What is Nidrâ Yoga?
The origins of Nidrâ Yoga are scientifically uncertain as the oral tradition preceded by several thousand millennia the written culture, the few rare texts referencing Nidrâ Yoga essentially coming from the Shivaite tradition of Cashmere, written around the 10th century. Since that time teachings have spread directly from instructors to students, helping Nidrâ Yoga to maintain itself in a living tradition.
The importance to clear the perception by the senses is enormous, as it conditions the whole process of all our relationships to everything and everyone.
Yoga Nidrâ is a traditional approach of knowledge based on deep relaxation and tension-free concentration.
Jagrat
Jagrat, is the waking state in which the subject looses the consciousness of its true nature by identifying to the body, to the shape and to the name.
Svapna
Svapna, is the dreaming state in which identification relies on impressions and mental images resulting of memories accumulated during the waking state. There again, the subject remains unaware of its true nature.
Sushupti
Sushupti, is the dreamless sleeping state in which the subject is not anymore aware of anything. It is a state of absence.
Turya
Turya, which follows the first three states can be discovered through Nidrâ Yoga. It is a state in which the true nature of the subject, its identity without objects, is perceived, generally in an lightning and unforseeable way.
It is also what Yoga tradition names Samadhi, or the natural state of universal consciousness.
Turyatita
Turyatita, which is the settling of the subject in this state of consciousness, is the result of repeated incursions in the state of Turya,totally autonomous and independent of any personal will.
The proposition of Nidrâ Yoga is to travel in total lucidity the path going from the forgetting towards the presence to self. It resides in an approach of progressive awareness of the ensemble of processes organising the sensation of being alive. In a very paradoxal way, this awareness can only be perceived in a deep state of « letting go ».
The practice of Nidrâ Yoga is constituted in a whole ensemble of very codified exercices allowing one to visit the various fonctions organising the human being.
It relies in particular on two fundamental approaches which are the very deep conscious relaxation and the penetrating concentration without tensions.
A great number of exercices are used, fostering and allowing:
- Deep relaxation of the anatomical, physiological, osseous and nervous bodies.
- Mental relaxation and recognition of the organisation schemes of thought.
- Awareness of the different types of dreams and energies from which they proceed.
- Relationship to archetypes and their influence on dreaming and waking state.
- Perception and development of the energetical body.
- Use of mental imaging to enlarge perception faculties .
- Developing of sensory faculties.
- Dosing of the will and mental silence.
- Relationship to death.
The place of postures
We could qualify Nidrâ yoga of a yoga without postures as precisely, there is no body work in the strict sense. It is exclusively about deepening the different levels of relaxation and degrees of concentration.
This being said, because we do have a physical body, we do need to place it in a position! Concretely, the deep relaxation part (sithilîkarana) takes place laying down on a thick mat whereas the penetrating part (Dhâranâ) is taking place sitting on a cushion. In its advanced phase, Nidrâ yoga takes place in either in a sitting posture or walking. Now for what concerns the self-study part (Svâdhyâya) that implies different types of dialogues (interior, at two, three of in group), it takes place sitting with precise instructions
It is a specific exercice where one learns alone or in group to search a way between expression and experience, between the clarity of the mind and the intense perception of the real.
A spiritual approach
What is claimed in Nidrâ yoga is extremely simple: there exist in any of us a state of joy and plenitude whose nature is beauty and love.
This reality is not a theoretical principle, nor a delusional thought, but a fact that belongs to everyone to experiment. It is clear that individually, but also collectively, this state is not of our daily routine. Individuals surfer for very various reasons and the collectivity, mankind as such, is too in a state of tremendous suffering caused by centuries of deviant social behaviors ; war being obviously the most absurd behavior found to inflict wounds that last for decades…
Nidrâ yoga is a tool that can help us to become aware of our conditioning, to free ourselves from it and stop the flow of suffering in which humanity is. Because the state of the world is a reflection of our inner world.
The benefits of Nidrâ yoga
In a first step, it answers to problems linked with excess of tensions responsible of insomnia, nervous disorders, of general tiredness, irritability, lack of focus…
In a second step, it allows an understanding of the mental schemes which condition our daily lives, in order to be less dependent on them.
In a third step, it is a very powerful mean to enter in relation with a state of peace and silence.
To move further in this state almost always implies to live inner experiences that are in reality purifications of mental congestions. It is important not to confuse those phenomenons with forms of mental instability. In such, the role of the teacher is decisive in order to allow the student to continue progressing through this mental clarity, without being slowed down par archaic fears resurfacing in the thoughts. This requires the teacher to have a sufficient formation in order to avoid any mistake.
Lastly, Nidrâ yoga favors a non-limited state of openness, accompanied by a feeling of deep joy. The spiritual dimension is then discovered in this approach.
The proposition of Nidrâ yoga is to travel in total lucidity the path going from the forgetting towards the presence to self. It resides in an approach of progressive awareness of the ensemble of processes organising the sensation of being alive. In a very paradoxal way, this awareness can only be perceived in a deep state of letting go.
The practice of Nidrâ yoga is constituted in a whole ensemble of very codified exercices allowing one to visit the various fonctions organising the human being.
It relies in particular on two fundamental approaches which are the very deep conscious relaxation and the penetrating concentration without tensions.