Reddit reviews Nyasa Yoga: Kundalini, Prana, Chakra and Nadi Cultivation Techniques

Yes, yes and yes. Whoever this highly practiced person is, you can be certain that he is correct in his understanding. Here is an excellent excerpt from a book that covers this very well by Bill Bodri, a student of Master Nan Huai Chin, an enlightened Zen, Taoist and Esoteric Vajrayana Master. This excerpt may help shed some light on the five bodies and what they entail.

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The reason there is a spiritual emphasis on the different parts of your body is because they must all be transformed on the spiritual path. Every atom and cell of your body must be washed with Qi for years to open up all the channels and create an independent deva body.

If you want to succeed on any path of spiritual practice you must cultivate your coarse physical body of bones and flesh through a pathway that purifies its prana and nadis (Qi and Qi) channels, and this is normally called kundalini cultivation. This washing of your body via Yang Qi will purify your underlying subtle Qi body, which is like an invisible scaffolding permeating every atom, cell and tissue of your physical body. Once you sufficiently purify or transform your inner Qi body, which takes at least twelve years after an initial Kundalini Awakening, it can leave your physical shell at will.

Your inner subtle Qi body is basically an etheric energy duplicate of your physical body that leaves during out-of-body experiences and upon death. It is a perfect body double composed of Qi/prana which is an energy more subtle than the material body, and thus it cannot be seen or measured. Because it is made of Qi it has all the powers related to those energies that appears miraculous to humans, whose bodies exist on a lower plane of material condensation.

As of yet, science cannot sense or measure Qi energies at all. Hence, even though we all posses a subtle inner energy body duplicate, since it is not composed of particles modern science does not yet recognize its existence. Qi also has higher energy substance derivatives called Shen, Clear Light and so forth. You can think of them as more subtle forms of matter that are less dense than our own, but still condensed forms of energy. Thus they belong to different spiritual planes of existence.

Through spiritual practice our inner subtle body or etheric double can become an independent deva body, also called an astral body, deity body or yin-shen, that can leave your physical shell whenever you want to roam or do things in the world. Attaining this body is the equivalent to becoming a junior-level spiritual master.

Buddhism calls the subtle body the "will-born" body because with its attainment you can, at will put on and take off the external body as if it were a cloak and use your subtle body for experiencing the astral world. This is the Buddhist stage of Srotapannaa, or "stream entrant", which is the first level of the Arhats. When you can consciously separate the inner subtle body from the physical shell, this makes you feel a greater distinction from being the gross body, but your root nature is not the subtle body either. The root nature of the universe is an ultimate substance/essence or ground energy level.

As Meher Baba and Shakyamuni Buddha explained, upon attaining the subtle deva body achievement you will consider yourself to be this subtle body, which will then become the center of all your activities. Therefore you will now have two bodies you can occupy - a physical and a subtle. A new mode of life will then open up along with new powers and possibilities. You will still live in your physical body but your new life will be centered in this higher subtle body until you cultivate another body yet higher, the Causal or Mental body made of Shen that is derived from cultivating the body of Qi. Then you will simultaneously posses three bodies, each capable of doing different things independently of the others.

Upon attaining this Causal body the same process of purification will repeat itself. You will appear to others as existing in the physical or subtle body while actually living in that Causal body, but you can also use your lower bodies to do indepdent things like extra appendages. For instance, you can use your Causal body to give someone a series of thoughts while using the Qi of your subtle body to be independently working on an individual's Qi to help open its Qi channels.

When you achieve the next higher body composed of Clear Light (Later Heavenly Qi/Prana) you will then take that as the new center of your life while still appearing to others in the lower bodies, and onward it goes. With each new body you identify with it as your life vessel, but you must maintain a connection with all your lower bodies and use them independently.

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There's lots more going into how these five bodies are described in basically all religions and genuine spiritual traditions - but all of it would take a long time to type up. In any case, hope it helps!

Best of luck with your cultivation!