Subtle is, ironically, a simple word that is dense with power. And it’s one that sits at the center of yogic study.
In yoga, we use the word subtle most often in reference to “the subtle body,” as in, the aspects of our being or body that are not strictly physical. This includes the energetic body, as well as the other koshas.
We often use subtle as a nod to the very refined aspects of experience that yoga points us toward. Or we’ll use “the subtle” like a place, the domain of perception that exists beyond the obvious.
But the point is, if you’re studying yoga, you end up needing a word like subtle. As yoga takes us to sort of ineffable places… the subtle becomes a word ripe with relevance.
Understanding the subtle
In order to understand the subtle, it’s helpful to examine the spectrum on which it sits.
On the one side, you have “subtle”: so delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe. On the other, you have “dense” or “gross”: very obvious and blatant.
We spend most of our lives hanging out on the dense side of the spectrum. We are most familiar with the physical; the material; whatever we can reach out and touch or hold. We are secondarily familiar with the mind, our thoughts and emotions. Until we start waking up—our body, our senses, and our thoughts run the show.
When we start any sort of spiritual practice—be it yoga or otherwise, we start dabbling in the subtle. The subtle is the space beyond the body and mind. It is everything that lies on the other side of the obvious.
Why does this even matter?
Understanding the subtle matters because it’s the inevitable direction of any spiritual practice, yoga included.
It matters because we live in a very physical, material world. But all spiritual traditions illuminate that the key to fulfillment isn’t found in density. It isn’t found in the expansive universe around us. It’s found within.
Surely you’ve heard all answers are within you. But when you close your eyes, do you see all the answers?
Maybe, but probably not. The answers are found within, but they’re in the subtle realm (because how fun would life be if all the answers were obvious?!).
So how do we access wisdom then? In order to go subtle, we have to refine our consciousness state. Put another way, we have to train ourselves to see the subtle. It takes time and practice.
Yoga and the subtle
Ultimately this is what the path of Yoga is all about: refining our consciousness state so that we can see beyond the obvious; so that we can tune into the subtle realm of existence.
Interestingly, yoga offers a lot of tools for this process. Many systems that you find in the yogic perspective are really like maps that take us from the dense to the subtle. For example:
- The Koshas. The koshas are our “layers,” and we have five of them. They start with the Annamaya Kosha, the physical body, and lead to the Ananadamaya Kosha, the bliss body (the most subtle).
- The Chakras. The chakra system begins at the root, the Earth element (density). As we travel up the spine, we end up at the crown, which is essentially pure light (subtlety).
- The Eight Limbs. The Eight Limbs begin with daily practices and rituals; ways of existing in the material world. They end with subtle instructions for meditation.
And so on and so forth. The point is that across the yogic perspective there are many frameworks that follow this pattern: dense to subtle.
The whole yogic perspective is a whisper to go beyond. To transcend. To close our eyes so that we can see.
How do we go subtle?
From the yogic perspective we all have access to the subtle plane of existence. Again, all we’re talking about here is that there’s more to life than the information communicated through our five senses.
Yoga is designed to refine our senses. To awaken deeper presence and awareness. Even in our asana classes, this is happening.
But yoga also offers many other integrated practices for increasing our capacity to experience the subtle realm. Meditation, breathwork, kriya—these are all practices that will refine our awareness.
Over time, as we stay consistent in our practices, we naturally start to tune into the subtle. We start feeling emotions with more nuance. Our perception becomes more exact. Our intuition sharpens. We can pick up on patterns of change.
It’s not necessarily that we are trying to be more subtle beings. Subtlety is a natural effect of spiritual practice and awareness of Self.
The bottom line
Yes, this is all very abstract and metaphysical. Hard to put your finger on. But it’s important to talk about because as mentioned, if you keep doing these practices, your capacity to “go subtle” will develop.
And we want it to.
Have you ever been to Meow Wolf? It’s a perfect example of what it’s like to go subtle. You’re wandering around, a little confused, a little interested. One day you open a refrigerator door, go down a slide and you’re in a whole expansive world. Vibrant and magical.
As the Upanishads say (a fundamental Vedic scripture): “The little space within my heart is as great as this vast universe. The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars…”
But we’ll never know unless we look.