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    Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing
    Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing
    Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing

    By Richard Miller

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    About this ebook

    One of the most enjoyable parts of a yoga class comes when we rest in savasana—the "corpse" pose—and realize deep serenity, a sense of effortless joy, and a glimpse into our true nature as unqualified presence. How is this so? Master teacher Richard Miller explains that this experience is a manifestation of yoga nidra, the meditative state of mind-body union at the heart of all yoga practice.

    A powerful integration of learning, Yoga Nidra is an ancient tantric yoga path that leads to inner freedom. Through accessible language appropriate for any level of practice, Miller takes us step-by-step through the traditional techniques of relaxation and meditation to help us move toward the realization of "unqualified presence"—the ultimate aim of yoga—a goal unreachable through posture practice alone. Through his expert guidance, students will experience:

    • Deep relaxation for relief from day-to-day stress
    • The development of "one-pointedness"—a key to spiritual awakening
    • Healing from painful emotions, such as fear, grief, and anger
    • More effective and energizing sleep, and much more

    Suitable for both beginners and advanced practitioners—but new to most Westerners—Yoga Nidra provides an unmatched way to experience the culmination of the art of yoga, and the deeper physical, emotional, and spiritual rewards that are its promise.

    Includes digital access to audio tracks.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSounds True
    Release dateApr 1, 2010
    ISBN9781591798446
    Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing

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      Yoga Nidra - Richard Miller

      device.

      PRAISE FOR

      YOGA NIDRA

      A MEDITATIVE PRACTICE FOR DEEP RELAXATION AND HEALING

      "Thanks to work like Dr. Miller’s, Yoga Nidra will one day be recognized for the treasure that it truly is. His book/CD beautifully and thoughtfully guides us into this ancient meditative practice from the Yoga tradition—an invaluable treasure for our modern day. In Yoga Nidra we find it all: the what, the why, the how-to, and the helpful insights of people who have experienced the exquisite benefits of practicing Yoga Nidra—a timeless gift from the sages to enlighten humanity."

      —ROD STRYKER, FOUNDER OF PARAYOGA,

      AUTHOR OF RELAX INTO GREATNESS

      "In Yoga Nidra, Richard Miller lucidly, insightfully, and expertly presents the profound Tantric meditation practice of Yoga Nidra, which ‘reorganizes’ and ‘reeducates’ your mind-body so that it is in attunement with the highest state of your True Nature. This is a guide book that I will be recommending for years to come to help meditation and yoga practitioners shift their lives into a greater state of wisdom, peace, and heart-centeredness."

      —JOHN FRIEND, FOUNDER OF ANUSARA YOGA

      "Whether you’re looking for deep relaxation, stress reduction, or spiritual transformation, you’re in good hands with yoga master and nondual psychotherapist Richard Miller, whose wise, warmhearted, accessible instruction in the time-honored practice of Yoga Nidra has the power to guide you all the way home!"

      —STEPHAN BODIAN, AUTHOR OF MEDITATION FOR

      DUMMIES AND BUDDHISM FOR DUMMIES, FORMER

      EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF YOGA JOURNAL

      "In this collection, Richard brings us the practice of Yoga Nidra with a sophistication and power that it has not previously known in the West. Yoga Nidra is in so many ways the perfect tool for his nondual teachings, and his practices are absolutely delicious—simple, deep, and transformative. Like all authentic spiritual work, these practices produce fruit from the very beginning. They require only presence, and as such represent both the path and the goal of nondual practice."

      —STEPHEN COPE, AUTHOR OF YOGA AND THE

      QUEST FOR THE TRUE SELF AND

      THE WISDOM OF YOGA

      "Dr. Richard Miller is the ultimate teacher of teachers. In Yoga Nidra he shares from his personal experience the clear, concise path to our true nature. Highly recommended for teachers and students on the spiritual path."

      —LARRY PAYNE, PHD, FOUNDER OF YOGA THERAPY RX

      AND COAUTHOR OF YOGA FOR DUMMIES AND YOGA RX

      "Richard Miller’s book on Yoga Nidra makes an enormous contribution to our understanding of this most ancient practice. In a sea of new and often empty publications, this book deserves a place on the bookshelf of every yoga practitioner, be they beginner or teacher. Richard’s warmth and radiant presence, so familiar to his students and colleagues, rings through on every page."

      —DONNA FARHI, AUTHOR OF YOGA MIND, BODY & SPIRIT

      AND BRINGING YOGA TO LIFE

      "Richard Miller eloquently invites everyone, from all pathways and spiritual traditions, to join him in this most powerful practice of Yoga Nidra. His wise guidance is clear and inspiring. This book is a must for everyone who hears the call and feels the inner longing for enlightenment."

      —LILIAS FOLAN, AUTHOR OF LILIAS! YOGA GETS

      BETTER WITH AGE

      Gratitude filled my heart as I turned each page of this book. It was the gratitude, of course, fora the deep teaching it offers. But gratitude also for the clear and gentle way Richard guides us on a most personal journey—the journey home to ourselves. This is a book to read slowly and ingest on the deepest levels.

      —JUDITH HANSON LASATER, PHD, AUTHOR OF

      YOGABODY: ANATOMY, KINESIOLOGY, AND ASANA

      Whether your goal is peace of mind or the secret of enlightenment, your journey begins here. Richard Miller leads you on a journey (which you can repeat every day for the rest of your life) to discover, beneath your current mood, beneath your body’s aches and pains, and beneath your mind’s self-limiting beliefs, the ‘vastness’ of who you really are.

      —AMY WEINTRAUB, AUTHOR OF YOGA FOR DEPRESSION

      A single word is sufficient to reveal the truth.

      — SHEN HUI

      Gratitude to Laura Cummings and Jean Klein for keeping the word alive...

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Gratitude to Anne, Jennie, and Sean for living with me in the word; to Nancy Rogers and Tami, Alice, Chad, Nancy, Joe, and everyone else at Sounds True for their help in bringing this book into your life; and to the students, clients, and teachers I’ve worked and studied with over the decades who have helped me realize the truth of this precious teaching.

      INTRODUCTION

      THE OPEN SECRET

      When we dwell in the pleasures of our senses, attractions to further pleasures arise. From attraction comes attachment, the desire for possession that leads to passion and burns into anger. Passion and anger cloud judgment and lead to confusion, the inability to learn from past mistakes and the failure to choose between what is wise and what is unwise. This is the path of separation. But when we move in the world of the senses, yet keep our senses in harmony, free from attachment to attraction or aversion, we rest in the wisdom heart of our True Nature, the true equanimity of Being, in which all sorrow and suffering cease.[1]

      I was first introduced to the rudiments of Yoga Nidra in 1970, during my first-ever Yoga course. At the end of my first lesson, after slowly performing an exquisite sequence of asanas that heightened sensitivity to every part of my body, our instructor led us through Shavasana, the traditional yogic pose for inducing deep relaxation while lying completely still on the floor. The instructor expertly guided us into being conscious of sensations throughout our body, as well as to opposing experiences such as warmth-coolness, agitation-calmness, fear-equanimity, sorrow-joy, and separation-oneness. I was invited to rotate my attention through the sensations elicited by pairs of opposites until I was able to embody these opposing experiences with neither attachment nor aversion to what I was experiencing.

      I drove home that evening feeling totally relaxed and expansively present. For the first time in years, I felt free of all conflict, radiantly joyful, and attuned with the entire universe. I experienced life as being perfect just as it was and felt my self to be a spacious, nonlocalized presence. Instead of my usual experience of being in the world, I was having a nonmental experience of the world being in me, similar to experiences I had known as a child.

      This experience continued to resonate and left a longing in me to consciously awaken into and fully abide as this sense of presence. It awoke in me the strong desire to deeply understand the art of Yoga and especially the process of Shavasana, which I would later learn as Yoga Nidra. My yearning would eventually lead me to study with some of the most renowned teachers in the world; I became a teacher of Yoga and an adept in the application of Yoga Nidra through years of practice and by guiding thousands of students in its process during innumerable group classes, individual sessions, workshops, and meditation retreats.

      During that first Yoga class, I recovered a secret that I now know is open to everyone who is interested in finding true peace of mind, equanimity that remains undisturbed, free of circumstance or

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