Find a comfortable position lying down.
Shabbat shalom.
Allow your body to be completely supported by the earth beneath you.
You may place a blanket over yourself,
An eye mask over your eyes,
Or a bolster under your knees.
And let your arms rest slightly away from your body,
Palms facing upward.
And let your feet fall naturally apart.
This practice is called Yoga Nidra,
Translated as yogic sleep,
Sometimes known as awakened sleep.
In the practice,
The invitation is to let go to rest while staying completely awake and aware,
Remaining at the threshold between waking and sleeping.
Fully conscious yet completely at rest.
In this liminal space,
The walls of the ego thin and what lays beneath your true undivided awareness begins to reveal itself.
So close down your eyes.
And take a moment simply to notice where you are.
Here,
In this moment.
Not somewhere in your past.
Not planning for some future.
But here,
In this room,
In this body.
In this breath.
Remember that all of life,
Every experience of love,
Of joy,
Of peace.
.
.
Can only ever be known here.
Not in memory.
Not in anticipation,
Only now,
In this moment.
Let go of your day.
Let go of what came before this moment.
Let go of what might come after.
You are not your history.
You are not your plans.
You are this.
Before anything else,
We take three settling breaths together.
Inhale through your nose,
Slowly and fully.
And exhale through your mouth.
Releasing the day Inhale again.
And exhale releasing the body's holding.
One more inhale.
And exhale to arrive here.
Completely and fully.
Let your body settle into the floor.
Feel the weight of your body.
The Earth holding you.
Supporting you.
Allow yourself to surrender.
Before we go deeper,
We practice Pratyahara.
The word comes from the Sanskrit prati,
Meaning against.
Anahara,
Meaning what we take in.
To practice Pratyahara.
Is to gently withdraw the senses from the outer world and turn them like a tide reversing toward the vast world within.
Begin with sound.
Become aware of any sounds in the room.
Or beyond the room.
Notice them.
And now.
Rather than following them outward.
Simply let them arrive.
And dissolve.
A sound arises.
You notice.
You release.
You are not the sound,
You are the one who hears.
Now the skin.
Notice the sensation of air on your face,
The weight of clothing or blankets.
Any contact with the floor or ground.
Register it.
And let even these sensations settle.
Like dust after a storm.
Not fighting them.
Simply no longer feeding them with attention.
And now?
Gently.
The eyes.
Not clenching them shut.
But softening them completely.
Let the gaze fall inward.
As if the eyes which have spent all day reaching out toward the world.
Are finally.
Gratefully.
Coming home.
Invite all your senses now to turn inwards.
All your scattered energy.
Drawing back to the centre.
This moment right here.
Is Pratyahara.
From this place of gathered attention.
Everything else becomes possible.
We will now plant a Sancalpa.
A result.
In Yoga Nidra,
The Sankalpa is not a goal.
Not an achievement to make.
It is a remembering of what and who you already are.
Enlightenment is not something you earn.
It is something you uncover.
You are already whole.
You are already free.
The practice is simply to stop thinking otherwise.
Allow a statement to arise from the depths of your being.
Not from your thinking mind.
But from somewhere deeper.
Beneath thought.
Something true.
It might be I Am Awareness itself.
I am free.
Or I am already home.
Or let your own words come quietly to mind.
Whatever has arisen,
Feel it,
Don't just think it.
And repeat it silently three times,
Planting it like a seed in deep soil.
The seed is planted.
Now we let it rest in the dark.
Were seeds to their work.
Awareness now begins to move through the body.
As each part is named,
You might simply allow your attention to arrive there.
Not to relax it.
Not to control it.
Simply to witness it.
To bring gentle,
Open awareness.
Not the awareness that judges,
Analyzes or tries to improve.
But the awareness that simply watches,
Like the sky watching clouds.
Unmoon.
Present.
Open.
Bring your attention now to your right hand and to your right hand thumb.
First finger.
Second finger.
Third finger and little finger.
The palm of your right hand.
The back of your hand.
Your right wrist.
Lower arm.
Elbow.
Upper arm.
And shoulder.
Your right armpit.
The right side of your chest.
To your waist.
And your hip.
Your thigh.
Mecap.
Shin.
Ankle.
The sole of your right foot.
Top of the foot.
You're right,
Big Toe.
Second Hope.
THIRD TOE fourth,
Toe and little toe.
The whole of your right foot.
Now bring your attention to your left hand and to your left hand thumb.
First finger.
Second finger.
Third finger and little finger.
The palm of your left hand.
The back of your hand.
Your left wrist.
Lower arm.
Upper Arm.
And shoulder.
Your left armpit.
The left side of your chest.
Your Waste.
To your hip.
Bye kneecap.
Shin.
Ankle.
The sole of your left foot.
The top of your foot.
Your left big toe.
Second Tote Third time.
Fourth,
Toe and little toe.
The whole of your left foot.
Now we move your attention to the back body.
Right Heel.
And left heel.
Right car.
And left car.
The spaces.
Behind both knees.
Right glutes.
Left glute.
Lower back.
Middle back.
Upper back.
Your right shoulder blade and your left shoulder blade.
Your whole spine.
Your whole back.
Your neck to your head.
Your whole head.
To the crown of your head.
You're foreign.
Right eyebrow.
Left eyebrow.
And the space between your eyebrows.
Right Eye.
Left Eye.
Wright Temple.
Left Temple.
Your nose.
The bridge of your nose.
To the tip of your nose.
Your right ear.
Left ear.
Right cheek.
Left cheek.
Top lip.
Bottom lip.
Both your lips together.
Your teeth.
And your tongue.
Your whole mouth.
Your whole mouth.
Your chin.
And your jawline.
Your throat.
Right collarbone.
Left collarbone.
And the space between your collarbones.
The whole of your chest.
To your belly.
Your lower abdomen.
Your pelvis.
The whole of the right leg.
The whole of the left leg.
Both your legs together.
The whole of your right arm.
And the whole of your left arm.
Both your arms.
Together.
Your arms and your legs.
Your chest and your head.
The whole body.
The whole body.
The whole body.
Do you notice now that you are not the body?
Do you see how you are the one watching the body?
The observer.
The Witness.
Silent.
Effortless.
Present.
Awareness aware of itself.
You Rest your awareness on your breath.
Simply watch it the way you might watch a river from the bank.
Prana,
The life energy that moves through breath.
Is the same energy that moves through all of creation.
The breath that passes through you right now.
Has moved.
Through forests,
Through oceans,
Through countless other living beings.
It belongs to no one.
And yet for now.
It passes through you.
As if life itself.
Is breathing you.
Take a moment to be grateful for this feeling.
Grateful and fully present to the life within you.
This energy.
Like a flowing river.
Alive and vibrant.
Notice the natural rise of the belly on the inhale.
And its gentle fall on the exhale.
Feel the subtle pause at the top of the breath.
That still point.
Between in and out.
And the pause at the end of the exhale.
The moment of total emptiness.
Before life flows back in.
Imagine this gap.
This space between breaths.
As a doorway.
In it.
The mind goes quiet.
The ego has nothing to grip.
And in that spaciousness.
You might glimpse.
Something fast.
You don't have to chase it.
You don't have to name it.
Simply rest.
In the breath.
In The Gap.
In the now.
What would it feel like now to let awareness soften all the way back down into the physical body?
Into the simple fact of being held.
Notice the contact between your body and the floor beneath you.
Feel the back of the skull where it meets the earth.
The shoulder blades pressing gently down.
The upper arms.
The elbows,
The backs of the hands.
The curve of the lower back.
The sacrum,
The back of the pelvis,
The glutes,
The backs of the thighs,
The calves.
The heels,
Heavy and still.
Feel the whole map of contact between your body and the ground.
Every point of meeting.
Heavy.
Support it.
Hell.
The Earth asking nothing from you.
Simply here.
Beneath you.
Without condition.
Trust this.
Explore this.
For in this moment.
You can feel that trust,
Quite literally.
Existence is holding you.
It has been holding you.
All along.
Rest in this.
We move now into passive sensations.
As each arises,
Ask yourself what might it feel like to simply allow the body or mind to register it,
To feel it,
Briefly.
Lightly.
You are not creating these experiences.
You are remembering them.
Simply notice what echoes arise.
This practice dissolves the ego's habit of clinging to one pole and rejecting the other.
True freedom lies beyond duality.
Not inducing light over dark.
Or joy over sorrow.
But in the capacity to hold both.
Without being controlled.
Buy either.
Feel heaviness in the body.
Now feel lightness.
Feel warm.
And now coolness.
And feel a sense of expansion.
And then invites the sensation of contraction.
Recall pleasure.
Remember,
Paint.
Feel the sensation of being completely helped.
And then the sensation of being utterly,
Completely free.
Notice you were here for it all.
Pain came.
Was met and passed.
Pleasure came,
Was received.
And moved on.
You and me,
The rule by one.
Nor pulled from yourself by the other.
The Witness.
Remain.
Still.
Watching.
This is your true nature.
Now bring your awareness to the space directly behind your closed eyes.
Not to your eyelids,
But to the space within.
The open door.
Receptive field that lives just behind the gaze.
This is Chittor Cash.
The Sky of Consciousness.
This is not something you create.
It is simply what is.
Rest your attention gently here.
It may be dark.
It may shimmer.
There may be colours or movement.
Or simply stillness.
Whatever is here,
Observe it.
You are not the contents of this space.
You are the space itself.
Was.
Open.
Quiet.
Images may come now.
What if you simply allowed them to arise and dissolve?
Without grasping.
Without resistance.
Like clouds moving gently across the sky.
Of your awareness.
Imagine.
A flickering candle flame.
A red rose just opened.
A mountain peak blanketed in snow.
A laughing child,
Running barefoot.
A crescent moon on a dark blue sky.
A weathered wooden door opening slowly.
A Golden Sun.
Touching the horizon.
A single fish moving through still water.
An empty clay bowl.
Bare feet on cool,
Wet grass.
A bird lifting from a branch into open air.
A burning stick of incense,
Smoke rising in slow spirals.
A vast flat plain under a silver sky.
And now.
Let it all go.
Let the screen of the mind grow still.
All images dissolving.
Nothing left to see.
Nothing left to follow.
You Imagine now that you are standing at the edge of a vast,
Dark ocean at night.
The air is warm.
The water moves gently.
A full moon hangs low over the horizon.
And its light falls across the water.
In a river of silver.
You do not need to go anywhere.
You do not need to become anything.
You are simply here.
Standing at the edge.
Watching.
Slowly you become aware that there is no boundary between you and the ocean.
The light that falls on the water is the same light that lives inside you.
The same mystery that breathes through the waves,
Breathes through your lungs.
Feel the joy of this.
The deep.
Quiet joy of belonging.
All because existence itself.
Is a celebration.
And you.
Alive today.
A part of it.
Allow a sensation of love to rise in your chest.
Not love for a particular person.
Not love that needs to be returned.
Oh,
Um.
.
.
Simply.
The way the moon gives its light.
The way the sun gives its warmth.
Breath gives its life.
Without condition.
Without ownership.
Without fear.
Love as a state of being.
Feel that resonate now.
Love as your very nature.
Now.
Even the ocean begins to dissolve.
The silver light on the water.
Gently fading.
The moon.
The horizon.
The waves.
Releasing.
One by one.
Like thoughts at the edge of sleep.
And what remains.
Awareness.
Pure.
Open.
Boundless awareness.
Beyond the skin.
Beyond the breath.
Beyond thought.
Into the mystery.
Itself.
We return now to the Sankalpa,
The truth you planted at the beginning.
The soil has been prepared.
The layers of tension,
Identity and habit have been gently loosened by this practice.
The seed has been resting in the dark.
Allow your Sankalpa to return,
Inviting it gently back into awareness.
Not just as words,
But as a living truth felt in the body.
I am awareness itself.
I am free.
Or I am already home.
Or your own words.
Repeat it silently to yourself.
Three times from the deepest place within.
Bring your awareness back to your breath.
And back to your body lying here.
Notice how your body is feeling.
Heed the invitation to gently return.
There's no rush.
Begin to become aware of your physical body lying on the floor.
Feel the weight of your body,
Feel the ground beneath you and feel the temperature of the air on your skin.
Listen out for sounds around you.
Allow the breath to become fuller,
More deliberate.
Gently begin to move your fingers and toes,
Tiny movements like small waves returning to shore.
You might like to gently roll your head softly from side to side.
And when you feel ready,
Bring both knees into your chest and roll gently onto one side.
Whichever feels right for you today.
And rest here for a moment.
Very slowly with great care.
Use your hands to press yourself up to a comfortable seated position.
Sit quietly for a moment.
Allow the practice to settle.
There is nowhere to rush to.
And before you open your eyes,
Hear this.
You have just spent time in a state beyond the ego.
A state where the witness was fully alive.
Where you are the sky,
Not the clouds.
The ocean,
Not the wave.
Remember Rumi,
You are not a drop in the ocean.
You are the entire ocean.
In a drop.
Carry that knowing into the rest of your day,
Not as a thought,
But as a felt sense,
A quiet certainty.
You belong in life's mystery.
Simply by being here.
Aware.
Alive.
And free.
As our show tells us,
Rejoice.
The trees are rejoicing.
The birds are rejoicing.
The whole existence is rejoicing.
Why should you be left behind?
He also reminds us,
Be realistic,
Plan.
For a miracle.
So prepare to return to your own miracle of life.
Gently open your eyes.
Welcome back.
This practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
Thank you so much for taking your time to practice with me today.
I wish you a wonderful rest of your day or evening ahead.
Thank you.
