Awakening to your 10 Bodies
Awakening to your 10 Bodies
I remember first hearing of “Awakening to your 10 Bodies Kriya” as I started my Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training. I didn’t know what those 10 Bodies were, let alone what was involved in awakening them, but non the less felt drawn to exploring the Kriya more than most if not everything in the world. It was my first 40 day Kriya I completed, then the first Kriya I taught in a Sadhana and then in class. Shortly after that I launched myself into a 1001 day journey with it fantasising that it would turn me into the female equivalent of Bruce Lee. Some years later I looked back with a smile realising that I hadn’t ended up looking like one of my childhood heroes - but I did transform many personal impossibilities into possibilities which was miracle enough. Now just short of 2 decades later it is a central reference in my life and a friend that is my anchor and part of my highest reverence and reference.
Why bother getting to know your 10 bodies?
The 10 Bodies ARE you, - so getting to know, balance builds a truly conscious relationship with each part of you so that you can open into your full potential of who you truly are.
Ok, but explain more - what is all this strange talk of 10 bodies rather than 1?
Well, the Old English meaning for the word “Body” does indeed simply indicate - to have a trunk, chest, torso, height and stature. Yet, if we look to the Proto-Indo-European origins of the word - “bewd” - this expresses the Kundalini Yoga understanding: to be awake (source: en.wiktionary.org). This being the journey of the possible human opening into consciousness: the seed of soul to the full enlightenment state of the radiant body.
An overview of the 10 Spiritual Bodies –
We start with the seed, 1st Body being the Soul Body, this gives us the orientation – in the Mul Mantra EK - You are a Soul having a human experience – not an arbitrary accident but a divine delight. In itself is significant and fundamental. This is the potential from which all our consciousness can unfold. The virtue is humility: divinity in the detail and small in all.
The seed, watered, bursts into life. The roots extend downward in search of nourishment. The 2nd Body is the Negative Mind – Ong - It’s the first aspect of the Mind that jumps in – and necessarily to sustain us. Knowing the no – what is for you and what is not. The virtue being loyalty.
From there as it matures a framework of many numbers of stems and sticks. The 3rd Body is Positive Mind – Kar - Quite simply put, will say “Yes” to anything, so worth exploring whether it is saying yes to that which uplifts you or drags you down. The virtue: equanimity.
Yet, us human’s love the moment of the blossoming of the flower. The 4th Body is Neutral Mind – Sat naam, also the stage where consciousness begins to open to what is truly of service to all. The virtue: Trust seva.
The delicate attention we pay to the bud of our breath bears fruit. The 5th Body is the Physical Body – Karta Purakh - the bridge, the communicator between personal and higher realms – a meeting point experienced via the intricate web of your nervous system. Virtue: A constant process of sacrifice to maintain equi-poise: tilt left to balance right, up to balance down as the messenger in between.
The 6th Body is the Arc line - Nirbau - literally can be visualised as a satellite dish like halo bearing intuitive news. Woman having double receptors bearing the secondary crescent around the nipples and breasts. The virtue: faith and gratitude.
The 7th Body is the Aura – Nirvair - a mind field that envelops the physical body that can be strongly coloured by past experience distorting input inwards and outwards or clean and clear and protective. The virtue: Forgiveness and even pre-forgiving before there is even a need to forgive.
The 8th Body is the Pranic Body – Akaal Moorat - Essentially given from birth for life’s vitality to flow. This, your energetic resource being limited, for you to use with wisdom flow or loose depending on how one directs the flow. Virtue: Coming to a place of Compassion in your heart which neither leans away in antipathy nor leans in too far in sympathy.
The 9th Body is the Subtle Body – Ajuni -imagine the higher reference for soul beyond time and space, like a hive that bee’s return to having dusted with life’s pollen to crystallise the most divine honey. The virtue: Staying patience and perseverance beyond what is reasonable or rational or perhaps even tolerable.
The 10th Body is the Radiant Body – Saibungh - True self- realisation once the soul has completed it’s journey home. An extra- ordinary possibility, by God’s grace alone: a light that is self-sustaining and beyond any ability to extinguish. The virtue: Calling in Courage
Then 11 - beyond the 10 Spiritual Bodies - all is in what is known as “parallel unionism” - the small 1 vibrating in harmony with the great 1 beyond perpetuity: God and me, me and God are 1, yet now consciously conscious of this delightful dance for eternity.
Give yourself time each day to be in relationship to the 10 Spiritual Bodies with Awakening to your 10 Bodies Kriya.
Here is a journaling exercise for after the relaxation and Laya Yoga meditation.
Start by simply writing out the names of each one of the 10 Spiritual Bodies. As you do this, remind yourself to breathe consciously. Notice what sensations arise as you do this. Tune into all parts of you known and as yet unknown and invite them to speak to you. These are some of the questions that could guide your journaling practice over the coming days.
Do you have a sense of each of the 10 Bodies for yourself? In what way? Which speaks loudest? Softest? In Are there any that you sense you have no relationship to at all?
Which of the virtue’s do you relate to? What experiences in your life have opened you into these for you? Which one/s do you want and need to cultivate at the moment?
Love light all ways,
Jagat Joti Kaur
If you are touched by any of the words I share, they are from my understanding of the Teachings through sitting in class with my Teacher most weeks each month each year. I am a Sacred Numerology counsellor through the Karam Kriya School, a student of Shiv Charan Singh, a Kundalini Yoga Teacher. I completed my Level 1 Aquarian Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training in 2005. I explore the art of yoga and the yoga of art because I love to share what I love for myself, to write, draw, paint, sculpt, sew and cook, a creative, juicy life worth living.
