Now please prepare yourself for the practice of yoga nidra.
Lie down in shavasana with your body stretched out,
Your feet apart and the palms of the hands turned upwards with your eyes closed.
Make all the necessary adjustments so that you're comfortable as possible.
And then there must be no movement,
Neither conscious nor unconscious.
Remember that you're about to practice yoga nidra and psychic sleep and that you've only to maintain awareness of hearing and feeling.
The body sleeps but the mind remains awake.
And you must remain alert so that you do not fall asleep.
Just say to yourself mentally,
I will not fall asleep,
I will remain awake.
Now take a deep breath and as you breathe in feel coolness and calmness spreading through the body.
And as you breathe out feel your cares and worries flowing out of you and just melting away.
Now become aware of your body and relax yourself completely.
Make yourself physically calm and steady.
Feel that the legs are relaxed,
The trunk,
The head,
Arms and hands.
Develop the awareness of your physical body right from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
Relax your whole body mentally and relax yourself mentally and relax yourself mentally by breathing normally and becoming aware of the breath as it moves between the navel and the throat.
Awareness of your natural breath and no forcing,
The navel to throat breathing.
Please go on with this awareness and slowly feel yourself becoming more relaxed.
Now leave your breathing and become aware that you're going to practice yoga nidra.
Yoga nidra begins now.
Now is the time to make your resolve.
Be consistent and plant the resolve at one place and do not change it.
Certainly the resolve will come true if the soil is perfect.
Repeat your resolve with feeling and awareness three times.
And now we'll move to a rotation of consciousness,
Awareness of the parts of the body.
The consciousness should move around the body and keep on moving.
As it moves it changes into prana,
The vital energy in the form of a current energy.
Do not concentrate on any one part but let your mind jump freely from one part to the next.
And now we'll begin with the right side of the body.
Right hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth,
Palm,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Right thigh,
Kneecap,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole,
Top of the foot,
Right toes,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And now the left side,
Your left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Left thigh,
Kneecap,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left toes,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Now right side reverse,
Go to the right toes and start from the bottom,
Right big toe,
Left toe,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth,
Top of the foot,
Sole,
Heel,
Ankle,
Calf,
Kneecap,
Thigh,
Hip,
Waist,
Armpit,
Shoulder,
Upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower arm,
Wrist,
Back of the hand,
Palm of the hand,
Right thumb,
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth.
Now left side reverse,
Go to the left toes with the left big toe,
Second toe,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth,
Top of the foot,
Sole,
Heel,
Ankle,
Calf,
Kneecap,
Thigh,
Hip,
Waist,
Armpit,
Shoulder,
Upper arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Lower arm,
Wrist,
Back of the hand,
Palm of the hand,
Left thumb,
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth.
Now the whole back down,
Go to the back of the body,
Go to the back of the head where it meets the floor,
Back of the head,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
The whole spine,
Right hip,
Left hip,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
Back of the right thigh,
Back of the left thigh,
Back of the right knee,
Back of the left knee,
Right calf,
Your left calf,
Right ankle,
Left ankle,
Right heel,
Left heel.
Now the whole back up,
Right ankle,
Left ankle,
Right calf,
Left calf,
Back of the right knee,
And back of the left knee,
Back of the right thigh,
Back of the left thigh,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
Right hip,
Left hip,
Your whole spine,
Your right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
The back of the head.
Now whole front down,
Go to the front of the body and go to the top of the head,
The top of the head,
The forehead,
The right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
The space between the eyebrows,
Right eyelid,
Left eyelid,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Your chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
The right chest,
Left chest,
Center of the chest,
Navel,
Your upper abdomen,
Lower abdomen,
Your right groin,
Left groin,
Your right thigh,
Left thigh,
Your right knee,
Left knee,
Your right toes,
Left toes,
Now the whole front up,
Your right toes,
Left toes,
Right knee,
Left knee,
Right thigh,
Left thigh,
Right groin,
Left groin,
Lower abdomen,
Upper abdomen,
Navel,
Right chest,
Left chest,
Center of the chest,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Pit of the throat,
Your jaw and chin,
Lower lip,
Upper lip,
Your right cheek and left cheek,
Your right nostril,
Your left nostril,
Your right ear,
Your left ear,
Your right eye,
Your left eye,
Right eyelid,
Left eyelid,
Your right eyebrow,
Your left eyebrow,
Your eyebrow center,
Your forehead,
The top of the head,
Now the major parts,
The major parts of the body with the whole right leg,
The whole of the left leg,
Both legs together,
Your whole of the right arm,
Whole of the left arm,
Both arms together,
The whole of the back,
The whole of the front,
The whole of the head,
And the whole body,
The whole body,
The whole body,
Visualize the whole body,
Intensify your awareness of the whole body,
The whole body,
The whole body.
Now become aware of the meeting points with your body on the floor,
Feel the meeting points between the body and the floor,
Sharp meeting points of your body and the floor,
Feel the floor holding you in its bosom like a baby in its arms,
Concentrate on your body as if you're seeing it from the outside,
Look on your body as an object,
See your head,
Your clothes,
And your whole body from top to toe,
Lying in dead man's pose on the floor,
See your body as an object,
A reflection in an imagery mirror,
You're looking at your own reflection in this mirror and you see yourself lying on the floor,
Your feet,
Your legs,
Your body,
Your hands,
Your arms,
Your breath,
Your nose,
Back,
You're neck,
Your closed eyes,
Your forehead,
Your hair,
Everything reflected in that mirror.
Awareness of your body as an object.
Your body can be sleeping but make sure your mind is awake.
Now bring your attention to the natural quiet breath.
Become aware of the breath through the nostrils.
The natural breath flows through both nostrils and meets at the top of the nose to form a triangle.
The spontaneous breath enters through the nostril openings and moves upwards and draws together to form this triangle with an apex in the eyebrow center.
Aware of the breath passing through both nostrils.
Become aware of both breaths separately and simultaneously.
Think of the breath as starting separately from a distance and drawing near,
Uniting in the eyebrow center.
Now concentrate on breath and try to determine its temperature.
Move back and forth and compare the temperatures.
In yoga we say the left nostril breath is Ida,
Moon,
And the right is Pingala,
Sun.
Ida,
The left breath,
Is cooler and Pingala,
The right breath,
Is warmer.
Continue your awareness of breathing but imagine that you're now breathing through alternative nostrils.
In through one nostril and out through the other.
Up and down and the sides of the triangle are back again.
Maintain your awareness and start counting the breath with each full attention to the inhalation and exhalation.
Inhaling evenly through both nostrils in total awareness.
Now move on to awareness of sensations.
Heaviness.
Awaken the experience of heaviness in the whole body.
Become aware of heaviness in each part of the body as it's named.
Your toes,
Your heels,
Ankles,
Calves,
Knees,
Thighs,
Buttocks,
Your back,
Your abdomen,
Your chest,
Your shoulders,
Arms,
Palms,
Your head,
Your eyelids,
And the whole body.
The whole body heavy sinking down deeper and deeper into stillness and silence.
Experience this feeling of heaviness in the whole body.
Now lightness.
Manifest this experience of lightness in the body.
Manifest the feeling of lightness from the top of the head.
The whole head.
Your shoulders,
Palms,
Back,
Chest and abdomen.
Your thighs,
Knees and calves.
Your heels,
Soles and toes.
Manifest the experience of lightness in the whole body from the top to toe.
The lightness of the body can be developed by feeling the meeting points between the body and the floor.
Point by point or as a whole.
A whole surface of body floor,
Meetings and engagement.
Concentrate on this area of meeting and gradually experience lightness.
Feel yourself floating up from the floor.
You're so light that you're floating from the ceiling up into the sky.
And drifting back and forth.
And continue this experience until lightness has manifested and just go on.
Now bring the sensation of pain.
Recollect the experience of pain and any kind of pain you've experienced in your life.
Head pain,
Stomach pain,
Any physical pain or mental pain.
Everyone's experienced pain at some time in his or her life.
Remember that pain and feel that pain.
Try to make the experience of pain as clear as possible.
Deepen your awareness and feel that pain intensely and acutely.
Continue to concentrate on the experience of pain.
Now bring awareness of sensation to pleasure.
Try to experience the feeling of pleasure.
Any pleasure.
Concentrate and remember the feelings of pleasure.
It may be according to your sense of touch,
Smell,
Taste,
Hearing or sight.
And any kind of mental pleasure.
Recall that pleasure and try to develop into an intense,
Ecstatic experience.
Now think of an ocean.
Think of a dark blue ocean and become aware of the waves.
That ocean lies within the inner space of your mind and the rolling waves represent sleep.
The manifesting unconscious state of your mind.
Become aware of sleep and try to visualize the state of unconsciousness within you.
Like waves on an ocean.
Above is a beautiful blue sky and below is the vast ocean with infinite waves.
The manifesting process of unconsciousness.
Now imagine a well.
Imagine a well and that you're looking into it.
The well is dark and deep.
A cylindrical tunnel into the depths of the earth.
There is a bucket on a chain and you lower it into the well.
It moves into abysmal darkness.
You can feel it on the chain.
It's in the depths but you can't see it.
Now pull the bucket up,
Up and out of the darkness into the light.
Let's lower the bucket again but this time if you wish you can get into the bucket and I'll lower you down and pull you up again perfectly safely.
Now the bucket is winding down and you're descending slowly through light and moving into darkness.
Unknown and all-pervading darkness.
Complete darkness and emptiness of all around.
So dark you can't see yourself but you know and feel that you are.
You descend a little further with a complete awareness that you are.
And now I'm winding you up through the darkness and into the dim light.
From the dim light into daylight and out of the well.
Now ask yourself what am I thinking?
Do not think but become aware of the spontaneous thought process.
Become a witness and do not suppress any thoughts.
Try and witness your thoughts and ask yourself again and again what am I thinking?
At the same time maintain total awareness of any thoughts that's passing through the visible frame of your consciousness.
Now move to movements in time.
You're going to travel into your past in the same way that you've traveled from your past to the present.
Retracing the steps of your memory and consciousness backwards from this time.
The past is part of time and time is part of your mind.
Normally you walk forward in time.
This time try and walk backwards.
By remembering your past you're going to the deeper recesses of your consciousness.
Try to remember what happened from the present time to the time that you got up this morning.
You have to go back in time as if you were watching a film running in reverse.
Or a film or a series of slides.
Remember back to the start of the yoga nidra and then recall what you're doing in the first half an hour before that.
Remember important objects and feelings in that time.
Then keep on proceeding in half an hour or an hour stages to when you woke up.
Stage by stage with full awareness and visualize and recall what you're doing,
Thinking and feeling.
And when you've finished bring your mind directly back to the present.
Bring your awareness to the present to make sure that you're not sleeping.
I'm going to name a few objects and you should try to visualize them on the levels of feeling,
Awareness,
Emotion and imagination as best you can.
You should move as fast as I go jumping your mind from image to image.
Do not waste time concentrating on any one image but keep moving.
A flickering candle.
A weeping willow tree.
A tall palm tree.
A car moving on a road.
A dead body burning over a fire.
Colored clouds gathering.
Yellow clouds.
Blue clouds.
A starlit night.
A full moon.
A dog standing and a cat sleeping.
An elephant moving.
A horse racing.
A rising sun and a setting sun.
Ocean with waves.
A big pond with clear water.
A blue lotus.
White lotus.
Pink lotus.
And now a golden spiderweb.
A sandy bank on a wide river.
A boat sailing on the water.
Sea that ripples.
Yourself lying down with our clothes.
A cross.
A chimney smoke.
A cold winter.
A fire burning in a house.
A dawning of the day.
And a bell ringing.
A yogi sitting in deep meditation.
And compassion.
Now intensify your awareness.
Intensify your awareness and go to the infinite ocean.
Calm and quiet.
Try to discover a sound there.
There is a sound of the infinite ocean.
Dark green jungles on the shore.
Snakes.
Lions.
And goats living in friendliness.
From the shore a path leads to a lonely cottage in the jungle.
A yogi sitting outside in lotus pose.
There is a fire and a smell of incense.
The fragrance of flowers.
And an atmosphere of tranquility.
All around can be heard the sound of Aum.
The chanting of Aum over the infinite ocean.
Now become a witness of your awareness.
Not the body.
Not the senses.
Not the mind.
Nothing but the different awareness.
Be aware that you are observing yourself.
Look within and try to be aware of the one who is looking in.
The one who is aware of what you have been doing so far.
Now go into a cave.
Within that cave there is a flaming light.
Find that light.
Find that light and find a small golden egg in the center of the light.
A small golden egg.
Very bright with light all around.
Resolve.
Resolve.
Resolve.
Now you should remember your resolve and repeat it three times.
With maximum feeling and awareness please repeat your resolve three times.
Now relax all efforts and bring your attention to the natural breath.
The natural breath flowing in and out of the nostrils.
Maintain your awareness of the breath and at the same time develop your awareness of physical relaxation.
Awareness of relaxation.
Awareness of your physical existence.
Become aware of your physical existence of your body.
Develop awareness of your body and visualize your body lying on the floor.
Take your mind down and visualize the surrounding room.
Let your mind become completely external but do not open your eyes.
You are practicing Yoganidra.
Become aware of this.
Lay quietly until your attention is completely externalized.
Now moving.
Moving your body and stretching yourself slowly with small movement.
Please take your time and there is no hurry.
When you are sure that you are wide awake sit up slowly and open your eyes.
The practice of Yoganidra is now complete.
