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RAMAKRISHNA ANANDA

Signs of Progress — The Five Sheaths

How are your meditations going?

There are signs in meditation which can serve as hints or guideposts. These signs encourage and help us correct our course. There are five sheaths which serve as layers or veils covering the soul. The practices of yoga are designed to help us progress through the sheaths and beyond. Explore these sheaths and allow them to direct you on the path to ever-new joy.

Keys to Higher Yogas

Ever-New Joy

When we meditate, we seek to progress through the five sheaths and enter soul awareness. The sheaths are:  body awareness, prana awareness, mental/emotional awareness, witness awareness (buddhi) and bliss awareness.

Once you have stilled the mind and emotions, you can sense the buddhi, the witness consciousness. Watching the play of thoughts and feelings, you realize you are distinct from them. As you abide in witness consciousness, bliss begins to reveal itself. It fills you more and more until, ultimately, you live in bliss. The bliss comes from our soul and the Infinite Spirit. Beyond bliss is soul awareness which brings ever-new joy called ananda.

  • First sheath:  physical body. We seek to move beyond physical awareness and go within
  • Second sheath:  prana body, the life-force moving in the body
  • Third sheath:  mental/emotional body where feelings and thoughts dominate
  • Fourth sheath:  buddhi body (witness consciousness). As this is practiced, you naturally develop a sense of good will
  • Fifth sheath:  bliss body. As you abide in the buddhi, bliss enters your awareness and gradually fills you
  • Beyond the bliss is soul awareness and ananda, ever-new joy

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