Looking for a sober survey/comparative analysis of “subtle body/organ” concepts from different traditions. Hoping for it to include not just the origins/etymologies/genealogies of the concepts but descriptions of the concepts themselves as well as practices associated with them. If nothing like this exists, happy for recs that cover individual traditions or texts
Subtle body
Nathan Wood
Other urls found in this thread:
en.wikipedia.org
hermetic.com
twitter.com
Cameron Williams
What exactly you mean by the term subtle body?
The Taoists for example have practices like this en.wikipedia.org
The aim is to >create an immortal spiritual body that would survive after death
As to the substance of the body of light, it may be assumed that this is more or less equivalent to the subtle electrical current called by some Prana, Chi, etc. of various traditions.
Same way the Egyptian mummification process had a concept and the idea of "spirit" was complex involving really three spirits: the ka, ba, and akh.
This was threefold, and the corpse would serve as a vessel to prolong the subtle body living and acting in the world or underworld after the physical death.
The best bet to study such matter as subtle body is to study what is the "essential" particle of those said traditions. ie. is it Prana, Tao, Ka, Breath etc. and how it animates the physical body.
Michael Jones
Many traditions, as youve mentioned, have concepts of a spiritual/esoteric physiognomy. Like you said, its nearly always tied to the traditions metaphysic; the book im looking for describes these physiognomies, comparing them vis-a-vis their respective metaphysics
Blake Hughes
>the book im looking for describes these physiognomies, comparing them vis-a-vis their respective metaphysics
No book does that except the tables found in
in the Liber 777 Vel Prolegoma Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicande, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae
The tables of correspondences you are looking for are thus:
CLXXXVIII (188)—The Body
CLXXXIX (189), CXC (190)— Bodily Functions
CLXXIV (174)—The Mansions of the Moon (Hindu, Nakshatra) Arab, Manazil
CLXVII (167)—Egyptian Gods of Zodiac (Asc Decans)
To align the Chakras:
CXXXVIII (138)—Planets ruling Col. CXXXVII (137)
CXXXIX (139)—Planets exalted in Col.
CXVI (116)—Egyptian Attribution of Parts of the Soul
CXVII (117)—The Soul (Hindu)
CXVIII (118)—The Chakkras or Centres of Prana (Hinduism)
CXII (112)—Alchemical Tree of Life (i)
CXIII (113)—Alchemical Metals (ii)
CIII (103)—The Ten Divisions of the Body of God
CIV (104)—The Ten Earths in Seven Palaces
LXXXII (82)—The Noble Eightfold Path
LXXV (75)—The Five Elements (Tatwas)
LXXVI (76)—The Five Skandhas
CXCI (191)—The Four Noble Truths (Buddhism)
Cameron Cooper
Thanks user. What do you make of all this?
Jace Lee
>What do you make of all this?
You have all the essential Planetary spirits thus you can study the Planetary myths of the Hindus, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians and even Aztec respectively etc.
You have the associated metals, minerals to those said planets which in turn you can attribute to the five elements and their combinations thereof; thus you can directly compare the charts with the parts of the Hindu soul, Egyptian soul and even various Buddhist meditations.
Most of these systems do not overlap in a sense that 1a = 1a, the result can vary by tradition that sometimes the result is 1a (Hindu) = compared to Roman gods is 1a+1b since some Gods are combinations of various pantheons that are forgotten
So the tables serve you as an aid when you are studying the Bhagavad Gita or Egyptian Book of the Dead in their original forms as to guide you to see the similarities between traditions etc. Thus one can place the Hindu Chakras on the Hebrew Kabbalah numbers from 1-10 etc.
Hunter Jackson
You sound like youve done some experimenting—have you?
Blake Russell
An Introduction to Hinduism by Gavin Flood has a very good chapter on Yoga which covers the subtle body. Also What Is Hinduism? by Hinduism Today Magazine has some chapters on it. It's important to remember that the subtle body is just one of multiple sheathes that make up a person, different traditions have different views on them.
Grayson Brown
Not really, no, I do not really practice any exercises or do Yoga, even though I have done it in the past.
These tables serve more of a symbolist guidance ie. if you are reading for example some ancient Greek myths. Perhaps some certain flower, or drug, is attributed to some God and you wonder why.
Then you perhaps stumble upon some Hindu myth and notice that this same sacred flower is also sacred to this certain God and let us assume that both Gods would serve a certain function as some sort of God of Sleep or Paralysis or something like that.
You get the deal.
Most of these tables of correspondences are used for constructing elaborate ritual functions, concerning they contain extremely specific hours of the demons of the Goetia etc. and the planetary ascendants etc. so as to convey the suitable hours, days and months to conjure certain Spirits.
They are still extremely useful tables of correspondences even if you would only be interested in the matter because of symbolism and associations.
Jason Morgan
Have you ever read/looked at a symbol dictionary? Penguin has a good one
Michael Ramirez
Isaiah Sanders
Yeah, ive read this. Wasnt that impressed with corbin desu
Jonathan Cooper
Crowley is not a good source on Hindu doctrines like the subtle body, he did not fully understand Sanskrit and his writings about Hindu teachings are plagued with errors
Jacob Turner
Timothy Leary -- Info(/Exo)-Psychology
Julian Morris
Anthony Ward
>Crowley is not a good source on Hindu doctrines
Liber 777 Vel Prolegoma Symbolica Ad Systemam Sceptico-Mysticae Viae Explicande, Fundamentum Hieroglyphicum Sanctissimorum Scientiae Summae authorship can be traced to Allan Bennett's private collection (later known as Bhikkhu Ananda Metteyya) who was one of the first Euopean converts to Buddhism and established the first Buddhist mission to England.
Crowley is the one who released the book to the public; the tables are way too comprehensive and numerous to actually be even compiled by a single man in his 20s who Crowley was when first received the prototype of the document.
Aaron Wright
The subtle is the non physical part of your... whole. Even elements such as fire; air; or akash(aether, space) are physical.
>"Bhumir apo nalo vayu/kham mano buddhir eva ca/Ahankara iti yan me/bhinna prakrtir ashtadha"(bhagavad gita 7.4)
"Earth, water, fire, air, aether, mind, intelligence and ego, are my eightfold separated nature"
Subtle are things like thoughts, dreams, or mathematics
Andrew Gutierrez
how did the chinks use subtle body concepts to carry out more powerful martial arts
Jonathan Phillips
It's a lie for gullible faggots
Christian Torres
you don't know that
Ryder White
...
Jaxon Ortiz
in my experience, reading about accounts of the subtle body is useless. you have to try to experience it yourself, because your own experience of it yourself is the only thing that will actually mean anything to do rather than a logical understanding. of course reading other peoples' ideas might give you something to look for, but it can also fuck you up. reading about others ideas about HOW to achieve directly those experiences is more helpful, but at the end of the day, there is no substitute for the direct experience, something you have to feel out yourself from your own unique locus
im just spitballing here
Gabriel Allen
Tell us about your experiences
Kevin James
" don't mistake the finger pointing at the moon, for the moon "
maps are just maps
sometimes the things we think we need to understand or know are less relevant than what we actually should be thinking about or doing. takes time, effort, thought, soul searching
you don't need to see the subtle bodies to do the right thing, you should do the right thing anyways, and be thinking/learning about that, how to do the right thing more, better, and in a bigger way. that is what is most relevant. the west is always obsessed with figuring out the structure of things. ultimately, it's kind of irrelevant. and from what I know... if you are concerned with doing the right thing, truly, eventually, things will be revealed to you - IF that knowledge will help you do that right thing more, better. then, and only then, is it necessary, or in its proper place.
read book pictured . it's not the end all be all, and might sound woo woo, but it's good shit. some very important ideas to consider