Subtle body

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A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various esoteric, occult, and mystical teachings. The subtle body is important in the Taoism of China and Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, mainly in the branches that focus on tantra and yoga, where it is known as the Sūkṣma-śarīra (Sanskrit: सूक्ष्म शरीर). Subtle body concepts and practices can be identified as early as 2nd century BCE in Taoist texts found in the Mawangdui tombs. It was "evidently present" in Indian thought as early as the 4th to 1st century BCE when the Taittiriya Upanishad described the Panchakoshas, a series of five interpenetrating sheaths of the body. A fully formed subtle body theory did not develop in India until the tantric movement that affected all its religions in the Middle Ages. In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, the correlation of the subtle body to the physical body is viewed differently according to school, lineage...

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