. The subtle body model can be cross-referenced onto modern maps of the central nervous system, and applied in research on meditation.^[4]

References[]

Sources[]

• Larson, Gerald James (2005). Classical Samkhya : an interpretation of its history and meaning. Motilal Banarsidass. ISBN 978-81-208-0503-3. OCLC 637247445.
• Mallinson, James & Singleton, Mark (2017). Roots of Yoga. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-241-25304-5. OCLC 928480104.
• Samuel, Geoffrey (2013). Religion and the subtle body in Asia and the West : between mind and body. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-60811-4. OCLC 690084604.

Further reading[]

External links[]

• Unbalanced Flows in the Subtle Body: Tibetan Understandings of Psychiatric Illness and How to Deal With It