Day 16 The Witness Body

“…the human soul is exalted above all egress and regress. It is still, and yet it soareth; it moveth, and yet it is still. It is, in itself, a testimony that beareth witness to the existence of a world that is contingent, as well as to the reality of a world that hath neither beginning nor end. Behold how the dream thou hast dreamed is, after the lapse of many years, reenacted before thine eyes. Consider how strange is the mystery of the world that appeareth to thee in thy dream. Ponder in thine heart upon the unsearchable wisdom of God, and meditate on its manifold revelations.…”

- Bahá’u’lláh

Integrative yoga therapy works with the five Koshas, meaning layers or sheaths of the human body:

• The physical body – Anna-maya kosha, 

• The energy Body – Prana-maya kosha 

• The mental and emotional body - Mano-maya kosha 

• The Witness body - Vjana-maya kosha 

• The bliss body - Ana-maya kosha 

Each layer of the human body requires nurturance, connection and love to thrive, essentially the healing of one layer has an ultimate influence and well-being on the whole. You don’t have to work on all layers at once to heal, BONUS! Whoo whoo~

For the next two 19 day purification series, I’m going to describe, what each layer of the human sheath actually is, where problems arise in these layers and how to fix it. 

The Witness Body

Can I get a Witness?

Notice the capital “W”, it is not random ya’ll. Capital is for the Sacredness of the Witness itself, which is the existence of your soul on this earth.

Ever notice why we actually need people to witness our change, in order to get over something?

Have you ever tried SO HARD to get over something by yourself, and absolutely NOTHING that you do in your own power makes the situation better, unless you go and talk to someone you deeply trust. And the second you communicate with them your difficulty, within the communication itself, the problems and heavy emotions go away?

That’s called soul level witnessing right there for you!

The Witness body is also invisible to the naked eye, and is the part of yourself that is pure consciousness, this is the seat of wisdom - essentially your soul in pure form.

This is the part of your body that recognizes that you see a cup, and that you are not a cup, or more relevant to our topic of purification, ‘I realize that I am having an angry feeling/emotion, yet I distinguish that I am not an angry being/person.’

Basically, the recognition of what is temporary and what is permanent. 

Having the faculty of discernment.

Not many things are permanent, other than God, the Single Point, Reality, Pure Consciousness and your True Self, all the rest are transitory. Read My Yoga Teacher Training Experience In Bali Part I for more details on the permanence and transience of things. 

So in this layer, no diseases can exist, since we mentioned yesterday that all physical and energetic diseases stem from the mental/emotional layer of the human body.

Essentially this is the discernment body, the clearer and more purified it is, the more clearly you can distinguish the rest of your life, decisions, choices, where to go, what to do etc.

Suffering arises when you haven’t exercised your Witness body muscles.

For example, something happens in the outside world, so you get angry, you have a reaction, and rather than being calm and collected, you become entirely consumed and overcome by your emotions. As if there is no longer a you, but a big ball of anger just flailing about.

Those that are adept to this faculty, have awareness that anger is arising, they can literally watch it arise, notice it, acknowledge it, and not react to the situation, and gently wait for the storm to subsided, wait to act, respond rather than react, witness the end of emotion - that is called a whole new level of detachment.

Let’s be real, that’s super hard, like holy molly hard right?

What I know is, it’s easier to practice this with the people that you love first, you are more likely to have compassion for them and willingness to give them the benefit of the doubt that what they meant to say was nicer than what they actually expressed, however vile it may be.

Try to look past it as if you were watching a movie, and know, that when it doubt, love is always the answer~ 

The way you access this faculty is likewise meditation - meditation is the answer to so many things man!

Medi~ Medi~ Medi~ TAAAATION! 

See what I’m saying?

If you would like to build a systematic meditation practice with Yoga Avec Moi, we would love to help you develop a meditation habit that is tailor made just for you! Because what is a good meditation for one, is NOT a good meditation for another.

In yoga, there are certain meditations for each personality type, so if one is not working for you, we just change the type of meditation practice rather than push through a particular one.

Check out our booking services to find out more.

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Introduction to the Author 

作者简介

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Nahal Haghbin's Chinese name is Chen Nana, a Canadian-born foreigner who grew up in Tianjin, China. She is an Integrative Yoga Therapist (IAYT) in training. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences from the University of British Columbia and a Master's degree in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In 2014, Nahal worked with the World Health Organization on the H7N9, MERS-CoV and Ebola global outbreaks whilst serving in the Assistant Director General's Office Taskforce. It was her teenage experience of SARS in 2003, that led her to choose her eventual profession and future career in the control of infectious disease outbreaks. 

作者简介：Nahal Haghbin 中文名字：陈娜娜，出生于加拿大，在中国天津长大的外籍人士。她是一名在训的综合瑜伽理疗师（IAYT），她拥有英国哥伦比亚大学生命科学学士学位和伦敦卫生及热带医学院传染病控制科学硕士学位。2014年，Nahal与世界卫生组织合作处理H7N9、MERS-CoV和埃博拉全球疫情，同时在助理总干事办公室工作组任职。正是2003年她十几岁时的非典经历，让她最终选择了她未来的职业方向：控制传染病的爆发

Nahal has found that she can best be of service to mankind by combining her passions of global health and integrative yoga therapy. To her, both serve as complementary systems of knowledge to interpret the world around her. Nahal has found that by bridging the two disciplines, it broadens the availability of language and understanding that she can access, to share her interpretations of various health conditions. 

Nahal发现她能结合自己对全球健康和综合瑜伽理疗的热情，为人类提供最好的服务。对她来说两者是互为补充的知识系统，可以用来帮她解读周围的世界。Nahal发现连接这两个学科拓宽了语言和理解的可用性，使她能够分享她对不同疾病的理解.