Finding Nothing

Yoga nidra can be translated as yoga sleep. When in this state, the brain waves of deep sleep are replicated even though you are still conscious. In ISHTA yoga it is usually practiced lying on the mat as for savasana or corpse pose. Once in yoga nidra the body is totally relaxed and the mind becomes increasingly more aware of the inner Self through following the voice of the teacher. The mind is in the present moment and unaware of outside distractions. The voice can take you on a round of awareness of different body parts or have you picturing different objects/animals/shapes spoken in a random way. I experienced a lovely nidra led by Mona Anan, one of the New York ISHTA senior teachers, while she was in Perth. She called it The Tree of Life. We followed her voice into our individual family trees and through visualisation saw the receding generations of our family back in time. It went for 45 minutes and was remarkable. Yoga nidra restores the body and mind just as deep sleep does. Coming out of it there is a sequence to reground and awaken the body.

I’m going to digress for a moment. When I was in my first year of high school my math teacher, Mr Douglas, told us about a story written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott called Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions. That story captured my imagination and gave me an awareness of spatial reality unlike any equation or diagram could. The story is written from the point of view of a two dimensional square. Isaac Asimov wrote in a foreword that the novella is “The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions". As previously mentioned in one of these blog posts, I am a science fiction buff. The story of Flatland has stayed with me throughout my life and it is a place I can go in imagination to this day.

As part of a class sequencing assignment for my teacher training, I ended with a yoga nidra I had written that draws strongly from my learnings from Flatland and I would like to share it here. I call it Finding Nothing. Of course, reading a yoga nidra is not the same as experiencing one, but it gives an idea of what it can be. Imagine you are relaxing in savasana after an hour’s yoga practice….. relax….. listen….

Feel the earth beneath your body holding you up against gravity with such perfect balance. Feel the breath softly expanding and contracting your lungs and abdomen. Feel the rise and fall in three dimensions. See the three dimensional shape of your body in your mind’s eye.

Now imagine…..

Imagine that all the area above and below the surface of the floor retracts to the level of the floor. Imagine there is no depth to your body any more. Like a shadow on a surface you are a two dimensional shape. Now as you breathe, your two dimensional body only expands to the sides and contracts back toward the centre. To move, you can only slide along the plane of a two dimensional universe. You still have a memory of the three dimensional world, but no longer can perceive it. Your world now only exists of two dimensions.

Now imagine…..

Imagine that all the outer edges of your body and the entire surface of this two dimensional world press into a centre midline. All that remains of you is a line. Your body is a line in a one dimensional universe and you can only sense the length of this line on which you exist as you move along it. As you breathe your body expands and contracts along a single line; lengthening, shortening. You have a memory of what a two dimensional world is like, but you can no longer perceive that world. You only know the line of your body existing in the line of a one dimensional universe.

Now imagine…..

The line of this universe comes to an end at a point. That point has no dimension at all. Nothing with dimensions, even a one dimensional line as you now are, can enter that point. However, on your travels regressing from universes of three dimensions through two and then one dimension, you didn’t just bring your body. You also brought your conscious Self and the consciousness cannot be measured in space. It too has no dimensions. By leaving your body behind, your consciousness can exist in a point of nothing. A point of no thing. This is where your conscious Self now finds itself.

Now imagine…..

How infinite is a point of no dimension? The non dimensional consciousnesses of all beings can exist here. And as your own consciousness opens up to possibilities you realise that you are not alone. You have found a universe of nothing where the conscious minds of all sentient beings may exist. Allow your mind to sense a larger consciousness made up of all who have found their way to this place of no thing. A universal consciousness. Your idea of self is a component of this greater consciousness. As you explore you may feel some familiarity. All have brought memories of their past universes with them. As well as familiarity there is discovery of new concepts in memories brought from universes strange to your own experiences.

Now imagine…..

Time does not exist in this place of no thing. Only the present moment exists, which is also no thing. It cannot be measured. As soon as a moment touches this place of nothing, it is gone and replaced by the next moment. You are not passing through time, time is passing through you, present moment by present moment. No future. No past. Only existence in the now. But what joy is here! All knowledge from that which you once called the past and future is found in this place of nothing, brought by every conscious mind bringing memories from past and future lives. And it is all you. Your drop of consciousness joins with others to make an ocean of greater consciousness. A universal consciousness for you to explore and at the same time, be….. Bliss.

Now imagine…..

Imagine your consciousness pops out of this point of nothing to return to the one dimensional body left behind. Now you know that the point of nothing from whence you just left is sahasrara, the crown chakra or energy centre. Ajna, your seat of intuition residing in the mid brain is next along the line of your body. Vishudda chakra, your communication centre at your throat follows. Then anahata chakra, the heart centre of emotion. Then manipura chakra, home of will power. Then svadisthana chakra where flow, flexibility and fun reside and finally muladhara chakra, the foundational seat of the body. Seven chakras on the one dimensional line of your body in a one dimensional universe. That universe now becomes the midline from which a two dimensional universe spreads out and with it your body and its chakras like a shadow on a surface. This surface becomes the mid plane of the three dimensional universe as it expands above and below from it. Your body is back in the three dimensional world. You can feel its weight perfectly balanced against gravity on the floor. Allow yourself to fill with prana as your breath expands your lungs and abdomen and contracts again in three dimensions. Allow small movements in your fingers and toes to reawaken your body. Reach your arms out above your head and stretch your whole body. Place your feet on the ground. Hug your knees into your chest. Rock side to side a little and then roll onto your right side. Take your time to rise up into a comfortable seat.

Try to take the memory of joy and bliss with you. Make a fist with your left hand, hold it with your right, press it into your abdomen, fold forward and exhale. Unfold and rub your thighs. Take a few deep slow breaths. Bring your hands to anjali mudra. Join in for three oms.

Unfortunately, by reading this you are not benefitting from being able to follow the sound of my voice, which if you were would transport your mind more easily. Also with eyes closed in savasana the imagination is more free from distractions. Imagination is such a wonderful ability of the mind. It certainly helps me be open to possibilities. I pay homage to Mr Douglas, a math teacher who inspired.