Yoga practice and the three bodies of yoga
Yoga is the practice of self-transformation, a practice for deepening our experience of our authentic ground of being. Through calming the fluctuations of the mind (citti vritti nirodha) and moving deeply within we can open up to our true nature. Here we begin to understand and experience that we are not separate beings but rather we are all one, we are energy, we are light, we are love.
The concept of the three bodies of yoga - physical, astral, causal - is intimately intertwined with our yoga practice. These three bodies describe different levels of awareness and blend into one another: the physical feeds into the astral, the astral feeds into the causal. For many in the West the desire to increase flexibility, build strength and improve physical appearance is the gateway to becoming bodily aware. Moving slowly and mindfully with the breath in yoga creates space to be with sensations in the body anywhere along a continuum from joyful to pleasant to uncomfortable to confronting.
Mandala by Margot. Photo by Margot Porter
Physical body awareness paves the way to the astral body where we can explore thoughts, feelings and emotions as well as memories and desires as they arise and dissolve during our practice. Time on the mat lets us to unpack and transform our habitual thinking patterns and responses. Moreover, our yoga practice helps us to understand and reflect on where and how emotions sit in and affect the body. With this emotional awareness, we begin to shift our behaviour off the mat to positively transform our lives and the lives of those around us.
A committed yoga practice continues our journey into our unconscious thought and action behaviours making it possible to dive deeply into an exploration of the causal body, that is, our long held beliefs about who we are. We may not be aware of these deep seated beliefs or the ways in which they are holding is back from expressing and being our authentic self.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti,
Margot XXX
