End of year reflection: assessing decolonial progress through the koshas

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes | Song: Grounded by Ari Lennox

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When I was little and first starting grade school, I thought it unique we looked to nature, or a ground hog to tell us Spring was on its way. What I did not realize was that people all over the world did not rely on time to tell us about our connection to nature, we lived in harmony with it and were able to recognize the signs around us. We are not separate from nature, but one aspect of nature and if we used our treatment of the Earth as a measurement for how we are treating ourselves or each other, we are not doing a great job. 

As a yogi,  one of the aspects of yoga I find applying to life and making unlearning more practical in life is to utilize the panchakoshas. When I was growing up in the church, they spoke of God being tri-part in being: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The koshas are a similar thought process with the exception that the koshas apply to our layered human lives regardless of what our current phase of life(according to yoga) is. Utilizing the koshas to assess our decolonial progress supports us in recognizing conditioning as a layered process that we must unpack addressing every aspect of our lives. The koshas or layers find we have 5 layers of our existence:

• Physical Body (Annamaya Kosha)

• Energetic Body (Pranayama Kosha)

• Mental Body (Manomaya Kosha)

• Intuitive Body (Vijnanama Kosha) 

• Spiritual/Bliss Body (Anandamaya Kosha)

Measuring Our Progress

Utilizing the koshas is not only one method of applying yoga philosophy to daily life but also a holistic approach to recognizing all of the ways we encompass or embody our wholeness or healing. We are not just physical beings, nor are we solely spiritual beings, we are all of ourselves and each layer informs us and gives us different information. Measuring our progress at all allows us to witness how far we have come and recognize how much further we have to go or the ways we have not unlearned our conditioning.

Physical Body (Annamaya Kosha)

In the physical body we can address and acknowledge the ways in which we have embodied colonial thought processes. This could look like acknowledging the ways we may have been harmful to our bodies in action, thought and deed even because of the ways society may have told us that we should or should not be acceptable. Dr. Resmaa Menakem, author of “My Grandmother’s Hands” and “The Quaking of America” states, “white bodies are the standard to which all others are compared against.” Have we recognized and unpacked the ways we criticize hair that is not deemed good, skin complexion that is not ‘fair’, what about our thoughts about weight? Have we decolonized our plate and returned to eating foods most beneficial to our mitochondria (and DNA) based on our cultural foods and lineages? Does our lifestyle create spaciousness for rest and care instead of productivity as a measure of worth?

Energy Body (Pranamaya Kosha)

Our energy body is a unique one that typically is not addressed or acknowledged as much when someone speaks to healing or unpacking. There is lots of emphasis on the physical body, the mental body and even the spiritual body but not the energy body. To connect with our energy body, we can look to the ways in which we experience our breath. Why the breath? The breath not only relates to our energy body but demonstrates how subtle our energy body is. How do you hold your breath or constrict your body when witnessing injustices? What tools or methods have you implemented to recognize your nervous system when it is heightened or outside of your window of tolerance? 

Mental/Emotional Body (Manomaya Kosha)

Our mental and emotional body are one because often we experience a feeling before a thought is planted in our minds. The thoughts that take root, whether determined ‘good or bad’ then have an effect on our mental health and mental state. A few questions to reflect on if you’ve unlearned and unpacked decolonization of the mind are, what are your thoughts around individualism? Have you heard of or addressed scarcity mindsets? What is your relationship to how you spend money and utilize financial resources? Do you engage in regular self-reflection to hold yourself accountable to your choices while holding the nuance of recognizing the role colonization and conditioning has had on you?

Wisdom Body (Vijnanamaya Kosha) 

Of course on this area I am partially biased, because I recognized my intuition or inner knowing when I was a very young child and grew up with a mother that did the same and encouraged me to always acknowledge it. Because of this, I always thought EVERYBODY had this same experience. There have always been things I know and I cannot explain how or why I know them, I just do and I trust it. In ancestral practices, our people had a knowing from being attuned with themselves and they did not require evidence-based research or science and logic to provide reasoning for it. Accessing the decolonization of your wisdom body includes listening to that feeling or thought some say is ‘in my gut’. You can reflect by noticing if you prioritize ancestral ways of knowing, oral tradition or storytelling and include them in your decision making? Let me be clear, this is not to dismiss the education and knowledge professionals have nor to discredit subject matter trained experts but it is also not to give your individual power over to only someone who has studied or has degrees in a specific field. How do you engage your personal discernment to recognize when someone is selling you snake oil or appropriated cultural practices? Have you unpacked the ways your ancestral practices have been demonized or stripped away from your lineages only to be repackaged and resold to you now? Have you reflected on the ways in which you have viewed experts, professionals, intellectuals to ONLY be men, or white people or people that have spent all of their tenure in academia?

Bliss/Divine Body (Anandamaya Kosha) 

The bliss body is where we are all trying to reach and where many claim to have experienced moments of euphoria or nirvana. It is not a physical space but more of a feeling that regardless of whatever else is happening or existing in the physical world, there is an experience of peace or liberation. Do you experience moments of deep connection with your ancestors, community or land? Have you expanded your definition of liberation to go beyond personal healing to collective transformation? Do you feel more aligned with what you are doing or serving the Earth with?

***Graphic of Malidoma Patrice Some, page 9, Of Water and The Spirit: “Westerners look to the future as a place of hope, a better world where every person has dignity and value, where wealth is not unequally distributed, where the wonders of technology make miracles possible.***

If you are curious about learning more about the panchakoshas, read the Upanishad or check out this lecture from my teacher Prasad Rangnekar. For a printable pdf assessment for each kosha from a decolonial lens, get it here. (link) Don’t forget if you are looking for a place to practice yoga, join me for my Yoga for Liberation series only LIVE online. You can register here.