Cosmic Yoga Nidra: Dissolving Into The Big Bang

Preparing for yoga nidra.

Lying in the pose known as shavasana.

Adjusting your posture,

Your clothes and your coverings so that you can become completely comfortable.

Closing your eyes or if they're closed already,

You can imagine closing them again.

In a moment we'll take a deep breath and as you breathe in,

Feeling that cool and fresh air coming into your body.

As you breathe out,

Feeling like your cares and your worries are flowing out of you.

So let's take a nice deep breath.

Giving yourself time to become calm and steady.

Becoming aware of your sense of hearing.

Starting to listen for sounds in the far distance.

Listening for sounds in the near distance,

Outside this building.

Listening for sounds arising from inside this building.

Listening for sounds arising from inside this room.

Listening for sounds arising from your own body.

Becoming aware of the deep and subtle sound behind all other sounds at the centre of your being.

Now is the time to make your sankalpa,

Your resolve or intention.

Either using a previous sankalpa or coming up with a new one.

Something you want to make real in your life.

Remembering to phrase it in the form first person present tense.

And once you have that,

Mentally repeating it three times with feeling and awareness.

Knowing that in the fullness of time it will come true.

Remembering your purpose here.

Saying to yourself mentally,

I'm practising yoga nidra.

I will not sleep.

I will not sleep.

And now moving your attention around the body in this particular order.

Noticing just what you can feel at the different areas.

Starting with your right hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Third finger.

And the fourth finger.

The palm of your hand.

The back of your hand.

Your wrist.

Your lower arm.

Your elbow.

Your upper arm.

Your shoulder.

Your armpit.

The right side of your ribs.

Your right waist.

Your right hip.

Your right thigh.

Your knee.

Your lower leg.

Your ankle.

The heel of your right foot.

The sole of your foot.

The top of your foot.

Your right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

And the fifth toe.

Moving your attention across to your left hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Third finger.

And the fourth finger.

The palm of your left hand.

The back of your hand.

Your wrist.

Your lower arm.

Your elbow.

Your upper arm.

Your shoulder.

Your armpit.

The left side of your ribs.

Your left waist.

Your left hip.

Your left thigh.

Your knee.

Your lower leg.

Your ankle.

The heel of your left foot.

The sole of your foot.

Your left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

And the fifth toe.

Moving your attention to the back of your body.

The back of your head.

The back of your neck.

Your right shoulder blade.

Your left shoulder blade.

Your mid back.

Your lower back.

Your right buttock.

Your left buttock.

Moving your attention to the front of your body.

The top of your head.

Your forehead.

Your right eyebrow.

Your left eyebrow.

The space between your eyebrows.

Your right eyelid.

Your left eyelid.

Your right eyeball.

Your left eyeball.

Your right cheek.

Your left cheek.

Your right ear.

Your left ear.

Your nose.

The tip of your nose.

Your upper lip.

Your lower lip.

The right side of your jaw.

The left side of your jaw.

Your chin.

Your throat.

The right collar bone.

The left collar bone.

The right side of your chest.

The left side of your chest.

The centre of your chest.

Your upper belly.

The right side of your belly.

The left side of your belly.

Your lower belly.

Becoming aware of the whole of your right leg.

The whole of your left leg.

Both legs together.

The whole of your right arm.

The whole of your left arm.

Both arms together.

The whole of your back.

The whole of your front.

The whole of your head.

Becoming aware of the whole of your body together.

The whole of your body together.

Developing an awareness of the meeting points between your body and the floor.

Sensing these areas of meeting evenly.

Noticing the skin on your feet.

And on the soles of your feet.

From the heels to the tips of your toes.

Noticing the skin on your palms.

From the wrists to the tips of your fingers.

Also noticing the creases in your palms.

Noticing the skin on your face.

Forehead.

Cheeks.

Chin.

And now moving your awareness into the centre of your body.

Becoming aware of the energy centre in your belly.

Noticing your natural relaxed breathing.

As you breathe in,

Imagining your breath expanding from the centre point of your belly like a balloon.

Filling to the edges of your skin.

And as you breathe out,

The breath concentrates back into the centre.

The balloon deflating.

Breathing and counting your breaths.

From 54 down to 1.

Like this.

Breathing in,

Your breath expands.

Energy expands from the centre to the edge.

54.

Breathing out,

The breath concentrates back to the centre.

54.

Breathing in,

Breath expands.

53.

Breathing out,

Breath concentrates to the centre.

53.

Breathing at your own pace,

Counting from 54 down to 1.

And now letting go of your awareness of the breath.

And becoming aware of the space known as Chidaksha.

Your inner mind's eye.

Your imagination.

This dark,

Friendly space of infinite potential.

Where forms and shapes,

Colours and images can come and go.

Forming and dissolving.

We're going to go on a journey back through time.

Casting your mind back from the present moment.

Backwards.

Yesterday.

Last week.

Last month.

Last year.

Going backwards through your life.

When you were younger.

When you were a child.

And then back into your parents' lives.

Allowing your mind to move backwards in time.

Last century.

Back to the Middle Ages.

Roman and Greek times.

All the way back to humanity's first written records.

Thousands of years ago.

To the Stone Age and the development of farming,

Agriculture.

To the last Ice Age.

Woolly mammoths.

Back through the evolution of our human species.

And the evolution of mammals.

Stepping backwards in time.

To the age of the dinosaurs.

Millions of years ago.

Continuing your journey backwards.

Seeing now the evolution of life.

Running backwards like a film in reverse.

To the earliest inklings of life on this planet.

Four billion years ago.

And before that,

The formation of our planet itself.

The sun and all the planets in this vast whirlpool spinning around.

A molten conglomeration of dust,

Gas.

Swirling and crashing into each other.

And then before that,

Before our solar system came into creation.

It was a huge dispersed gas cloud in space.

Floating around in our Milky Way galaxy.

Continuing our journey backwards in time.

Generations of stars forming and dissolving.

Our Milky Way galaxy getting younger,

Younger.

The whole universe getting smaller.

Contracting as we go back in time.

Witnessing the very first stars coming into life.

And before that,

Before the first stars,

The universe was completely dark.

No light.

The universe getting smaller and smaller as we go back.

Now we're approaching the very beginning.

The universe now hot,

Dense.

So hot,

It's like being inside a star.

Except it's not the star,

It's the whole universe.

When it was very small,

Very hot.

There's light everywhere.

The light intensifying.

The energy intensifying as we get closer and closer to the moment of our universe's creation.

And we arrive at the Big Bang itself.

Dive in.

The very beginning.

This moment of infinite potential.

Moment of infinite creativity.

You're inside a boundless light.

Your whole being dissolving into this beautiful,

Boundless light.

This light is of the nature of love,

Of wholeness.

You feel boundless.

You feel whole,

Complete.

Boundless love.

You are now the whole universe.

Beginningless,

Endless.

The light of love and deep connection.

Letting this light wash away any difficult feelings,

Memories,

Any pain,

Any suffering on any level.

Letting this light wash it away.

Dissolving even further into this light.

In this infinite space and infinite time,

You can expand.

You can feel utterly free.

And now,

Allowing your being to come back through the eons of the universe.

The first stars,

Galaxies,

The creation of our solar system,

Our planet,

The beginnings of life and of your own life.

Allowing your whole being to reform.

Feeling renewed,

Restored.

Any negativity washed away so that you can feel healthy and positive.

Loving,

Strong,

Complete.

And into this space,

Bringing to mind your sankalpa.

The resolve we made at the beginning of our practice.

Mentally repeating it three times with feeling and awareness.

Becoming aware of the subtle sounds arising from your body.

And the sounds arising from the space around your body.

Becoming aware of sounds arising from a distance.

Noticing your physical body lying here on the floor.

Relaxed,

Quiet.

Noticing the level of light coming through your eyelids.

And awareness of the space around your body.

Sensing the feelings in your skin.

Your clothes,

Your coverings resting on you.

And we're going to introduce a little bit of movement back to the body very gradually.

Perhaps starting with deepening your breath.

A little bit wiggling into your fingers and toes.

Re-familiarising yourself with your physical body.

And as your breath deepens and the body begins to move,

If you feel like a stretch coming on,

Just allowing that.

Taking all the time you need.

Absolutely no rush.

Only when you feel completely ready,

Making your way up into sitting.

Your practice of Yoga Nidra completed.