Two bodies or what do we really know?

Indian philosophy uses terms like bodies and layers to discuss different categories of concepts. Much like human biology uses "systems" - the nervous system, the skeletal system, the circulatory system, etc. In Vedantic philosophy, after many centuries of discussions, three bodies and five sheaths are defined.

Let us, though, try to start from basics or first principles.

I have a physical body as do all other human beings [1] - I can see, touch, taste, smell, and hear my own physical body, and interact physically with those of others.

Simple.

I also have "something" which is non-physical. Yet it can feel and act. Indirectly, it perceives, and responds, to certain sounds - words in a language, e.g. - and symbols - the English letters of this article on a screen, e.g. Its action is called 'thinking' [2] and it can also cause creation of sounds and symbols. My "something" is called my mind or my mental or subtle body. Even though it is not visible or physically palpable, my mind's activity is obvious. [3]

Thus, human beings have two bodies, one physical, and the other non-physical.

So what?

Well, that takes us to an interesting and ancient philosophical problem. How do I "know" or perceive anything? By physical interaction alone? Or by mental interaction alone? Or both? Is there any other way?

Since we have accepted two bodies, both physical and mental interactions are obviously ways in which we know something.

There is also another way which involves the sensation-percept-concept triad described earlier. My physical senses work with sensations. My mind works with percepts. But, my mind also works with concepts. If I take a set of sensations or percepts and create a conceptual framework based on them, my mind's activity is called "inferring" or "induction". If I then predict physical events outside me or percepts within me based on that framework, I 'deduce" them, or the activity is 'deduction'.

The three bodies and five layers or sheaths described in Vedanta [4] are either one or the other of the two bodies described above. Experiences beyond these two immediately palpable bodies are called 'mystical', 'transcendental', 'revelations', etc. Reports of such experiences form the bases for various religions and spiritual paths.

To answer the question in the Mind sandwich article, on the grosser side of the mind (or the liquid side of the ice block) is the physical body. On the other side is something very like the subtlest level of the mind. Yet, that something is always described as un-graspable by the mind.

Notes

[1] And as do all living things, in fact, in some form or the other.

[2] in general. Cogitating, cognising, analysing, comparing, etc. may all be included in thinking.

[3] The Cārvāka philosophers denied the mind, or mental activity, using, ironically, logical and not physical arguments!

[4] Three bodies (gross, subtle, causal) further sub-divided or categorised into five sheaths (physical, energetic, mental, intellectual, and bliss) are used to discuss philosophical and/or psychological problems and theories.