Description
Book SynopsisA practice to consciously explore wakefulness, dreaming, deep sleep, and the very structure of your emotional, mental, and energy bodies
• Details the simple postures of Yoga Nidra, breathing exercises and guided meditations, and tips for maintaining awareness in the liminal state that precedes sleep
• Includes four complete sessions as well as pointers for creating your own sessions
Known as the “yoga of conscious sleep,” Yoga Nidra is an ancient Indian practice that allows you to consciously explore the states of wakefulness, dream, and deep sleep as well as your own psyche by combining deep relaxation with attentive awareness. Through Yoga Nidra you can directly observe and understand specific physiological, emotional, and mental processes within yourself as well as experience moments of great inner tranquility, joy, and well-being.
Providing a step-by-step guide to Yoga Nidra, Pierre Bonnasse details the simple postures of Yoga Nidra and includes preparatory techniques that work with breath and guided meditations to help you become an attuned observer of your inner world. Offering tips for withdrawing the senses and maintaining awareness in the liminal state that precedes sleep, the author explores how all practices in this discipline begin with a phase of relaxation and observation of breathing, followed by immersion into a very subtle awareness of the physical, energy, and mental bodies. The higher states of more advanced sessions focus on the energy body and its components: the chakras, nadis, and pranavayu, the vital breath and autonomic functions of the body.
Including four complete sessions as well as pointers for creating your own, Bonnasse shows how Yoga Nidra offers stabilizing, and therapeutic effects for the body, emotions, and thoughts. Connecting Indian and Western philosophical ideas, the author shows how sleep can be an opportunity to practice a form of yoga that changes not only our nights but every minute of our days.
Trade Review“Pierre Bonnasse’s Yoga Nidra Meditation is no glib self-help book about using modern yoga nidra--the practice of visualizing images, having awareness of breath, and remaining immobile while in a lucid, sleep-like state--for getting rid of stress and anxiety. It is, instead, an in-depth, wise, and elegantly written presentation of the philosophy and practice of modern yoga nidra as nothing less than a means of attaining a ‘taste of Being’ of Brahman. In this, the book itself is a kind of meditation--the kind that one may read at bedtime in order to facilitate slipping into sleep.” * Elliott Goldberg, author of The Path of Modern Yoga *
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Yoga Nidra Meditation: The Sleep of the Sages is as much about waking up as it is about sleeping. Bonnasse shows us how to wake up from the sleepy dreams that dull our consciousness and keep our natural enlightened state concealed. He tells us that to go beyond the body into our awakened state, first we have to go into the body, awakening its sensations and breath. The awakened state of the body then becomes the river that takes us beyond our limited sense of self. This is an important message, beautifully expressed, and the author offers powerful, yet simple, instructions on entering the state of yoga nidra for ourselves.” * Will Johnson, author of Breathing through the Whole Body and Eyes Wide Open *
Table of ContentsPREFACE
Yoga Nidra: A Journey into the States of Matter, Consciousness, and the Joy of Being
INTRODUCTION Indian Philosophy and the Limbs and Paths of Yoga
PART I
The Philosophy of Yoga Nidra The Origins of Yoga Nidra
States of Consciousness
Who Am I?
The Sheaths of the Being
Awareness, Energy, Elements, and States of Matter
Qualities of Sleep
An Approach to Indian Psychology
The Manifestation of Phenomena
The Energy System in Yoga
The Phenomenal World and Constructions of the Mind
The Unconscious Mind
Fears, Desires, and Suffering
Sleep and Death
PART II
The Practice of Yoga Nidra Yoga Nidra as a Practice
The Limbs of Yoga According to the Nidra Tradition
Preparatory Exercises
Exercises for Falling Asleep
Exercises for the Night
Exercises for Waking Up
Yoga of Dreams--Svapna Yoga
Protocol for Yoga Nidra
The Art of Living in Total Awareness
Fields of Application for Yoga Nidra
The Ultimate Surrender
PART III Putting Yoga Nidra into Practice
Four Practice Sessions Micro-Practices
Session 1: Blue Star (Nilatara Yoga Nidra)
Session 2: Contemplation of the Elements (Mahabhuta Visarga Yoga Nidra)
Session 3: From the Sound AUM to Non-contact (Pranava Asparsha Yoga Nidra)
Session 4: The Art of Dying (Marana Yoga Nidra)
Practices to Inspire and Create Your Sessions
APPENDIX “The Taste of Yogic Sleep”: An Interview with Pierre Bonnasse
Notes
Suggested Readings
Index
