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ABCDEF7 Not just physical body, there are five sheaths of the human body-mind complex than one can experience at the level of empirical reality.
The body-mind complex is still being debated within the scientific community. Nobody can pin down the connection between mind and body. Let's look at what your belief is.
1. Physical Sheath (Annamaya Kosha): It's the food body that you gathered over your life. Many people feel themselves as what is their physical body. But if you think consciously, your body is changing from when you were a kid, then you were a teen, then youth, and then your body becomes old. Your body has changed a lot, but you can identify to yourself as the same person when you were child or at youth. You are the same entity apart from your body. So you are the unchanging consciousness that is experiencing that body, not your body itself.
So, you are saying that I am not the physical body that is in a constant state of change from birth to death while I, the consciousness, is unchanging? I am not sure about that. I remember when I was four. I was wearing a onesie and riding a tricycle. That child is not me now. My consciousness is constantly changing as my body changes along with my accumulating experiences of transactional reality. Am I wrong?
2. Sheath of Mind (Manomaya Kosha): It's the mental body which is the reflection of your mind in the consciousness. Its the personality you identify yourself as,. Some person identifies themselves as their minds, their thoughts, thier ideas. But in reality you are not your mind.
What you are saying here is a little subtle. I remember when I was 8 and looking in the mirror. I gazed at my face, looked intently at my eyes quizzically and peered into the pupils. I shrank back fearfully when I lost the sense of being me. I asked my father how come there was a me. He said he didn't know and no one knew. It was shocking to me that no one had any idea what a person is and how it comes into being. Naturally, I found out in Catechism class. God made me. I believed that until I grew up and became a lapsed Catholic. I have been reflecting on my personal identity. It is no different from the brand identity of a business corporation i.e. Coca Cola, Apple, IBM, etc. It is a handle for a conceptual entity such as the USA. When I realized that, I lost the ability to form personal relationships. I couldn't be my father's son anymore. He might not get it but I did, and I couldn't fake a relationship when he believed that he was real and I don't. Non-personal relationships are ok and I need to act the part dealing with people in transactional reality at the store or going thru immigration at airports.
3. Sheath of Prana (Pranamaya Kosha): It's the energy body. The life forces in your body, some people relate themselves to the life forces they feel in their body.
Oriental medical theory identify this as chi. This is what my acupuncturist told me. I don't believe in his bullshit even though his needles and herbs did the job getting rid of some rashes that had been bothering me. I don't question the clinical results but the medical theory is hilarious. It is the same deal with western science. I accept the empirical evidence that I weigh 135 pounds as shown on my bathroom scale but Newton's theory of gravity is as hokey as chi. I don't believe that the Earth is attracting my body.
4. Sheath of Intellect (Vigyanamaya Kosha): The above three were physical in nature. But the next two are not that physical in nature. It's the knowledge(not ordinary knowledge) body. Things that are grasped with 5 senses is considered as ordinary knowledge. And the knowledge that you cannot grasp through senses is this Vijnanamaya Kosha. It is body of transition, it's between physical and non-physical body.
I can only consider what I can grasp with the 5 senses and apprehend as knowledge with the intellect. I acknowledge that this is the basic level of apprehension. Then there is instinct and intuition that transcends deductive reasoning in enabling action in transactional reality. Are we saying the same thing in different ways?
5. Sheath of Bliss (Anandamaya Kosha): The bliss body is the experience of the bliss. As it is non-physical in nature, it's difficult to define it. Few people experiences that bliss when in deeper levels of meditation. So they identify themselves as this bliss.
This thread is an inquiry into what I am. Am I the human body? Science says I am the human body. This belief doesn't work for me because I am still examining the question. I am not a biological organism much less a human being. I don't believe I am an inhabitant of planet Earth either. I don't believe that the Earth is spinning on its axis and revolving around the sun. These are basic questions about transactional reality. Don't you consider it an escapist distraction to experience bliss in transactional reality where people are suffering the pains of the body in the horrors of war, poverty, disease, and old age?
