Intro to The 5 Koshas and ThaiYoga Massage

Have you ever heard about the Panchakosha or the 5 Koshas?

“Pancha” means “five” and "koshas" means "sheaths".

The Panchakosha teaching is that we, as human beings, are consisted of these 5 inter-penetrating and inter-dependent layers. This teaching was passed down to us in the Taittiriya Upanishad, which is one of the many Vedic Sanskrit texts used as basis of Hindu philosophy.

The idea is that the more integrated all these sheaths are, the healthier we'll also be and more in sync with ourselves.

The Yoga Sutras from Patanjali describe the eight limbs of yoga, which explains tools to navigate each one of these sheaths, helping us understanding and harmonizing them on the way.

The intention is to journey inwards using these tools, starting from the outmost layer and reaching the innermost one. At this point, we are fully in touch with our inner wisdom, connected with ourselves and nature, making us feel complete and united with everything around us. This path goes through Body, Mind and Soul and then Soul, Mind and Body. Any similarity with Ātman Touch's tagline is (not!) a mere coincidence ;)

Which are these 5 Koshas then?

Let's follow this journey, starting with the outermost layer to the innermost one:

What's the connection between the Koshas and ThaiYoga Massage?

If you checked this blog post you already know that thai massage came from India, therefore it has influences from the yoga philosophy, ayurveda etc.

When we learn thaiyoga massage we understand that the touch on the physical body does not impact only that layer of the body. That's explained by the fact that the koshas are penetrating each other; so whatever is done in one layer will have an effect on the other ones. Therefore, when it comes to thaiyoga massage, we are touching not only the physical body, but also the energy body and that effect gets onto the other layers like ripples on a lake.

I see in my practice that during a session some of the clients have emotions being released, memories popping-up in their minds or realizations clicking even though I'm "only" working on their physical body (or that's the impression many have). This is one of the evidences for me that the massage process is not only affecting the muscles, articulations, circulatory system, lymphatic system - and so on - but it's also affecting all other layers.

That's why I find thaiyoga massage such a beautiful and complete bodywork :)

Have you ever received a massage and ended up feeling that it affected you in other layers as well?

I would love to hear your comments below!

Thank you,

Tarsi.