Astral body

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Astral body or astral body (from latin astralis "star-like") is a term used to describe an invisible, cloud-like "shell", the religious according to some and occult teachings humans or its soul surrounds and together with the free core survives the death of the material body. The existence of an astral body is assumed above all in modern theosophy , anthroposophy and modern esotericism . In anthroposophy a distinction is made between the astral body and the etheric body . In some concepts of out-of-body experience and soul travel ("astral travel", "astral projection") the astral body occurs as a means of transport.

The concept of the astral body can already be found in ancient Platonism , where there is talk of a “soul vehicle” as well as a “garment” or “shell” of the soul; these terms are used synonymously. The designation of the soul vehicle as "star-like" ( ancient Greek astroeidés ) appears for the first time in the late antique Neo-Platonist Proklos . In the Renaissance , the soul vehicle known from ancient literature is also called the "sidereal body" (star body); from this the expression "astral body" arose. Similar ideas exist in Hinduism and Jainism , where "shells" are also used.

Antiquity

The starting point for the ideas of the vehicle or car (Greek óchēma ) of the soul form a few passages in Plato's dialogues . In the Timaeus it is reported that the Demiurge assigned a star to each soul and, after placing them on vehicles, showed the souls the nature of the cosmos . Timaeus commentators understood the "vehicles" not to be the respective stars of the souls, but vehicles assigned to the souls on which they descend from the heavenly realm into the earthly world. Further relevant passages can be found in the dialogues Phaidros , Phaidon and Nomoi . In Phaedrus the souls of gods and men are compared with charioteers. The human rational soul ( logistikón ) steers the car; the two horses that pull him stand for mind and desire. In the Phaedo, certain souls of the deceased board their vehicles - apparently boats are meant - and take them to a lake in the realm of the dead . In the Nomoi the hypothesis is considered that the soul of the sun has a fiery or air-like body from which it moves its star.

The ancient Platonists drew conclusions from Plato's connection of souls with the stars, while also taking Aristotelian ideas into account. Already in the 4th century BC The Platonist Herakleides Pontikos , who was strongly influenced by Aristotelian influences, taught that the substance of souls is identical to that of the stars. Accordingly, he described the souls as light-like and assumed that they are at home in the area of ​​the fixed star heaven. In later Platonism the Platonic idea of ​​the chariot of the soul was combined with the Aristotelian doctrine of the ether (the substance of the stars as the fifth element) and of the pneuma . According to Aristotle, the pneuma is the physical carrier substance of the immaterial soul, transmitted through reproduction, which is "analogous" to the matter of the stars. Aristotle did not associate this assumption with the religious idea that the stars are the abode of souls, but his statement on the analogy between stars and pneuma gave some Plato commentators an opportunity to identify the pneuma with the soul vehicle. This equation was common in late ancient Neo-Platonism.

The doctor Galenus , who probably refers to Herakleides Ponticus, goes into such considerations during the Roman Empire . According to one of the hypotheses cited by him, the soul itself is a light-like and ethereal body, according to another it is incorporeal, but has such a body as the “first vehicle” and through it comes into contact with the visible, physical body. The Middle Platonists also accept a chariot of souls. However, they disagree on the question of its impermanence; Albinos and Attikos consider it ephemeral. For the Middle Platonist Numenios it can be inferred that he accepted a subtle chariot of the soul.

In Neoplatonism, the relevant statements of Plato are combined and processed into a doctrine, according to which the souls are connected to their vehicles both in heaven and on their descent to earth. Plotinus , the founder of this philosophical direction, does not use the term "vehicle", but accepts the idea. He thinks that the souls, when they descend from the spiritual world into the area of ​​becoming and passing away, already assume a “first body” in heaven. When they then get into ever denser spheres, they envelop themselves in more bodies of increasingly physical, material nature. Plotinus imagines the pneuma that surrounds the soul to be fine, easy to move and probably spherical, that is, of a similar nature to the stars. It remains connected to the soul after it has been separated from the body; its contamination or "burdening" during earthly life causes transmigration of souls ( reincarnation ). In heaven the Pneuma-Body serves as the organ of perception of the soul.

The later Neo-Platonists Porphyrios and Iamblichus expanded the concept in different ways. Porphyrios considers the chariot of the soul to be a subtle substance that is acquired during the descent through the celestial spheres and thereby increasingly darkens and materializes; their nature is very different in the individual individuals. After the death of the physical body, the chariot of the soul initially remains; when the soul then rises through the celestial spheres to heaven, it gradually dissolves. Iamblichos, on the other hand, means that the chariot of the soul was created by the demiurge, immaterial and immortal; it persists after the rational soul returned to the spiritual world has separated from it and from the irrational soul of which it is the bearer. The vehicle is needed again for a future renewed descent of the soul. According to the teaching of Iamblichus, the sky gods also have such vehicles. The human soul chariot, made of ether, needs to be purified so that the soul can return to its home.

Later, the Neo-Platonists Syrianos and Proklos combined parts of these concepts by assigning two soul vehicles to each soul (or three, if the visible body is also considered to be a soul vehicle). In Proklos (5th century) the Neoplatonic doctrine of the vehicles of the soul appears in its most differentiated form. According to his view, the higher chariot of the soul created by the demiurge is immaterial, imperishable, like light or star and has grown together with the soul ( symphyés ), i.e. inextricably linked to it. The lower, pneumatic soul chariot ( pneumatikón óchēma ), on the other hand, consists of the four elements of physical matter and is transitory. It is generated when the soul descends through the celestial spheres and later dissolves again on its way back up. In contrast to the human souls, the divine souls only have the higher vehicle. Damascios , the last head of the Neoplatonic school in Athens, largely adheres to the teaching of Proclus, but assumes that the soul separates itself from the higher soul chariot when it enters the "supreme" world. In the 6th century, Damascios' pupil Simplikios returned to the older model with only one soul car. Another 6th-century Neo-Platonist, Olympiodorus , considers the chariot of the soul to be egg-shaped - an idea that recurs in modern theosophy.

The author of the Chaldean oracles also assumes a chariot of souls, which is formed when the soul descends from the heavenly region to earth, in that the soul clothes itself with material from the regions it traversed. If the soul wants to start the way back to its divine home, it must first “strengthen” the vehicle it needs. Purification rituals serve this purpose within the framework of theurgy .

In the hermetic is incorporeal cases the talk surrounding the soul and limit their ability to perceive, and the Pneuma as the vehicle of the soul. Since the ephemeral body could not withstand the immediate presence of the divine, immortal spirit, the spirit covers itself with the soul like a cloak, while the likewise divine soul uses the pneuma as a cover. In general, the metaphors of the “shell” or “garment” of the soul and of its “vehicle” are often used synonymously in ancient sources .

The peripatetic Alexander von Aphrodisias criticizes the idea of ​​the soul vehicle.

According to Clemens of Alexandria , the Gnostic Basilides and his followers assumed an organ responsible for the affects, which they referred to as “grown soul” or “attached pneuma”. In ancient Christianity, Hippolytus of Rome and Origen have similar views as in the Gnostic and Hermetic tradition. Origen uses the concept as an explanation for the apparitions of the dead. Augustine only accepts a chariot for angels and demons who use it when they appear to people.

middle Ages

The late antique authors Macrobius and Boethius , who were very popular in the Middle Ages , take up the idea of ​​the soul carriage or the shell or robe ( amictus ) of the soul and convey it to the Latin-speaking scholars of the Middle Ages. In the Byzantine Empire , Michael Psellos and Nikephoros Gregoras deal with the relevant Neoplatonic literature. Dante provides the souls of the deceased with a “creative power” ( virtù informativa ), which shines around them and creates a shadowy “new form”, a pseudo-body that expresses itself in the surrounding air and has sensory organs.

Early modern age

In the Renaissance , the humanist Marsilio Ficino took up the late antique concept of two chariots for the soul. With him, the higher, immortal soul-chariot ( vehiculum aethereum ) consisting of the substance of the stars connects the rational soul with its body. This chariot of the soul is the seat of the imagination ( phantasia ). It is round by nature, but takes on human form for the duration of earthly life. The higher soul chariot is inseparable from the soul and is permanently animated by it. In addition, the soul, while it is in the body, has a second, air-like soul car, the spiritus , which ensures the reception of the sensory impressions. The material body, composed of the four elements, is a third vehicle of the soul.

Paracelsus and Kabbalistic authors as well as Agrippa von Nettesheim , who speaks of an ethereal chariot, develop similar ideas . Paracelsus in particular became groundbreaking for the later reception of the concept. He takes over the ancient idea that is thought of as the soul enveloping pneuma the soul vehicle, and results for the term "sidereal body" ( Germanization of the Latin adjective Sidereus to sidus "star") one of which later the modern expression "astral body “Is derived. For Paracelsus, the sidereal body is the mediator between body and soul. He is the bearer of “natural wisdom”, but also of affects . God gave both to the stars; from the stars these gifts reached the human soul. Man owes his star body to intuition, dreams and visions.

The concept of the astral body is also taken up in Renaissance medicine. The doctor Jean François Fernel describes in his Physiologia (1542), a standard medical manual of his time, the Neoplatonic concept of a "star-like body" ( corpore ... astro simili ). He does not take it over in the literal sense, but develops his own concept, which is shaped by biological and medical issues. Among other things, he is concerned with the explanation of reproductive and growth processes for which he assumes influences from the world of stars.

In the 17th century, Ralph Cudworth , who belonged to the influential group of the Cambridge Platonists at the time , turned against the dualism of René Descartes , who believed nothing but the extended matter and the spiritual soul to exist. With reference to the ancient Neoplatonists, Cudworth takes the view that a mediating authority is necessary between these two areas; this task is fulfilled by the subtle chariot of the soul. Joseph Priestley had a similar idea in the 18th century .

Modern

In German idealism Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling again assumes a soul vehicle, a subtle etheric body that mediates between the physical body and the absolutely immaterial spirit. Even Goethe , Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Friedrich Groos are influenced by the idea of the soul vehicle. The idea of ​​an authority mediating between the spiritual world and physical nature can also be found in Immanuel Hermann Fichte . Schelling believes that the body shows a spiritual, immortal side that is hidden during life, its "spiritual shape", which is freed from gross matter in death and then continues as a "finer body". He ascribes such a spiritual aspect not only to man but to all of nature; so with him the ideal and the real interpenetrate one another.

The expression “astral body” was used as early as the first half of the 19th century, mostly with explicit reference to Paracelsus, for example by Joseph Ennemoser and Franz von Baader .

The so-called astral wandering is the theory that assumes a temporary separation of the astral body from the body in out-of-body experiences .

Theosophy and Anthroposophy

Representation of the astral body of a "savage" in the treatise Man Visible and Invisible (London 1902) by the theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater

The Theosophist Helena Blavatsky used in 1888 in her Secret Doctrine ( The Secret Doctrine ) the term "astral body." In connection with the theosophical terminology and Paracelsus, Rudolf Steiner also used this expression as early as 1904, when he was still a member of the Theosophical Society . Later he developed his doctrine of the astral body within the framework of the anthroposophy he founded.

Steiner called the astral body as instinct and desire body and sees him as one of four basic nature elements of man. The astral body is the real soul body of man, the substance from which the human soul is woven. He is supposed to be the carrier of consciousness, drives and sensations and egoism. While all living beings with material bodies, including plants, have an etheric body, only humans and animals have an astral body and thus an emotional life. In its capacity as a carrier of consciousness, the astral body is also referred to in anthroposophical literature as the “body of consciousness”, which projects the outside world like a mirror into the inner experience. The terms “ body ” and “ substance ” are not to be understood in the physical-material sense, but are meant as references to the independence of the human soul. As an independent entity, the astral body is only born with sexual maturity around the age of 14; until then it is embedded in a much wider astral sphere. Just as man lives in the physical environment through his physical body, so he lives in a spiritual environment through his soul body. However, modern man has no clear awareness of this, as he lacks the necessary psychological perception organs. However, these could be developed through appropriate soul exercises. In this way the human being becomes a conscious roommate of the soul world.

According to Steiner, the great macrocosmic laws are microcosmically reproduced in the astral body. This gives a connection to the star world, which justifies the name "astral body".

Hinduism

The idea of ​​a subtle, i.e. quasi-material, but invisible body as the bearer of individual identity beyond death already appears in the Rig Veda . There the term tanū is used for this . It often denotes the person (the self) and is also used like a reflexive pronoun . In addition, tanū also stands for the physical body of a person. In some parts of the Rig Veda a kind of subtle template for the visible body is evidently meant. In this meaning, the term tanū also denotes a subtle body that gives the deceased individual his specific shape in heaven. The deceased "unites" in the hereafter with his subtle body, which was created or at least strengthened by his sacrificial acts during his earthly existence. The term śarīra (body), on the other hand, always refers to the physical body in the Rigveda.

In the dualistic Sāṁkhya doctrine, the changeable individual soul that wanders through the cycle of rebirths ( saṁsāra ) is understood as an aspect of the material world ( prakṛti ). Opposite it is the eternal, likewise individual, but not involved in the cycle ( puru abera ). The soul subjected to the cycle is regarded as a subtle body. This constantly changing body is called sūkṣma śarīra ("subtle body") or liṅga śarīra ("characteristic body"), while the gross body is called sthūla śarīra .

The terminology in Vedanta and Yoga is somewhat different . There the eternal and unchangeable soul is not just a contemplative, uninvolved spectator, but is itself the focus of the respective individual cycle events. During her participation in the cycle she is surrounded by the gross body and several subtle bodies as envelopes. Such a shell is called a kośa . This concept - albeit without the term kośa - already appears in the Taittirīya Upaniṣad . There a five division is presented. In the later literature of the various schools of Vedanta, Yoga and Tantra , five envelopes are usually distinguished. The physical body forms the outermost shell, it is the "shell made of food" ( anna-maya kośa ). This is followed by three subtle envelopes that become finer from the outside inwards: on the very outside the “ envelope consisting of prana (breath of life, vital forces)” ( prāṇa-maya kośa ), then the “envelope of the world of mind” ( mano-maya kośa ), then the "shell of consciousness (or understanding)" ( vijñāna-maya kośa ). At the heart of it is the “shell of bliss” ( ānanda-maya kośa ).

A main function of the subtle shell area is to establish the continuity from one incarnation to the next, i.e. to carry dispositions, desires and inclinations and the consequences of actions ( karma ) from one life to the next and thus to keep the cycle going. The particular nature of the subtle bodies thus shapes the physical and psychological properties that are characteristic of the living being in the new incarnation.

The information about the subdivision and the functions of the envelopes vary. In late Vedanta texts, a "causal body" ( kāraṇa śarīra "causal body") is assumed to be identified with the "shell of bliss". It has a seed-like quality. The causal body is considered to be the seat of forces that are ascribed to ignorance and are the cause of rebirth. Thus, according to this Vedanta tradition, the causal body causes wandering in this world. Only when this is torn after the other coverings can the living being come to the knowledge of reality and leave the cycle of births and deaths.

There is agreement that the mental evaluation of the sensory perceptions as well as the volitional and thinking activity of a soul participating in the cycle take place on the subtle level in the envelopes. This includes the entire inner soul world of forms, experiences, ideas, ideas, thoughts and feelings. The responsible bodies within the subtle realm are named: intellect or the ability to differentiate and judge ( buddhi ), self- awareness ( ahaṁkāra ) and the transmitter of impressions and experiences ( manas ); different schools of philosophy use these terms with slightly different meanings.

Jainism

In Jainism also five bodies or sheaths are accepted. However, their names and functions are different from those in Hinduism. The name is not kośa , but śarīra . The outermost covering is the gross earthly body ( audārika śarīra ). This is followed by the four subtle bodies, first the “ metamorphosed body ” ( vaikriya śarīra ), which gods and demons as well as certain animals dispose of; People can get it through ascetic practices. The owner of such a body can change its size and shape according to his will. This is followed by the “transfer body” ( āhāraka śarīra ), which the ascetic created temporarily in order to temporarily leave the physical body in it. This is followed by the indestructible “fiery body” ( taijasa śarīra ), which consists of fire atoms, serves for digestion and supplies the three outer bodies with energy; Ascetics can also use it to burn objects. At its heart is kārmana śarīra , the “karma body” into which the karma substance is absorbed. Because of the constantly changing karma influences, this body is subject to strong and constant change.

The fineness of the bodies, but also their density (number of matter particles) increases from the outside inwards. Every being that is in the cycle of reincarnations has the two innermost of these bodies at any point in time, the fiery and the karma body. These two bodies have no sensations of pleasure or pain; they can go through anything without encountering resistance. The other subtle bodies are only available to certain ascetic individuals who acquire them.

literature

General

Antiquity

  • John F. Finamore: Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul . Scholars Press, Chico 1985, ISBN 0-89130-883-0
  • Jens Halfwassen: Comments on the origin of the doctrine of the chariot of the soul . In: Yearbook for Religious Studies and Theology of Religions , Volume 2, 1994, ISSN  0945-8891 , pp. 114–128

India

  • Noble Ross Reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology . Asian Humanities Press, Berkeley 1990, ISBN 0-89581-923-6
  • Benjamin Walker: Hindu World. An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism . Volume 1, London 1968, pp. 162-164 (article Body )

Remarks

  1. ↑ For the terminology of the ancient sources in the designation of the astral body see Eric Robertson Dodds (Ed.): Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A Revised Text , Oxford 1963, pp. 313-321. Although terms such as “astral body” or “star body” have only been attested to in modern times, the ancient soul vehicle or soul garment is also referred to as the astral body, since the modern concept is based on the ancient one.
  2. ↑ Eric Robertson Dodds (Ed.): Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A Revised Text , Oxford 1963, p. 313 note 4.
  3. ↑ Plato, Timaeus 41e1-2.
  4. ^ Robert Christian Kissling: The – ΠΝΕΥΜΑ of the Neo-Platonists and the De Insomniis of Synesius of Cyrene . In: American Journal of Philology 43, 1922, pp. 318-330, here: 318f.
  5. ↑ Plato, Phaedrus 246a-247c, 253c-254e.
  6. ↑ Plato, Phaidon 113d4-6.
  7. ↑ Plato, Nomoi 898e-899a.
  8. ↑ Aristotle, De generatione animalium 736b35–737a1.
  9. ↑ John F. Finamore: Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul , Chico 1985, p. 2; Robert Christian Kissling: The – ΠΝΕΥΜΑ of the Neo-Platonists and the De Insomniis of Synesius of Cyrene . In: American Journal of Philology 43, 1922, pp. 318-330, here: 319-322.
  10. ↑ On the views of the Middle Platonists and their contemporaries see John M. Dillon : Iamblichi Chalcidensis in Platonis dialogos commentariorum fragmenta , Leiden 1973, p. 371f .; Adriano Gioè (Ed.): Filosofi medioplatonici del II secolo dC Testimonianze e frammenti , Neapel 2002, p. 104 (on albinos) and 108 (on Attikos).
  11. ↑ Andrew Smith: Porphyry's Place in the Neoplatonic Tradition , Den Haag 1974, pp. 152-155; John F. Finamore: Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul , Chico 1985, pp. 2f.
  12. ↑ On the concept of Porphyry see Werner Deuse : Investigations on the Middle Platonic and Neo-Platonic Soul Teaching, Mainz and Wiesbaden 1983, pp. 218-230.
  13. ↑ John F. Finamore: Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul , Chico 1985, pp. 11-27, 168.
  14. ↑ On the model of Proclus see Jan Opsomer: What are irrational souls? In: Matthias Perkams and Rosa Maria Piccione (eds.): Proklos. Method, Seelenlehre , Metaphysik , Leiden 2006, pp. 147–152; Jens Halfwassen: Soul Car . In: Historical Dictionary of Philosophy , Volume 9, Basel 1995, Sp. 111–117, here: 113.
  15. ^ Ilsetraut Hadot: The problem of neoplatonisme alexandrin. Hiéroclès et Simplicius , Paris 1978, p. 183.
  16. ^ Henry J. Blumenthal : Soul vehicles in Simplicius . In: Henry J. Blumenthal: Soul and Intellect. Studies in Plotinus and Later Neoplatonism , Aldershot 1993, Essay XVII (pp. 173–188), here: 174–176.
  17. ↑ Olympiodoros: In Alcibiadem priorem 16, ed. Leendert Gerrit Westerink , Olympiodorus: Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato , Amsterdam 1956, p. 14; Eric Robertson Dodds (Ed.): Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A Revised Text , Oxford 1963, p. 321.
  18. ^ Hans Lewy : Chaldaean Oracles and Theurgy , 3rd edition, Paris 2011, pp. 178-184.
  19. ↑ Corpus Hermeticum 10, 13-18 and Stobaios Excerpt 24.10 and 24.16-18; see Carsten Colpe , Jens Holzhausen : Das Corpus Hermeticum Deutsch , Part 1, Stuttgart – Bad Cannstatt 1997, pp. 96–98.
  20. ↑ Alois Kehl: garment (of the soul) . In: Reallexikon für Antike und Christianentum Vol. 10, 1978, pp. 956–958.
  21. ↑ Eric Robertson Dodds (Ed.): Proclus: The Elements of Theology. A Revised Text , Oxford 1963, p. 317.
  22. ↑ Dante, Commedia , Purgatorio 25, 88-105.
  23. ^ Paul Oskar Kristeller : The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino , Frankfurt am Main 1972, pp. 354–357; Daniel P. Walker: Spiritual and Demonic Magic from Ficino to Campanella , London 1958, pp. 38-40.
  24. ↑ Cornelius Agrippa: De occulta philosophia libri tres 3,36, ed. Vitoria Perrone Compagni, Leiden 1992, p. 508, lines 14f .: aethereum corpusculum, animae vehiculum, coelo proportione correspondens .
  25. ↑ On the concept of the star body in Paracelsus see Walter Pagel : The medical world view of Paracelsus, its connections with Neo-Platonism and Gnosis , Wiesbaden 1962, pp. 54–59.
  26. ↑ See Daniel P. Walker: The Astral Body in Renaissance Medicine . In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21, 1958, pp. 119-133, here: 119-128.
  27. ↑ Immanuel Hermann Fichte: Anthropologie , Leipzig 1860, pp. 273-275.
  28. ↑ Joseph Ennemoser: Der Magnetismus , Leipzig 1819, p. 613 (representation of teachings of Paracelsus).
  29. ↑ For example Franz Baader: Lectures on speculative dogmatics , 4th issue, Münster 1836, pp. 31, 45; Franz Baader: Elementary terms over time as an introduction to the philosophy of society and history from 1831 , Würzburg 1851, p. 94.
  30. ↑ Helmer Ringgren: Anthroposophy . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 3, Berlin 1978, pp. 8-20, here: 12f.
  31. ↑ Rudolf Steiner: Theosophie , 32nd edition, Dornach 2005, p. 51 (first published in Berlin 1904).
  32. ↑ On the anthroposophical doctrine of the astral body, see Rudolf Steiner: The threshold of the spiritual world , Dornach 1972, pp. 39–41; Rudolf Steiner: Die Theosophie des Rosenkreuzer , Dornach 1962, pp. 26–38; Rudolf Steiner: Becoming human, world soul and world spirit. Second part: Man as a spiritual being in a historical career , Dornach 1967, pp. 117-133; Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophy as Cosmosophy. Second part: The design of man as a result of cosmic effects , Dornach 1972, pp. 176–192; Rudolf Steiner: On the life of man and the earth. About the essence of Christianity , Dornach 1961, pp. 87f., 95–98; Rudolf Steiner: Human Development and Knowledge of Christ , Dornach 1967, p. 200f.
  33. ↑ On the term see Rudolf Steiner: The threshold of the spiritual world , Dornach 1972, p. 39f.
  34. ↑ Noble Ross reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology , Berkeley 1990, pp 63-69.
  35. ↑ Noble Ross reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology , Berkeley 1990, p 42f.
  36. ↑ Noble Ross reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology , Berkeley 1990, p 69f.
  37. ↑ Noble Ross reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology , Berkeley 1990, p 280; Peter M. Scharf: Liṅgaśarīra . In: Denise Cush et al. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Hinduism , London 2008, p. 463.
  38. ^ English translation of relevant passages in Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition , Delhi 2002, p. 177f .; Complete text: Max Müller (Ed.): The Upanishads , Part 2, Oxford 1900, pp. 43–69.
  39. ↑ Martin Ovens: Kosa . In: Denise Cush et al. a. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Hinduism , London 2008, p. 422; Heinrich Zimmer : Philosophy and Religion of India , Frankfurt 1973, p. 370f .; Stefano Piano: Religion and Culture of India , Vienna 2004, pp. 141f.
  40. ↑ Noble Ross reat: The Origins of Indian Psychology , Berkeley 1990, p 280th
  41. ↑ Stefano Piano: Religion and Culture of India , Vienna 2004, p. 142; Heinrich Zimmer: Philosophy and Religion of India , Frankfurt 1973, p. 371.
  42. ↑ Helmuth von Glasenapp : Der Jainismus , Hildesheim 1964, p. 168f .; Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga Tradition , Delhi 2002, pp. 194f.
  43. ↑ Helmuth von Glasenapp: Der Jainismus , Hildesheim 1964, p. 169.