I am not only bound to a physical body - therefore when my physical body dies I will still not be free of material nature.
Why?
Because I am bound to another body - and I will continue to exist in that body when the physical one I use is dead.
That body I will continue to live in is called the subtle body. It is made of matter less dense than the physical body.
Unlike the physical body, the subtle body is difficult to get away from so to speak. You can’t just kill it off the way one can a physical one, it isn’t mortal in the same way as the physical.
In other words, the subtle body is difficult to exist without. It’s hard to get rid of in terms of spiritual liberation from using material creation. It’s part of material creation.
Could it be that the only way to be rid of the subtle body is to wait until the dissolution of the so called universe when a dissolution-ment of everything including the universal subtle energies occurs? While the subtle body program of taking physical bodies over and over is carried out relentlessly?
This must take inconceivably long periods of time.
And just because the universe dissolves and I have no subtle body will I still identify as myself? Will I have self-awareness? Will I then be free? Depends on how I define freedom I suppose. Yet surely one could logically conclude that without having developed the atma (spiritual person) one may become a nothing when there is no material creation to live in.
One may become a blank to oneself. One will exist but no identity (In Sanskrit this is regarded as sat but no chid; existence but no knowledge of it), no consciousness – until the universe starts up again and the atma is pushed through yet another long evolutionary tradition of matter meets spirit where matter always seems to dominate the game of identity.
For some souls liberation dawns upon the mind and disciplinary mystic methods like yoga are appropriate. In this way freedom is believed to be earned through detachment, through subtle body purification leading to transit out of the wheel of birth and death.
We are not just bound to the physical body. No, it’s ways more complicated than that.
What do you think the mind is? It is the subtle body you’re using right now. It’s using the physical body, animating and controlling it, but it is not the physical body.
The mind exists on a mental plane, a vibratory level somewhere above the physical vibe.
Its energies are designed to animate the meat bodies for as long as it lasts.
Another word for astral is subtle.
Another world for subtle is psychological.
Another word for psychological is psychic.
(But none of these are the spirit or spiritual existence.)
Nature is both the physical and the subtle.
One less dense than the other.
Consider dreaming.
You are still in a body when you’re dreaming.
You still feel like you.
Yet your physical body is laying there asleep isn’t it?
So which one is ‘you’, the one sleeping or the one conscious in the dream?
The direct use of the subtle body is experienced when we dream....but….
…not all of it. A good portion of that subtle life force has to stay in the physical body to run the physical functions. Reflect that if you eat a lot before bed, get drunk, watch a scary movie, anything you do is in the body mind complex and the kundalini is going to have to deal with it – this leaves a limited portion of the subtle energy for use in dreams.
This is why we retain little and comprehend little in dreams. We don’t normally realize how lacking in clarity we are in dream states and just go on like it’s no different.
That is how much objectivity you really have about what dimension we exist in.
Look how quickly we forget physical existence when in a dream!
Why is that?
The mind is easily confused is it not? Therefore it makes sense that when the subtle body passes from the physical one there could be some mental confusion, panic and grasping during the event.
Yoga practice and preparation is going to help keep us focused and on point during the passing. And since it is inevitable, we can either leave ourselves vulnerable to panic or we could go ahead and plan for it. Get ourselves into the right frame of mind through conscientious living and purification of the anxious energies in the mind.
For some, in a very serious, non-superficial way, Yoga is the plan. Krishna’s instruction and Patanjali’s eight steps are the plan for not losing our heads when it’s time to let go of the physical body.
Only focusing on the physical part of you causes unnecessary trauma. Being atheistic won’t pay off in the end when you find yourself without your physical body yet still alive despite.
We cling so much to the physical body because, in terms of reincarnation, they are hard to come by. Availability is limited therefore the psyche and un-developed atma don’t like to let go of them. But the subtle form is long term. It will be there with you, practically as you, for a very, very long time.
Anyone genuinely interested in yoga liberation will have to become very familiar with the contents of the subtle body and work toward its purification.
In closing, it’s important to discern what nature is and what spirit is. Understanding the subtle body is the first step toward understanding the self within it – the spirit within the nature.
So remember, its nature over here on the physical side, and its still nature over there on the dream side
Its nature over here on the physical side, its nature over there on the meditation/transcendental side.
Its nature over here on the physical side, its nature over there on the disembodied side.
Spiritual paradise is outside of material creations. It is a place where anxiety does not exist.
To be there, we must have no further need for relationship with any material energy.
With our true identity realized and secured through austerity and proper association we become Sat-Chid-Ananda.
To read more about the subtle body and its psychic abilities please see my book, Sun Gazing – Aura Seeing & Naad Hearing, available online.
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