| Cancer touches people all over the world. There are | | | | we have with all other beings on this planet. This is |
| over a hundred different types listed by medical | | | | the state of Sat Chit Ananda – Sat means |
| journals to date. Fortunately, recent studies have | | | | existence, pure and unqualified. Some people call it |
| shown that yoga offers cancer patients benefits | | | | God. From a yogic perspective, all true healing comes |
| ranging from decreased stress and discomfort to | | | | from this place of consciousness, because in this |
| improved lymphatic flow and better digestion, just to | | | | sheath there is no dis-ease without its polar opposite |
| begin with. What specifically causes cancer from a | | | | – health or ease. One cannot exist without the |
| yogic point of view, and how does the view of | | | | other, so Bliss arises when we truly understand this |
| allopathic medicine differ from that? | | | | seeming paradox. |
| To traditional medical doctors, cancer is a disease in | | | | For most of western medicine; however, the physical |
| the body caused when a group of cells start to divide | | | | body is the easiest sheath to deal with. This is also |
| beyond their normal limits. That means they experience | | | | why chemotherapy and other very harmful means of |
| uncontrolled growth that then assaults tissues in the | | | | "healing" the body do not always work or at least |
| body or begins to metastasize into the blood or lymph | | | | have to kill most of the "good" cells left in our bodies |
| glands. On the other hand, in yogic philosophy we | | | | before getting to the "bad" ones. The problem with |
| view the body as a series of five sheaths, called | | | | dealing with cancer from a purely physical sense is |
| koshas translated from Sanskrit. These koshas hold | | | | that the physical body is the most dense form of us. |
| within them a microcosmic narrative of the entire | | | | All disease is thought to arise in the energetic body |
| Universe, each sheath having a more subtle or dense | | | | before its ever comes into manifestation in the physical |
| quality. | | | | body. Your cancer, therefore, is forming prior to it ever |
| The first sheath is called the Annimaya Kosha. It is | | | | showing signs physically. So what does that mean |
| often referred to as the food body. It relates | | | | about healing yourself, about taking control of your |
| specifically to the physical body. If you have ever | | | | own healing process? |
| heard the expression you are what you eat, then you | | | | It means getting quiet more often so that you can hear |
| know what this sheath represents. Every food | | | | what the more subtle forms of energy in your self are |
| material we put into our bodies, whether a chocolate | | | | telling you. A whisper is just as real as a shout, but you |
| shake, a juicy steak or a plate of leafy green | | | | can't hear one unless you are in a quiet space. |
| vegetables, has an energetic quality. Some foods | | | | Perhaps yoga is one way to achieve this quieter |
| create higher or faster moving energy in the body (and | | | | space. |
| thus greater vigor and stamina) while other foods are | | | | On page 55 of the monthly magazine "Yog |
| considered "dead" already, such as meat, processed | | | | Sandesh" (English) September 2006 issue, of Swami |
| foods, sugar, etc. They have a very slow-paced | | | | Ramdev Ji's Trust in India, "Yoga Guru Swami |
| energetic quality. They do not add to the life-force or | | | | Ramdev while addressing the people said that Yoga |
| energetic body at all. They slowly break down the | | | | & Pranayama have been successful in curing 200 |
| cellular process as it exists in its healthy form. | | | | cancer patients and he is ready to give evidence. The |
| The next sheath is called the Pranamaya Kosha. It is | | | | ancient science is also beneficial in case of AIDS and |
| also often called the vital body. This is the energetic | | | | experiments are being carried out in that area. He |
| body as made evident through the breath. The | | | | would make formal announcement once the tests are |
| breath is one of the closest things human beings can | | | | completed". Swami Ji said, "Till now I have completed |
| liken to infinity. Infinity represents the fastest moving | | | | more than ten thousand scientific experiments. The |
| rate of energy because it is timeless. It has no form in | | | | patients of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, depression, |
| its pure state. The pranamaya kosha is a thread that | | | | can take part in the seven-day camp and check the |
| ties the subtle body to the physical body. The fleeting, | | | | results on their own. They will notice 50% improvement |
| ever-renewed breath also joins the two koshas. | | | | within a week". |
| The third sheath is called the Manomaya Kosha. It is | | | | Meanwhile, western researchers in the medical field |
| the mental or psychological body. In this sheath | | | | are finding the beginnings of their own proof. Karen |
| reside our emotions and thoughts associated to past | | | | Mustian, PhD, MPH, at the University of Rochester |
| memories and anticipation of future events. You'll | | | | Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y., for example said |
| notice here the absence of a sense of Infinite | | | | that in a study of participantswith cancer who did just |
| awareness. One of the most important things cancer | | | | four weeks of yoga experienced a 22% increase in |
| patients can practice is an awareness of now. This | | | | sleep quality compared with just a 12% improvement |
| can be accomplished by simply sitting and focusing on | | | | from baseline care, and yoga had an even greater |
| the breath, allowing emotions to arise without attaching | | | | effect on fatigue, with a 42% reduction among yoga |
| any judgment to them. Often emotions are so | | | | participants versus 12% among controls (P<0.05), she |
| repressed in us that they start to eat us alive (literally, | | | | said at a press conference in advance of her |
| like those fast-growing cancer cells). If we can just | | | | presentation at the American Society of Clinical |
| observe the emotions arise instead of stuffing them | | | | Oncology. |
| inside, we can start to deal with whatever emotions | | | | The emotions influence the production of stress |
| caused the inequilibrium in our bodies to begin with. | | | | hormones and create muscular tension and this |
| The fourth sheath is the Vijnyanamaya Kosha. In this | | | | therefore puts more stress on the internal organs. |
| kosha, intellect starts to arise – an ability to discern | | | | Each person internalizes their experiences and |
| our thoughts without sightless emotion. I'm talking here | | | | emotions differently so we cannot say that one |
| of the inner eye. The eye that holds wisdom. It is also | | | | person's pain in a particular area will be the same as |
| where the sense of "I" arises, or where the ego keeps | | | | another's. |
| its abode. This kosha is one of cognition, conditioning or | | | | So why does allopathic medicine not embrace this |
| de-conditioning of one's most profound beliefs, the | | | | view of healing? Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, FACSM, |
| most deeply rooted of which is the ‘I' or "ego" | | | | of the, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, |
| concept. It is the definition we have of ourselves. You | | | | said that the concept of recommending yoga or any |
| might say it is where our story is created – the one | | | | exercise is still a novel one for many in the cancer |
| that doesn't want to be changed. We can look even | | | | community, who for years were likely to regard |
| at our "I" as a cancer patient and start to rewrite our | | | | cancer survivors as poor candidates for an exercise |
| core beliefs about who we are as a corporeal body | | | | intervention. Perhaps as the west learns to deal with |
| dealing with a disease. In this kosha, we are rescripting | | | | the body on more subtle levels, such as yoga does, |
| who we are at the level of intellect, like Shakespeare | | | | patients coping with this disease will find greater |
| writing a great play, and it isn't easy! | | | | awareness of what ails them at levels beyond even |
| Finally, when we have integrated the ego, we arrive at | | | | nuclear – from energetic levels, and this is where |
| the Anandamaya Kosha –the Sheath of Bliss, as | | | | the healing can begin. |
| translated from Sanskrit. This is where we become | | | | |
| 100 percent conscious and present of the connection | | | | Christina L. |