Baruch Spinoza Dictionary

Spinoza, Baruch: Dutch philosopher (1632-1677) who taught a monistic pantheism of one infinite substance, God or nature.

(See also: Baruch Spinoza , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Spinoza, Baruch (1632-1677) {SD, BCW}

(See also: Spinoza, Baruch , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

The Subtle Bodies: The Yogic Anatomy of Human Potentialities

Through exceedingly detailed meditations over thousands of hours, the yogis determined that the human body is far more than a configuration of fleshy organs, bones, and fluids. Composed of five gradients or koshas, literally, "sheaths," with each one more interior and more subtle than the previous one, we are the actual "bridge" from the physical to the spiritual. Each sheath exerts a guiding intelligence over the next more dense sheath in the following order: the individual soul and causal body (jiva and anandamaya kosha), the reflective-intellectual body (vijnanamaya kosha), mental-emotional body (manomaya kosha), vital energy body (pranamaya kosha),and the physical body (annamaya kosha). Through this anatomy of increasingly interior bodies, yoga maps the emotionality and sentient capacities of the intimus itself and thus the way toward deepening our intimacy with one another and the world.

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