June 3rd

Sheaths

Traditional sages describe a human being as having three sheaths. The outer one is the physical body and incorporates primitive drives and instincts. The inner one is the mind and includes discrimination, reasoning, and sense of individuality.Both the body and the mind are enslaved to the outer world because they gain their knowledge from sensory input. They cannot know anything "intangible," anything without a form or a name.
At the core of every person is the soul. This is a pure, virgin self. It does not think in the ordinary sense of the word, has no egotism, and is not concerned with maintaining itself in the world. Although the body has a shape and the mind is multi-faceted, the soul is completely without form or features. No markings, profiles, names, formulas, numbers, ideas, or conceptions can be projected upon it. It is pure, shapeless, and empty.
Any person with training can reach this soul. Only then can you be convinced of its presence. When you reach it, your body and mind will become irrelevant, for you are now in a state beyond the senses and beyond thought. The soul is called absolute because it is beyond all relativity.

Personal Interpretation


The body and the mind are both slaves to subjectivity. We rely on our senses to relay information and come to conclusions based on that input. But there is also a part of each of us that is pure and untainted by the world. There is the soul. It is not concerned with egotism. Its greatest ambition is to be one with all that is. It is both simple and profound, and we can reach it through prayer and meditation. To say that it is an empty and shapeless thing is not to do it some grave injustice. Indeed, it is capable of being what it is because of these defining characteristics. It is not forced to take a certain form by the world. It simply is. Its emptiness allows it to be filled. It is the structure that makes each of us who we truly are. Life is a process of trying to regain the beautiful virgin purity of the soul, and while it is an arduous quest, there is no undertaking more worthwhile.