In that timeless instant, all sense of separation fell away. I recognized the truth that the ego-I is simply a thought and that everything is myself. And with that, all sense of aloneness, emptiness, and searching vanished, replaced with the irreconcilable feeling of equanimity that remains undisturbed no matter what crisis or joy is unfolding in my life. Does irritation still arise? Surely. Do fatigue and conflict still arise? Surely. But everything arises in the equanimity of Being. Of this I am convinced, as equanimity has been steadfast since that morning of awakening.
The equanimity of Being discloses an unshakable ground of stability that weathers all storms and reveals living truth and right action moment to moment. And if this realization can occur “here,” I know it can occur “there” because I know it is your True Nature, too.
Your Heartfelt Prayer
As you abide in Being in this seventh stage of Yoga Nidra, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, the prayer that you began with at the beginning of your journey may reemerge into awareness. In this moment, observe how your heartfelt prayer has changed as a result of your practice. Embody it as a heartfelt reality, how it now spontaneously arises as a resonance of truth about yourself or another. Then let it dissolve back into its home ground, Being. Affirmations come directly from True Nature and, in the end, resolve back into True Nature, and the need for them ultimately dissolves when we live the Truth of who we are.
BACK IN THE MARKETPLACE: LIVING TRUE NATURE IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Whatever the means, you must at last return to the Self. Why not abide as the Self right now?
—RAMANA MAHARSHI
Now that we have glimpsed this wondrous view from the mountaintop of Yoga Nidra, your practice continues as you learn to transpose your understanding into every moment and every relationship of your everyday life. Yoga Nidra takes you to the summit and then guides you down the mountain and back into life. Now it is time to put back on the sheaths you left behind on your way up the mountain.
The seven stages of Yoga Nidra help us take off and step away from each sheath or body of identification, the outerwear of body, mind, and senses that we had misperceived as True Nature. Yoga Nidra introduces us to the recognition of infinite spacious Being that all along is our True Nature. Now we return from where we began with the profound understanding of who we really are. As we walk back through the sheaths, putting each sheath of identification back on, we no longer need to confuse who we are with these clothes that we are wearing made of body, mind, and senses.
Facets of Unity
We now understand True Nature. That “I am pure Awareness. I have a mind, but ‘I’ am not just my thoughts. I have emotions, but ‘I’ am not just these emotions. I have a body, but ‘I’ am not just this body.” What remains after disidentifying from body, mind, and senses is our essence of Being that is unborn and always present.
Yoga Nidra reveals your true Essence of Being that underlies the ever-varying flow of your “personal” life, which is now realized, paradoxically, to not be “personal.” Life is ultimately a paradox wherein we discover that we are nonpersonal Presence that gives rise to a personal self of body, mind, and senses. We are Facets of Unity. Ramana Maharshi likened the personal self as “a sliver of new moon in the noonday sky on a cloudless summer’s day.” While the body exists, it appears separate, yet our embodied realization is that we are nonseparate Being.
Enlightened Living
Yoga Nidra reveals who we really are, initially through small glimpses. Glimpses lead to seeing through and awakening from the dream of “me.” And awakening leads to enlightenment, wherein what was background, Being, moves fully foreground. As Being breaks through into the foreground, enlightenment becomes established throughout every facet of our life. With establishment, the practice of Yoga Nidra gives way to enlightened living. Here, Presence is, with no need for practice or remembering. Searching ceases, yet life continues with all of its joys and difficulties, and the equanimity of Being radiantly present as the background of each moment.
At the end of Yoga Nidra, we open our eyes and step back into the world with the understanding that separation is only a product of the thinking mind. There is neither “I” nor “other” that is separate from Being. Everything is made of the same substance, the so-called external objects of the world as well as the subtle inner objects of sensation, emotion, and thought. From this perspective, there is no need to repress or refuse anything. We understand that our body and our thoughts—everything—is made of nonconceptual Being. The split-mind that divides the world into two is healed through the radical insight that Yoga Nidra reveals. Here everything is understood to be undivided Oneness. Now everything lives in Welcoming. This is the culmination of Yoga Nidra.
CHAPTER THREE
FINAL REFLECTIONS
There are infinite forms to the practice of Yoga Nidra. As you become an accomplished practitioner, Yoga Nidra may be practiced in a matter of a few moments, or you may proceed slowly and diligently, spending an hour or more exploring and deconstructing each sheath of identification. I recommend stabilizing in one practice for a period of time.
Develop your understanding of the different stages of Yoga Nidra using the guided practices on the accompanying audio. Then experiment with your own practice. Choose one approach to body sensing and one breathing exercise. Pick one or two pairs of opposites of feeling, emotion, belief, and image. Pick one or two memories that evoke joy and peace, one approach to exploring ego-I identity, and one or two qualities of True Nature to embody. Proceed slowly and dig your well deeply. The practice of Yoga Nidra takes you beyond the practice of Yoga Nidra so that in every moment you knowingly live your True Nature as Unqualified Presence of nondual Being.
Each of us is on a unique journey. While the goal is the same, our paths differ according to our stage of development. For this reason, it is important to remain mindful and attentive, adapting your practice accordingly lest it become mechanical and dull. It is important neither to impose nor deny anything. Yoga Nidra is a highly individualized practice and invites you to discover what works best for your particular needs. In this regard, please take the advice that my spiritual mentor, Jean Klein, repeatedly gave me: “Make the practice your own.”
THE BODY-MIND LIVES IN BEING
Don’t keep Yoga Nidra just for daytime practice. Learn to practice as you fall asleep and when you awake in the middle of the night or in the morning. Waking, dreaming, and deep sleep are a continuum of consciousness. The mind only pretends they are dissimilar states. When we are awake, the mind assumes the waking state is real. When we dream, the mind assumes the dream state is real. Both waking and dreaming involve the presence of objects that are beheld in awareness. Our thinking mind is conditioned to divert attention into foreground movements and away from background awareness that is always awake as witnessing Being. Yoga Nidra invites you to be the Presence that you are during waking and sleeping without being seduced and distracted by the presence or absence of any object. True Nature needs no object to know itself. When the mind disidentifies from all movement, we stand at the threshold of True Nature, as radiant Being that transcends, yet exists in all movements.
Yoga Nidra invokes the Sleep of the Yogi wherein you are awake as unitive Being during the presence or absence of all states of consciousness. This realization is enlightenment and the culmination of Yoga Nidra where means, path, and practice merge. Here, you live free in all movements of daily life knowingly knowing yourself, all others, and every “thing” as the unitive Presence that everything is; that you are. Welcome home.
YOGA NIDRA WORKSHEET
To personalize your practice, make several copies of these pages. Keep them in a notebook and fill in a worksheet before beginning each session of Yoga Nidra.
1. SETTING YOUR AFFIRMATION
Write down a positive affirmation about yourself, another, or the world around you. Write it as a statement of fact. Rather than saying, “May I be healed” or “May I be enlightened,” affir
m, “I am whole, healed, and healthy in this and every moment” or “My True Nature is Presence, Being.”
2. THE SHEATH OF FEELING AND EMOTION (MANOMAYA KOSHA)
A. Feelings
Choose two feelings and their opposites, for example, light and heavy, warm and cool.
Feeling _____________
Opposite _____________
Feeling _____________
Opposite _____________
B. Emotions
Choose two emotions and their opposites, for example, sad and happy, angry and calm.
Emotion _____________
Opposite _____________
Emotion _____________
Opposite _____________
3. THE MENTAL SHEATH (VIJÑANAMAYA KOSHA)
A. Imagery
Choose two images that engender ease and relaxation. Then choose their opposites, for example, beautiful mountain and erupting volcano, hillside of flowers and battlefield.
Image/Theme _____________
Opposite _____________
Image/Theme _____________
Opposite _____________
B. Symbol
Choose two symbols that hold meaning for you. Then choose their opposites, for example, sun and moon, circle of trusted friends and enemies at the gate.
Symbol _____________
Opposite _____________
Symbol _____________
Opposite _____________
C. Essential Qualities
Choose two essential qualities of Being and their opposites, for example, truth and untruth, compassion and arrogance, love and hate.
Essential Quality _____________
Opposite _____________
Essential Quality _____________
Opposite _____________
4. THE SHEATH OF JOY (ANANDAMAYA KOSHA)
Choose a memory that brings an embodiment of great joy or equanimity.
5. SHEATH OF EGO-I (ASMITAMAYA KOSHA)
Choose one of these exercises that explore the realm of ego-I identity.
A. Coming Home to the Self
Explore the reality of the following statements:
“I have a body, but I am not just this body. My body manifests different sensations of health and sickness, restfulness and tiredness, calmness and agitation. But these states change. I am the unchanging awareness in which these changing sensations arise. I value my body, but I am not just this body.”
“I have emotions, but I am not just these emotions. My emotions manifest different conditions from love to anger, from calmness to agitation, from joy to sorrow. But these states change. I am the unchanging awareness in which these changing emotions arise. I value my emotions, but I am not just my emotions.”
“I have a mind, but I am not just my mind. My mind manifests different thoughts and images, which are constantly changing. I am the unchanging awareness in which these thoughts and images arise. I value my mind, but I am not just my mind.”
“I am aware of all the changing sensations, perceptions, emotions, thoughts, and objects, which compose my body, senses, mind, and the world. I am the unchanging awareness in which all these movements arise. I am pure unchanging Awareness.”
“I have a body, but I am not just my body. I have emotions, but I am not just my emotions. I have a mind, but I am not just my thoughts. What am I then? What remains after having disidentified from body, sensations, feelings, and thoughts? I am a center of pure Awareness.”
B. Who Is Aware?
Body
Take a few minutes to observe your body. What are the different sensations that are present? Scanning your body, inquire gently, “Who is aware?”
Emotions
Inquire as to your emotional state. What are you feeling? If it’s helpful, recall feelings from earlier events of the day or week. Then ask yourself gently, “Who is aware? Who is aware of these feelings?”
Thoughts
Notice what you’re thinking. Then inquire, “Who is aware? Who is aware of these thoughts and this thinking?”
Senses
Be aware of different smells, tastes, sounds, feelings, and images. Then gently inquire, “Who is aware? Who is aware of these perceptions? Who is aware?”
C. Self-Identification
Do not judge. View the following with the objective attitude of a scientific investigator taking an inventory.
• Become aware of body sensation. Neither change nor deny what you observe. Inquire and feel, “Who is aware of these sensations?”
• Be aware of your breathing. Inquire and feel, “Who is aware of this breathing?”
• Be aware of feelings, considering both positive and negative ones. Inquire and feel, “Who is aware of these feelings?”
• Be aware of desires, which motivate your life. Inquire and feel, “Who is aware of these desires?”
• Observe your thoughts. Witness a thought emerging. Watch it until another one takes its place, then another, and so on. If you think you are not having any thoughts, realize that this too is a thought. Inquire and feel, “Who is aware of these thoughts?”
• Observe the observer, the one who is watching sensations, feelings, desires, and thoughts. Inquire and feel, “Who is observing this observer?”
• Realize and feel the answer to every inquiry is, “I am.” Feel how “I” is not solid or even a thought. “I” is a pointer to the essence of Being, in which all these realms arise and pass away. And yet, Being remains distinct from all realms as spacious empty-full unqualified Presence. Inwardly, sense and feel the truth of this: “I am pure spacious Being, empty, yet full; Present, yet without location; everywhere, without center or periphery.”
D. I Am
• Sense an object in awareness (sensation, feeling, emotion, thought, or image).
• Be aware.
• Gently, and with feeling, inquire, “Who is aware of this object?”
• Sense the answer: “I am.”
• Feel where “I am” is located in the body.
• Trace the feeling from the brain, down into the heart.
• Feel the resonance of “I am” in the heart.
• Now relinquish “am.” Let it drop away.
• Feel only “I . . . I . . .” and where it arises in the body.
• Now drop this I-thought.
• Be one with Being, before the I-thought arises.
• Allow the observer to dissolve into Being observing.
• Allow the feeling of spacious awareness to expand simultaneously into all directions.
• Be, before the I-thought arises.
• Be, before the witness arises.
• Be, without center or periphery.
• Be, before, during, and after mind arises and makes a difference.
OPPOSITES OF FEELING, EMOTION, THOUGHT, IMAGE, AND ESSENCE
The following lists are meant as examples of opposites. Find your own or pick opposites from the category below for your personal practice of Yoga Nidra. During your practice, allow each opposite to be your embodied experience before going on to its opposite. Go back and forth several times between each pair of opposites before experiencing each pair simultaneously.
1. THE BODY OF FEELING AND EMOTION (MANOMAYA KOSHA)
A. Feelings
Awake / Sleepy
Calm / Anxious
Centered / Spacey
Comfortable / Uncomfortable
Deep / Superficial
Dry / Moist
Dull / Sharp
Spacious / Claustrophobic
Strong / Weak
Floating / Sinking
Hot / Cold
Light / Heavy
Pleasurable / Painful
Relaxed / Tense
Sensitive / Numb
Spacious / Constricted
Warm / Cool
B. Emotions
Aggressive / Passive
Approving / Disapproving
Assured / Perplexed
Boisterous / Mellow
Calm / Agitated
Composed / Worried
Confident / Insecure
Cooperative / Competitive
Delighted / Disgusted
Domineering / Meek
Empathic / Indifferent
Fearless / Frightened
Flexible / Obstinate
Generous / Resentful
Grateful / Ungrateful
Happy / Sad
Helpful / Uncooperative
Innocent / Guilty
Interested / Bored
Loving / Hateful
Peaceful / Enraged
Potent / Impotent
Powerful / Helpless
Proud / Ashamed
Responsive / Apathetic
Safe / Abandoned
Safe / Threatened
Satisfied / Frustrated
Secure / Apprehensive
Sensitive / Numb
Tender / Violent
Tolerant / Contemptuous
Trusting / Suspicious
Unafraid / Anxious
Unreserved / Shy
Yoga Nidra Page 7