Instead of feeling "I'm breathing," feel 'I'm being breathed.' Let yourself relax into this feeling. If you notice that there is a tendency to tighten or stop the breath, just notice it, with the thought "I am being breathed." Eventually you may begin to feel the breath as energy, and even a sense of expansion in the physical body, a sense that the body is bigger than the boundaries of the skin. This is a sign that you've entered the Energy Body. As this happens, you may find that your posture will automatically readjust itself, that your hips or back may open. These are all effects of consciously accessing the Vital Energy Sheath, which is actually the storehouse of healing power in your system.
Manomaya Kosha (Mental Sheath)
The Manomaya Kosha—within which you think, fantasize, daydream, and practice mantra or affirmations—is the part of you that filters and makes meaning out of the world you inhabit. But just as the physical body has layers of skin, fat, blood, and bones, the Mental Body has its layers. The most superficial layer is simply static—passing thoughts, images, perceptions and emotions that bubble up in our inner world.
However, if some of the thoughts in the Manomaya Kosha are like bubbles in the ocean, others are like tides. The deeper levels of the Manomaya Kosha also holds the voices of our personal and cultural programming, the powerful, mental structures formed by the beliefs, opinions, and assumptions that we've brought in from our family and our culture as well as from our accumulated mental patterning. Called samskaras in Sanskrit, these deep thoughts form the basic blueprint for our life experience. Samskaras are like troughs in the energy of the Mental Body, which cause our perception of ourselves and our life to run in certain fixed patterns. When we examine the contents of the Manomaya kosha closely, we often can see these patterns, which take the form of repetitive, self-sustaining thoughts like "This isn't going to work out" or "This isn't how things should be" or "Paying attention is too hard" or "I'm bad" or "I have to perform in order to be okay."
The structures in the Manomaya Kosha not only color our experience, they also help to shape it, which is why one of the most effective spiritual as well as psychological practices we can do is to notice and question our own 'stories.'
Try this basic self-inquiry, adapted from a Byron Katie exercise:
Look at a situation that has charge for you. Write down your thoughts about it. Then, one by one, ask yourself "What would I be without this thought?" and notice how your breathing, your energy, and your mental experience shift as a result. Especially notice if there is a sense of spaciousness in your mind.
Finally, consciously replace the thought with one that feels enlightening or empowering, and which you can accept as real, such as "I am free to choose my attitudes" or "There is another way to see this?" Notice whether this new thought brings greater spaciousness to your mind.
Vijanamaya Kosha (Wisdom or Awareness Body)
As you look into your inner world, you may begin to notice that along with your thoughts, there are also inner 'knowings' that come from a deeper and subtler level of your being. These are the 'knowings' of the Wisdom Body, the layer of our being that is composed of intuition and awareness. It's through the wisdom body that we bring in true insight, game-changing recognitions, genuinely inspired art. Anyone who writes, paints, problem solves, does creative math or philosophy will recognize the Wisdom Body as the self we access when we're functioning out of inspiration. A composer I know accesses his Wisdom Body by playing random sounds until his ordinary musical mind (his Manomaya Kosha) steps back, making room for a 'download' of music that he recognizes as genuinely creative and new. Another friend of mine tells me that when he's stymied or stuck on a personal or professional problem, he'll formulate a question about it, then sit for meditation. At some point, as his thinking mind gets quiet, wisdom will arise.
The Wisdom Body, at its subtlest level, is simply awareness, the objective observing part of the self. Here, we can dis-identify with even the most powerful thoughts and self-descriptions, and witness the play of our mind and our life.
People who can access their Awareness Body find it much easier to do inner psychological work without over-identifying with their emotional issues. And the Awareness Body also happens to be one of the best doorways into the pure I AM, the essence of being. The trick is to learn how to be present as awareness, without making awareness an object.
Right now, notice how there's something in you that observes without judgment the fact that you're reading. That same observing I is also aware of your thoughts, your mood, the way your body feels, your energy level. It knows all this without being involved in it. So as awareness, you are able to contain and include all the other levels of experience—at the same time transcending them.
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