Discovering the Power within with Yoga Nidra

One morning, I woke up at 3:30 am in the middle of a dream. As I drifted back to sleep, I realized I could manipulate both the environment and my behavior in the dream. This experience is akin to the practice of Yoga Nidra, where instead of influencing a dream world, one can explore the realities of the waking world in depth.

Swami Tadatmananda does an excellent job of describing the illusory nature of reality, and its close relation to the world of dreams:

Everything you see, hear, taste, smell and touch is conveyed to your brain by your nervous system. Then, your powerful brain produces a mental representation or model of the world. That mental representation of the world is what you directly perceive, not the world outside."

While practicing Yoga Nidra, the body is completely relaxed, allowing the practitioner to alter their internal state, similar to a lucid dream. This self-induced relaxation is profound enough to potentially influence external circumstances by adjusting the perception filter.

Similar to how practicing an instrument, training the body for a sport, or undergoing mindset modification work, engaging in regular meditation provides the busy mind with a technique to practice altering the contents of one's experienced reality. If reality is simply a collection of sensory perceptions arranged into a cohesive narrative, the possibilities of what can be accomplished rely on the nature and extent of sensory input.

To understand this better, consider the fact that each of your eyes sees a flat, two-dimensional image of whatever you're looking at, like two photographs taken by a camera. Your brain combines those flat images into a three-dimensional view, a view that has depth and distance. Look around you. The three-dimensional image of the room you're in is actually a mental representation of the room. You're only indirectly aware of the room because your experience is mediated by your brain and senses.

As we get older the brain can become lazier in the collection of data that we are familiar with. Like, how it's possible to drive home by a familiar route, without really noticing the trip. By broadening the amount of input the senses can accumulate, and making that data acquisition more enjoyable, it becomes more effortless to appreciate the routine familiarity of the day. When seemingly mundane reality acquires finer details, relationships become more rewarding, work becomes invigorating, and the world takes on an untarnished freshness. Yoga Nidra takes the practitioner deep into the body and expands the awareness of oneself in conjunction with the immediate environment.

While it may sound much easier, Yoga Nidra can be slightly more difficult to practice than asana mediation, at first. While not necessarily essential, Yoga Nidra is most easily practiced in a completely quiet place. While lying down in savasana, it is easy to become so relaxed that you fall asleep. Like falling out of tree pose again and again, falling asleep is all a part of the practice. The potential of falling asleep is why practicing with a guide, as opposed to a recording is so beneficial. If you fall asleep, the instructor can gently guide you back to conscious awareness.

By practicing Yoga Nidra with sufficient repetition, one can attain a state of deep meditative absorption anywhere and in any situation. This type of meditation is a potent method for enhancing self-awareness, consequently transforming one's life experience.

Swami Tadatmananda emphasizes avoiding seeking experiences in meditation. This article has outlined the potential consequences of pursuing Yoga Nidra. However, if practiced for enlightenment or special abilities, it may hinder the actual experience of these phenomena. While achieving total bliss is possible, the pursuit could also become a barrier to contentment. The essence of the practice lies in finding joy in the process itself and observing the outcomes without being attached to them.

Sources:

ArshaBodha, Swami Tadatmananda. April 5, 2022. If the World is an Illusion, why does it SEEM so Real? Insights of Science and Advaita Vedanta.[Video] YouTube. https://youtu.be/1Y5ZYwLlFnA?si=c_oxB9kkZprw9G63