Yoga Nidra Archives

Use of Yoga Nidra for Creativity

Posted on 22 May 201113 October 2021 by ahymsin

What is creativity? It seems an obvious question. We know what it is? Do we? The word comes from Latin “Creo” to make. Who makes? Makes from what? The answer has changed over the course of history and is different in different cultures! Peter Meusberg’s research showed 100 definitions of what creativity is.

In what we call the western influenced sphere of the globe, creativity originally was seen as “God’s Job”; he created things out of nothing. Humans were considered creative only as per Divine Inspiration (and that only as: Artists, Jesters and Sages). In the last 300 or so years, the meaning of creativity changed; as we lost the spiritual dimension, creativity became linked to people making things. This is probably the first association we have with that word. From this understanding, followed the notion that imagination is a quality that makes us human distinct from animals; as a result, imagination and even fantasies (i.e. projections of the human mind) were highly priced. We still “suffer” from this, especially in the commercial world.

In the Eastern traditions, including Jainism, Taoism, Buddhism and Sankhya, there always was a different understanding: creation is a process that goes hand in hand with dissolution, as one form of matter changed into another. This process is seen as rooted in “fullness” of existence without form (Brahma Nirguna). A fullness without form, can also be called NO-thing-ness, hence the Buddhist term of Shunya.

So ultimately this nothing, which includes all there can be, all there is and all there has ever been, is the root which brings forth all form, and is venerated as such.

Now let me tell you a bit of my own experience with this concept. I used to be an artist, working in a special Zen technique, originally a sacred form of art. In this, objects made by the artist undergo a simple but unusual process which exposes the objects to extremes of heat and cold. Such extreme process distorts the object, marks the object, even cracks or breaks the object. The objects are highly priced for these marks that from the expectation of technical perfection would be called faults. Cracks are even filled with gold! Why? Because Divine Nature (Shinto/ Zen) or God is the maker and left its mark. The artisan is merely the instrument of creating; from this angle: not “I make a piece of art, but Thy … ” This fosters great humility in the artist, who starts his work with meditation! In order to create, he has to go back to that space of fullness (or no-thingness) from which his creation arises, that fullness where all forms already exist.

Now let’s pull in another source of understanding. It is no more news, to talk about the influence of quantum theory in modern day thinking. We live in a time of paradigm shift, where we start to see the universe and ourselves in a different light, then previous generations. The base theory of quantum thinking has now reached all manner of science. It’s not anymore limited to physics, but expands into biology, medicine, psychology – and the world of IT engineering etc.

What is this new understanding? Whether in the microcosm or the macrocosm (which consists of multitude of micro –moments) there is one base principal: On a much smaller scale than atoms, we have a process where out of “something” energy and material emerge. This is the origin of the famous question of our times: particle or wave?

Imagine you have a wall with two slits, and something we have no name for, something small and intangible, is fired/or pushed/or flows through these slits. When they hit the screen, through which of the two slits does that ‘indescribable something’ flow? The majority of experiments show the same result. So somehow there is choice, there is an “intelligence” that makes decisions, that “knows”. (This is of course a gross simplification to bring a point into awareness … ) And furthermore, when this “mass” reaches the other side, it can suddenly be known, measured, seen, observed … either as particle or wave.

So out of something comes form, comes matter. The state of non-locality, before it is particle or wave, is called by many names, Non –locality is one, consciousness another. And one more interesting point: whether it is particle or wave depends what was in the person’s mind who observed the process.

Let’s go back for a minute to what creativity means. It has been defined as something new of value which before had no form. To bring this about, consciousness is needed; otherwise there is no one to determine whether something is new, or of value. Forms came into existence through mind, or in a wider sense, they exist through consciousness (existence, existere- standing out).

Consciousness thus is both the original source (as we know in Sankhya etc. as well as from what we saw in quantum theory) as well as the defining outcome (mind). They are simply different states. Matter cannot process meaning; it has to come through conscious mind of the observer. .A painting is just a canvas, paint and molecules; the meaning, the beauty comes from the mind. To process meaning requires mind.

My hands move the clay when I make a sculpture, but what moves my hands? Mind, yes, but whose mind, what mind-field/ consciousness … etc.? In other words, on a subtle level (mind and beyond) the object my hands create, exists already – in that space, in that consciousness which is nirguna, without form.

When I used to be an artist, in the early morning hours, when in the state between sleep and waking, I saw the pieces I were to make that day; later my hands merely executed what was already in the “ether,” in subtle form.

When writing books, or articles, in the early hours of the day, between waking and sleeping, I know the whole chapter in its fullness. Later my thinking mind and typing fingers just execute, carry out what is known already.

What else are these states between waking and sleeping other than yoga nidra!

The root of the creative action, or what appears to us as creativity, is the phase of deep sleep/rest/point Zero/ uncluttered mind – that we call deep sleep, where we are connected (albeit unknowingly) to the state of tureeya, consciousness as “all knowing”. We become aware of that which pre-existed – in the shallower state, when we are close to waking up.

Here too, we see that original/fundamental creativity, creating something, giving form to existence comes from a “state of Zero … ”, no form, simply fullness, simply consciousness, without gunas, nirguna!

It is here that science and ancient wisdom meet!

So creativity in its fullest, deepest meaning ultimately comes from the “state of Zero”, of non-localized, no-form … consciousness. Similarly, intuition comes from that unlimited mind-field that we call Divine (Latin: beyond human) consciousness that we experience fully in the state of Tureeya.

Now you can see the link to yoga nidra. When our mind is in a state of non- form … no conditioning, no limitations … simply pure awareness, then there is total potential from where creativity and/or intuition arise. Mind rests in god (re: the image of Vishnu sleeping etc.)

With this we join the ancient wisdom and how (pre 300 years ago) creativity was understood. Equally we join most contemporary understanding: creativity is a quantum jump, from the world of pure consciousness, of Divine unlimited, unformed potential into form; this in the human takes place in the mind as intuition or insight.

Now let’s look at it from yet another angle: The creative process is said to have 4 phases: preparation, incubation, insight and manifestation. Applying this, we can say: preparation in the practice of yoga nidra is relaxation, which is active (doing the 61 points), then in the relaxed state – there is passive resting, incubation. This is like saying: we alternate between doing and being. We do that on the physical level and the subtler level (with breath/mantra/ blue star). Once we totally are at rest, with an empty mind, insight arises, which later is taken into manifestation.

In contrast, creativity through step by step thinking (or imagining) is not really what is meant here by creativity. In “creative thinking” the mind is still, bound by old concepts/patterns of processing that are active in the mind. It’s not bringing forth something entirely new, or even dis-covering new meaning, but giving new value to something that is there already.

Fundamental or true creativity needs us to “jump” out of old known patterns into a new context, new meaning which hopefully is still relevant in the old context. This is the quantum jump. The interesting thing is, just as I mentioned earlier, the new meaning comes as a new Gestalt.

A new Gestalt (a new frame, context, whole image) has gone through an unconscious process, where consciousness has not yet collapsed into a new form (term borrowed from quantum theory.) Thus in this processing all possibilities of unfolding are still open – without collapsing (contracting, shrinking, fixing) into a definite form; this then allows new creation.

Thus, yoga nidra gives the opportunity to bring the mind into a state, of unlimited potential, where the process of collapsing into one certain form (different from others) has not yet happened. Once the unknown is limited to a form, it is understood to have been collapsed, limited/made distinct …

So we can say creativity is the quantum leap of the mind.

Or we can say in more familiar terms:

Creativity arises from the stillness of the potential, full but unformed mind …

Such step of discovering new meaning in a new context is called fundamental creativity. It’s that original creative leap, which some refer to as: ex nihilo; others talk about as appearing out of its own volition/intention.

There is another kind of creativity, which is called situational creativity.

It is giving new meaning to/in an old context or combination. This kind of creativity is what we use for problem solving.

Research on scientists has shown that new thoughts and discoveries have come about in word-less times, like sleep or deep rest, i.e. when the mind relaxes, un–called for, from these states entirely new systems have arisen ; it seems that for creativity it is necessary to de-focus or to get out of the normal mind patterns.

So from all this we can see, that yoga nidra is the practice of getting consciously into a state where the mind is at point Zero, free from normal patterns, still – yet extremely conscious, aware; consciousness per se … .

From there arises something new, a new gestalt, a new insight, which then can be expressed and molded through that creativity which is called situational creativity.

Fundamental creativity is that happening, when from Brahman, from the Absolute, an expression arises. In Sankhya Philosophy we could say it is the appearance of Purusha and Prakriti, or maybe the meeting of Purusha and Prakrit if we take later dualistic Sankhya Philosophy.

Situational Creativity is what happens within Prakriti.

So “fundamental creativity” we understand as a base occurrence, even a base pattern. You might know that the universe is organized in fractals.

The ancients say: as above so below, as inside so outside. The pattern of a rim of a leaf is just like the pattern we see looking at mountain peaks. So in this context, it means: The same truth … that out of some indefinable, unknowable (whether we call it God or some quantum term) comes something concrete/manifest repeats throughout the universe, microcosm and macrocosm, in every minute repetitive patterns.

This “pattern” is also repeated in our minds. From the point Zero, from the state of Delta Waves (or even Flat Waves), i.e. from deep consciousness all that we know , all that is new, arises. Such “fundamental creativity” we could call revelation, and to illustrate that we can take the teachings of the arising of the universal sound OHM, or even the Sanskrit language, or any original insights and wisdom, and all “revealed scriptures”

Once these are “seen in the mind of the Sage (Artist or Jester), the Gestalt is expressed through the media of conditioning, i.e. through words (that limit), through gestures that are learned, through a medium of artistic skills etc. (such as in artists, musicians etc … ) Thus the fundamental creativity becomes situational creativity.

How does such creativity (either form) vary from reverie and visualization? Both these are using the patterns the mind has already to express something the mind has created; the mind creates out of something it has stored in its memory files. I.e. If I have never seen a tree, how can the mind picture ‘tree’ or how can the hand draw a painting of a tree??? So creativity here falls in the category of situational creativity, that which makes things from things that are known, creating into some new combination.

In that way, we as individuals are creative depending on our conditioning, i.e. we have different ways of creativity for different people. Creativity expresses on this level in five different ways, according to the dominating energy.

In people with the conditioning energy of stability, of holding in place – ( tamas; or what one could call earth energy) creativity is that gravitational power that makes manifest. Gives form on the gross level.In people who are under the influence of a more adaptable, flexible energy one could call the energy-field of water, for such people creativity expresses in ever changing forms. Such a person can be an artist who makes thousands of unique pieces, and then again, goes to become a musician, writing countless pieces of music … etc. , forever “reshuffling” that which is stored in the mind. (tamas and rajas combined)

Fire energy transcends form into subtler states; hence a person with this energy, might use a certain pattern, i.e. a language and use it to paint pictures with words, i.e. poetry and story-telling in order to transcend meaning. Thus they use factual knowledge to create new ways, new expressions of ideas and concepts (rajas).

A person conditioned by the subtler energy-field of moving into transparency, of letting go of that which clouds – finds his creativity in taking concepts and ideas into abstraction, not merely using knowledge or language in different ways , but reinterpreting, creating new meaning, taking it into new visions and insight. (rajas and sattva combined)

Space, the most sattvic, most subtle energy, expresses creatively by disconnecting from past forms altogether; reaching a state of no-forms, from which something entirely new and of value can arise. This constitution is closest to experiencing within the human context the fundamental creativity.

This is where situation creativity changes to fundamental creativity; this is where something “new and valuable” is emerging, seemingly “ex nihilo”. Such revelations, such newness comes from the widening of perception we observe in truly creative people. It is this most sattvic energy, that helps to move from individuality to universality.

Hence yoga nidra in its most profound state allows that level of fundamental creativity to rise, which ultimately re-creates the being itself, as it helps to let go of the individual conditioned patterns, and reach that “point Zero” where we lose the limiting being that we are and expand into universality … Yoga nidra helps to let go of all restrictions of the ego/world As we know from Sages and spiritual leaders, they expand their consciousness towards the subtler levels coming to the subtlest level of all, that “Zone Zero”, the subtle center of consciousness we spoke of in the beginning, which expresses in the human mind as ‘delta waves’ or ultimately ‘flat waves’, pure consciousness within the human organism.

Creativity then does not anymore happen on the outside, externally, but happens internally, recreating the self … by merging into the SELF. The purpose of such expanded fundamental creativity within the human being is, as Swami Rama said: “to find the underlying unity in the apparent diversity!”

One time Swami Veda wrote about mastering standing with one leg in the small self (functioning in the world), in one kind of reality – and with the other leg in the Big Self (sunya, the fullness of existence). Yet don’t forget, that both “legs” belong to one existence, and that for now and probably thousands of incarnations to come.

Hari Om …

Now after Years of Yoga Nidra, I Am Moved from Inside

Posted on 26 February 201113 October 2021 by ahymsin

The writer of this letter to Swamiji has generously offered to share it with you.

Dear Swamiji,

My illness started in Malaysia in 2005 with sight problems including double vision. In November I was accompanying my son to Singapore by bus when I suddenly became paralyzed from head to toe. I could neither walk nor move my arms; I could hardly swallow and barely breathe. At the same time I suffered terrible muscular cramps. We were close to Malacca, and the bus made an urgent detour to take me to Hospital for Emergency treatment.

I was diagnosed with an auto-immune illness – Myasthenia Gravis. My return to Kuala Lumpur marked the beginning of a long period of hospitalization, as I did not respond well to the standard treatment for this kind of illness. My condition deteriorated, and after several months in hospital, it was decided that I should be “medevac’d” to France for treatment. I left my family for several more months. In France, a course of intravenous immunoglobulin treatment relieved the symptoms sufficiently for me to be able to return to Malaysia. This treatment continued until the following summer when my condition deteriorated again. I spent most of my time in bed between long hospital stays. Wheelchair-bound, I could no longer read.

In June of 2006 I was hospitalized again in Paris and treated by one of the best known French Professors who decided to perform a plasma exchange to treat my respiratory insufficiency. After several transfusions my condition improved and I could walk normally, though the muscular cramps remained. This improvement lasted for a month, during which time I regained 70% of my strength. It was necessary, however, to repeat the transfusions regularly – at first every month, then every two or three weeks. I returned to Malaysia, where I had to travel to Singapore regularly for the plasma exchange treatment. During the long hours of immobility, I fought in my mind against the disease and tried to accept this change in my condition, but I was full of rancour and rage, at conflict with everyone. I envied all those who could walk, run, swim, etc….At this time I started to listen to Tibetan chants and this calmed me. I would spend hours just listening to the chanting of the monks; I believe that I was already meditating without knowing it. I underwent regular transfusions, and had an external catheter implanted in my jugular vein. This lasted four months until I suffered septic shock during a plasma exchange. This sort of brutal septicemia is often fatal – in the few minutes of consciousness at the beginning of the path to death, images from my life passed by; I was calm and serene, without fear, in spite of terrible pain in my kidneys, and the panic all around me. I died for the first time, and then had the joy of awakening a few days later in intensive care, where I remained for three weeks. I knew that I was no longer the same person, that I no longer feared death. It was as though I was depersonalized. From here onwards I could be treated without the slightest resistance on my part; I could hardly feel pain. I had become detached. I still needed to have a catheter inserted in the femoral vein for each plasma exchange, but I could now concentrate naturally on my breathing.

After 18 months I was still fighting my illness, unprepared to yield; I hated and detested it for ruining my life. It was then that my doctors discovered that I had ovarian cysts and a huge fibroid in my uterus. On account of my immune deficiency, the doctors decided to perform a total hysterectomy to avoid possible cancerous complications. The operation was successful, but a morphine injection, to avoid too much pain, triggered respiratory problems and once more I was put on artificial respiration. Gasping for air, I could feel myself slipping away again. On awakening I found it difficult to adjust my respiration to the rhythm of the machine; so once again I focused on my breathing and let myself adapt. Once on my feet again, I practiced these breathing exercises regularly. A friend introduced me to the work of Eckhart Tolle, and after listening a few times, things started to make sense to me.

Two months after the operation and long sessions of chemotherapy, the stitches had dissolved but the scar was still weak, which led to disaster. One night I was awoken by a terrible pain in my bowels; I went to the toilet and expelled 3 meters of my intestines. The pain was indescribable and the shock unbearable. As we lived in a cul-de-sac and the ambulance could not find the house, my husband decided to drive me to hospital. I needed to go downstairs, disemboweled, covered in blood with incredible pain. I managed to find the strength to do it – survival instinct – and I lay down in the back seat of the car. Every bump in the road was agony; at the hospital the doctors could not operate until they had contacted the neurologist to know which anesthetics could be used. I remained seven hours in pain.

On awakening, I was in shock, I could hardly communicate, I saw things as if through a camera – no sound, unable to focus – I felt disconnected from the world around me. After one month of depression, and considering suicide, a friend introduced me to Shilpa [Ghatalia]. With her I could talk about what had happened in detail. She spoke to me of the explosion and total loss of the ego, and of distancing oneself from the body. I realized that I was not what I had seen that night. I started to learn yoga nidra, and together we shared three sessions a week for nearly two years. I also practiced alone using a recording of one of your guided meditations. From this point onwards, whenever I was bedbound – I spent my time in meditation. With Shilpa I learned the Buteyko respiration technique. My life was now a long sequence of meditation and breathing exercises. I had given up all combat with my illness – I have made my peace with it – I accept it. As if I took it by the hand and said “let’s see where our paths take us together…..” I accept my hours of paralysis, my treatment, the physical pain, as I still suffer from persistent cramps day and night. I had stopped comparing myself to others, and I no longer envied them. Then my second son was diagnosed with two bone tumours – new shock – after an operation the first tumour was found to be benign. I felt like I was on a swing: thoughts returned, then I found the state of consciousness again, and each time it lasted longer and longer.

In 2008 we moved to Japan; I could not find a yoga nidra teacher, but I started to learn Reiki and Mindfullness. I believe that at this time I was completely detached from my body. I tried to take care of it; it lived with the blood of others, and I was grateful (and not bothered) about that.

Your voice, Swamiji, and yoga nidra, have not only saved me, but have allowed me to be born again.

Then I started a new life: a life of complete consciousness. My illness is hardly perceptible; I hardly ever talk about it. I have two perpendicular lives – one horizontal and one active. I can walk almost normally, even with my cramps. When I have to lie down, I meditate and practice yoga nidra. When I’m up and about, I forget my cramps, and I rejoice in the moment. I feel so liberated that I almost thank my illness for having opened my eyes. I no longer think of the future, and I no longer look back at my life before. Forty-five minutes of yoga nidra with you gives me more energy than one of the three hour siestas I needed to take every afternoon. Over the years, I have heard you thousands of times, many times each day. I have found that by practicing yoga nidra before having a catheter implanted, I can hardly feel any pain. This is a wonderful preparation for plasma exchanges which can last several hours, as they become more and more difficult. I no longer dream – no more nightmares after the transfusions – I hardly think, or I choose my thoughts. I am no longer sick; only my body remains sick. I feel stronger than when I was healthy, not necessarily « happy » to be sick, but I feel so peaceful and serene. I have found the very tiny piece of gold we all have in ourselves. I feel indestructible and my gold is permanent. Illness makes you become lonely; I was alone facing death, suffering, pain and sadness even though I had a lot of support. We are lonely when illness hits us though we learn how to dip deeply inside of us, far very far away. We dig tunnels and caves inside our soul like miners, and we get out just like them so dirty, black, lost but with a little tiny piece of gold in our mind that we would like to share, we don’t want to keep it just for us, we didn’t do so much work for only our self, we forget about our self because we discovered that our self was not the one we thought.

When I look at Mt Fuji, this is the tiny piece of gold that I was talking about that I can see, ME. Contemplation, pure contemplation, the key for peace and wisdom. I had a lot of abilities in the past to recognize a shrub or a tree or a flower, I knew all their names because I loved gardening and it was passion for me. Now, even if I still know to name them I don’t need to identify or put a name when I look at them I just see them.

Regarding the phrase: “I think, therefore I am” which no longer has meaning for me. I would say now: “I stopped thinking, therefore I am”.

I worked very hard on my cramps, try to find the way to not feel them anymore and try to use them. With the yoga nidra, discovering pain is stuck energy and it is possible to absorb and relief this energy into the all body. If I used to do meditation to not feel the pain, that is a different approach; we can be able to conduct the bad energy (pain) through your body and transform it in good energy. If I still have the cramps, cannot sleep, etc… I enter very quickly in meditation when I wake up and I am able to see my body (like a Da Vinci drawing) from the top and now also able to locate the pain and act on it with my breath; it is like inhaling the pain. It is shorter than the duration of a cramp so the pain is going away quickly. During the surgery I can remain a witness; I watch the pain, so conscious that I understand exactly how pain works, how it takes over the mind, and the different paths it takes. Everything is clear to me now, whether it is emotions or ego or life or illness, or, of course, death. The most difficult and pernicious step is to overcome the resistance which we put up to suffering, to illness, to life and to death. It is essential to accept everything and to let go, to welcome this transformed life and to adapt to it. We must let the pain invade us to be able to respond to it, and to offer no resistance – to tame it.

During a deep yoga nidra relaxation, I can feel my body falling, the way you are falling from the balcony, sometimes I don’t breathe anymore and probably my heart stopped for a few seconds. I am like a dead body for a few seconds. After I stay in meditation and have such beautiful pictures, colors, faces appearing to me etc… I cannot move my body anymore for a long time with a kind of dead body.

Practicing so many times like that, I had plenty of time to meditate on emotion and pain. I experienced that emotions are not only the reaction of the physical body, but also the interpretation of them, and if with meditation we cannot control the reaction of the body, we certainly control the interpretation – then we can minimize the reaction of the body. It is what happens with the pain; in fact, if we think in advance that we are going to have pain we will have pain, and then if we feel the pain and let the mind be invaded by the pain, it will increase the pain; it is the same with emotions. For me, thoughts are resulting from emotions; thoughts are the sentiments, interpretations of the emotion by the mental and the ego. When we distance ourselves from our mental and our ego, there are no more interpretations/sentiments. In fact, there are, but we are not touched by them like we used to be in the past; we stay intact because we just look at them. We confuse sentiments and emotions; we think that sentiments are coming from the heart, but they are purely interpretations from the mind/mental/ego to an emotion coming from the heart. We develop these interpretations through the thoughts and then encourage, amplify and aggravate the emotions through them and increase their consequences. Then we think having sentiments is love but this is not. We THINK we have sentiments and sometimes let them take control of the mind, the ego, and even the heart if we allow them to grow. But maybe I am wrong. When we no longer identify with the ego, the body and the mind, we can see emotions clearly. Why? Because they are coming up, not from the body, not from the mind, not from the ego, they are coming from the being, our self, deep-self, and I think this is our HEART. Then the emotions are pure, so pure. And they are so powerful, so big, so unbelievable, so amazing that we can only cry and smile in the same time. Because these emotions are touching OUR SELF so strongly that nothing can be so beautiful. Here is coming up the real LOVE. When we enter deeply in meditation, body is dead, mind is dead, ego is dead, only pure emotion is coming up and provokes total PEACE, opens the real LOVE, as we are in mindfulness and this is exactly the same when you experience DEATH.

At the beginning, being sick is like being in front of the Himalayas, suffering all the tempests, clouds, rain and snow, austerity, but not able to see them. Then one day they just appear and we look at them all the time in total contemplation.

Now after years of yoga nidra, I am moved from the inside not from my muscles. Now there is nothing I would like to change, not even my illness, for it brought me to the path. When I wake up in the morning, I do not ask myself where I feel pain, I just ask myself how I feel inside and every day is a beautiful day.

No more pretentions of knowledge, the further I go, the more I lose this pretention of knowledge… The more I get empty, the more I feel full. Thoughts and knowledge are keeping us away from our real self.

Treatments are approximate; we never know how long they are going to be efficient, but they give us relief. Being sick is an art and illness is driving the dance; we just need to adapt our rhythm to it. I never think that anybody gives up during an illness. I just think we realize our boundary, borders, we learn how to adapt, finally we accept. I am not trying anymore to cure my illness. I do not want to suffer anymore by trying to reach a different state. I have no more hope. I am just happy where I am and as I am.

For two years now I have been working with an association for the homeless in Yokohama. We distribute food and try to encourage them to join the association which can help them. From my contact with them, there is one thing that I have learnt. We are not separated from other people – others are us. In other people, there is necessarily a part of us, something “good” or “bad”, fragile or a suffering which cannot pass and which makes them unpleasant, aggressive or unhappy. So they transport an open wound which infects those around them. I learnt this from watching them, through them. It is hard to imagine how similar to us they are, apart from the odor the filth and their despair. They resemble us with our weaknesses and fragilities, but inside the gold remains, intact, and if we get to glimpse this gold, these people seem to be our own reflection. It is an unbelievable observation. So we forget their appearance, their smell, as now we can only see the gold, the love they can still give and the appreciation – not for a bowl of soup, but for having been able to see through to the gold. And it is so important for them to understand through compassion that we are capable of seeing the gold. This all takes place in a glance, no need to speak the language. From this experience, I move on with even greater determination to share in my heart. This experience was important for me, and I shall continue. It is as though the more one gives, the more one receives, and I move on enhanced. Not by pride, that is behind me, but because I feel in perfect harmony with them, as if they were me without the good fortune that I have had. In perfect compassion with them.

The plan for me is to return to France next year. I think I am ready to work with very sick people in palliative centers, to help them to accept their illness and to die in peace.

Here is my testimony, Dear Swamiji, I feel sorry about my English. Sorry also because I haven’t been able to write a shortest one and it may be boring to read. Before you met me, you didn’t know that through Shilpa and through the Yoga Nidra, you saved me. You allowed me to meet you in Narita where you gave me a big part of your precious time. I was moved immensely when you spoke to my ear as your voice permitted me to survive during all these years.

I feel so grateful for the time I spent with you; the retreat has been tremendous. I promise you I will take care of my Mantra. I already memorized it totally and I will keep it as it is one of the best gift I ever received in my life.

With all my love, I wish you all the best.

Take care; I hope we will meet again very soon.

Hélène

Yoga Nidra Refined Silence

Posted on 22 July 200917 March 2024 by ahymsin

Why do we sleep?

The great Shankacharya says that everyone is ananda. Being of bliss. You know these three words that we often use? Sat Chit Ananda. I’m sure everyone has heard those words. Sat chit ananda, sat chit ananda. Sat the being, the very being. Chit, awareness, awareness of being, consciousness of being or just the force called consciousness. And ananda, purnam, completeness, bliss, totality of bliss. All the pleasures of the world are little sparks of that fire of ananda. All the pleasures of the world are just drops of the ocean of ananda, and every drop is trying to experience what it feels like to be the whole ocean. Every drop that is you and I, every drop is trying to feel, trying to see what it would be like to be the whole ocean of that joy and bliss.

We think that by increasing our worldly pleasure we will have that perfect joy, but that never happens. No matter how much worldly pleasure you have, whether of the body or of the mind or of the possessions, no matter, it’s never enough. It’s never satisfactory. So there must be some other way that each one of us, the drops of the ocean of joy, can experience what it feels like to be the ocean of that ananda. Each one of us sparks is longing to feel what it feels like to be the universal fire, but we do not succeed. The well known principle in all the spiritual philosophies is that, until you calm your outward opening senses, the inner ananda will not be yours.

So we have been given a state of ananda called sleep. This is not the Yoga Sutras definition of sleep. This is the Vedanta definition of sleep. The sleep is our effort to experience the ananda that we are.

The Yoga Sutras say that sleep is not an unconscious state. I have written about it in my commentary on the Sutras. Sleep is not an unconscious state. If sleep was an unconscious state, says the great sage Vyasa, how would we wake up and say, I slept so beautifully. I slept so comfortably. How do we remember if we were unconscious?

The closest that we get to that ananda in which everything reaches the state of laya, dissolution, we have in this sleep, and that is why the word Shiva, the Lord of dissolution, the Lord of laya, the word is derived from the verb root shi to sleep.

Well then, our task is easy. Everybody go to sleep and stay asleep and we are in perfect bliss and if you wake up just put a sleeping pill in the mouth and put your head on the pillow and the pillow will take care of Brahmananda.

What is all this talk about samadhi? The difference is that in sleep we are not aware that we are in ananda. In samadhi we are aware that we are in ananda, and that is the difference.

In the Bhagavad Gita, repeatedly Krishna calls Arjuna Gudaakesha, the master of sleep. Most people think that it is probably because Arjuna sleeps so little. That is not the real reason. The real reason is that the turiya, the fourth state, the ananda state, the samadhi state does not come until we have mastered the three lower states of jagarat, swapna, and shushpti, of wakefulness, dream, and sleep.

Aum represents jagarat, swapna and shushpti, wakefulness, dream and sleep. Although in other traditions, it has other meanings which are equally valid. For example, in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition the word Aum speaks of the devotee, the sadhaka, merging his mind, speech and body into the mind, speech and body of the Buddha, and that is the meaning of the word Aum in Mahayana Buddhism. And in the Jain tradition, it’s a different meaning.

So, now let me explain one point here. A question is raised in Vedanta. If Brahman is nirguna, has no qualifications, then why is that Brahman being the qualifications of sat, chit and ananda. If he is nirguna, no qualifications and no conditions, then why are we calling it sat, chit and ananda? That becomes a qualification. The great Shankacharya answers that these are not qualifications of Brahman. He uses the term swalakshana, the words themselves denote the very being. Not that God has existence, not that God has consciousness, not that God has bliss. If we said God has existence, God has consciousness, God has bliss, then we would be giving God qualifications; that God is blissful. But the word is not anandatita, blissful. The word is ananda, bliss, God is the bliss. These are not qualifications or qualities. These are its swalakashanas. The term is swalakshana, swa – lakashana. Swa in Sanskrit means one’s own. Something one’s own. Something that oneself is. Lakshana, something that defines the being.

The three words sat, chit, ananda, they simply express the being of Brahman, not qualities of Brahman. Sat is Brahman, chit is Brahman, ananda is Brahman. Brahman is sat. Brahman is chit. Brahman is ananda. Not that Brahman has sat, has chit, has ananda. So this is not a guna; it is not a guni sambhanda. It is not a relationship between the qualifier and the qualified. It is the very statement of its very being. It simply is.

In sleep the levels of mind which fall asleep are not aware of that ananda though they are in ananda. When one has mastered the three states of jagarat, swapna and shushpti, then one is qualified for the turiya. One is an adikaran, one is ready for that next step. What Krishna is saying to Arjuna is: Arjuna, you have mastered sleep.

If somebody says you are now are at mile ten, that means you are finished with mile one, mile two, mile three, mile four. He doesn’t have to keep saying you’ve finished mile one, mile two, mile three and mile nine, and mile ten. He says you have finished mile ten. So he doesn’t have to keep saying you who have mastered wakefulness and you who have mastered dream. He just says you who have mastered the sleep state.

Now that you have mastered the sleep state, now that you have understood all its secrets, now that you have entered the conscious sleep which is the mastery of sleep state, now that you have reached the state of yoga nidra, now, Arjuna, you are ready for the virat rupa darshan. You are now ready for the universal view of consciousness. Until then you were not ready, but now that you have mastered that, you are now ready, I consider you qualified. I consider you a qualified student, a qualified sadhaka. I will therefore show you what the next step is in the experience of universal consciousness.

So in a way, we can say that to be initiated into samadhi, one has to master the sleep state, and the mastery of sleep state means mastering yoga nidra.

Now here let me explain one thing very clearly. There are books and there are cassettes and CDs by various swamis including this one which purport to teach yoga nidra. They are not yoga nidra cassettes. They are presented as yoga nidra cassettes, but they are not yoga nidra cassettes. Those are exercises preparatory to yoga nidra. In Swami Rama’s book Path of Fire and Light, Vol. 2 [note: the original 1988 printing], there is a chapter titled “Yoga Nidra” in which he has given all very detailed steps. Take five breaths up to this point. Take ten breaths up to this point, and so on and so on and do this lying on the left and do it lying on the right and if you read it carefully, those who are teaching the philosophy of Swami Rama, there are only two lines on yoga nidra proper at the end, and those lines don’t define, they just indicate. Yoga nidra itself cannot be taught by a cassette. That you have to go in. So whatever is in that chapter is also preparation. Preparing a person for being able to be taught yoga nidra.

When do we know that we have mastered technique? The state of consciousness to which a technique is meant to lead you, when you go into that state of consciousness without the technique, then you have mastered the technique, that state of consciousness. A lot of times our ego comes and says I have mastered it. A lot of times. There are a lot of masters nowadays, and it’s easy to become a master in this Kali Yuga. A little taste and they think they are now masters. Though once again, the state of consciousness which a particular technique is capable of giving to you gives you the taste of that, then you no longer need the technique. You can go into that state of consciousness instantly and never need that technique again. Then you have mastered the technique. That is the definition of mastery.

So how long, how much time will you take every time doing a relaxation and doing sixty one points, blue star exercise, and so many breathings from the head to the toes and from the head to the ankles and head to the, come on, get in there, go right there? Make you house on the next hill. Don’t keep climbing up and down, up and down, and up and down. When you have made your house on that hill, you don’t need to keep climbing up and down and then live there. Live in that consciousness, live in that awareness. Then the ups and downs of the valleys below that house no longer matter to you. It was very laborious to climb all those valleys of sorrows and little pleasures, and expectations, and disappointments, and I can’t sleep, and I had a deep sleep that now I’m not getting. You don’t have to keep doing these zigzags. Build your house on the next hill. When you build your house on the next hill, then you climb the next hill, come down, climb the next hill, come down. Climb up, climb down, slowly, slowly, slowly then you abandon this house, and you now build a house on the next hill until you start living among the Gods on the top of the Mount Meru. Do you know Mount Meru? Have you seen?

So very simply, if you really need to define yoga nidra, these processes are not yoga nidra.

There is a cave in the heart, the interior cave of the heart. For some practices that guha, that cave, is entered and filled with light, becomes a jyotir guha, cave of light, as we have done many times in our Shivaratri meditations and other heart center meditations. Sometimes it is filled with sound, because it is the anahata, the place of the un-struck sound. There are two centers of sound, of nada in mediation. There are two centers. One is the Anahata chakra, the cave of the heart, the center of the un-struck sound. The other is what we call Brahmar guha, the cave of the bees. The yogis call it the cave of the bees, which is in the right hemisphere of the brain. In modern brain research also, the center of music in human beings is in the right hemisphere. That is why we give the mantra in the right ear.

Now if you try to enter the cave of the heart just like this sitting, you will not manage. You try to enter the cave of the bees just like that, you will not manage. You will sit there, you will imagine. There’re people who read books. From books they try to start concentrating on the center between the eyebrows, or they start imagining the right hemisphere of the brain. They are pathways, they are channels through the energy channels.

I have not mentioned the throat as a center of sound, because here we are talking of the anahata nada, un-struck sound. Sound has the four levels, the para, pashanti, madhyma, vikari. So this is only vikari, the spoken sound; the spoken sound in the Indian philosophy of grammar is called vikari, which simply means the sound that is perhaps of a donkey, donkey sound. Vikari means possibly a donkey sound. There is no difference between the braying of a donkey and by mouth praying of a human being. They are all vikari sound. So when we speak of these centers of sound we don’t speak of the throat. The concentration on sound. Sometimes people sit and they, I’ve seen people sitting in yoga classes and concentrating, articulating Aum, listening. Better to do, rather than not to do. Nothing to do with Aum. Aum that can be sounded is not Aum. Aum that can be sounded is not Aum. Aum, coming back.

We have pathways to go into these caves, special nadis. You take the mind through those. Then you can enter. If you are on the outside of the city, you cannot enter the city center just by sitting there and imagining it. You have to know the road. Those who are trying to do this without the road map and without a guide don’t manage it well.

The center of mastering dreams is the throat center, but again if you lie down there and concentrate on the throat center, it will not happen. You have to know the way to go to that throat center. There are channels. It is all part of Shri Vidya.

The center of the mastery of sleep is in the heart cave, but there are caves within caves within caves. The Mandala Brahmana Upanishad speaks of five akashas, five spaces one after the other, one inside the other. Spaces within spaces, within spaces, within spaces, and the light and the sound at each one of these levels of spaces differs.

Do you know what our problem is? Do you know why we are not making progress? If we are not making progress, it is because we have no ambition. That’s why we don’t make progress. When you have ambition, you work for it. Then you do what needs to be done. Then you abandon something and you sacrifice something. But you have no ambition to want to get there, to devote your time and effort for that purpose.

I appreciate it and I am happy when you come for ten days of silence and I welcome you, but ten days of silence is not going to make you a master. When you see a swami who has been silent for eighteen years, you will see the light of silence.

When you are entering the cave of the heart and you are seeing a light, that will not take you to yoga nidra. If you are hearing a sound, that will not take you to yoga nidra. If the yoga nidra cave is within the same space, then there are many different caves; otherwise, when you open it, there is no cave. A medical student will say, “What nonsense are you talking. What cave? Where is the light burning, where is the drum beating?”

So you have to know that you go into the right cave right in the same space, and that cave is absolutely silent and absolutely dark. Darkness so thick you cannot cut it with a knife. That is the one into which all senses dissolve. Remember then that yoga nidra and laya, dissolution of the universe, are very closely linked. When there is no thought, no light, no sound, no stir, no movement, then you are there. It feels as though that darkness is breathing. Then in that absolute stillness you are not unconscious, you are conscious of being there. You are not unconscious the way people are unconscious in sleep. You are conscious in that cave, and you are observing the fact of being there without any words, without any sound, without any light, without any movement, without any memory, without any samskaras arising; then it is yoga nidra.

Then out of that laya state you can create a whole universe. You can write poetry, you can write an epic, you can have the vision of any subject in a flash.

Poor children, students memorize, memorize, memorize. What is the meaning of forgetting? Nothing is ever forgotten. Nothing is ever forgotten. The mind remembers that it has a memory that you had winked your eye, and that memory remains and becomes a samskara. Even when the brain stops functioning, the samskara in the mind remains. That samskara goes into the next life. Nothing is ever forgotten. It is a matter of bringing it up. The problem is not in memorizing. The problem is in recall, in what you call information retrieval. Finding in which program it is filed and going in there and bringing up the file. But if you have got ten thousand files open and you want to open then thousand and one file, now how much effort do you have to make on the computer? The computer says there is no more space now. Shut some, close some files, then you can reach the file you want.

That is yoga nidra. Close the files. You cannot even write the last sentence I have spoken absolutely correctly because you have so many files open in the brain. So shut those files. That is called yoga nidra.

Then you open in that state of yoga nidra, you open the file you want. You lie down and you say, ok, where’s my Spanish file or where is my Italian file, where is my Sanskrit file, where is my English file. Do you think beliefs have to adopt themselves? Do you think beliefs have to adopt themselves to the present of the sentence I read? I can repeat that sentence tomorrow, day after, exactly as it is, because when I was reading it, my mind was not divided into all the other places, and I can do that in Spanish and I can do that in Italian or in Portuguese or Sanskrit. When you read, the best time is when you are really sleepy; you convert that sleep into yoga nidra, and then the imprint will go and will be clear.

The question is asked that when we take on, take in the imprints of all the samskaras, all the activities that we do, they leave imprints on us, right? How to stop them forming samskaras?

If this cup is full, I can’t put any more water in it. If in your mind you already have something else starting with your mantra moving onto higher states of consciousness and awareness, then the yogi has to wash the previous samskaras, but forms no further samskaras.

So don’t worry about how to stop the samskaras. Don’t worry about how to stop the thoughts arising in the mind, in the meditation; don’t worry about that. Don’t worry about the thoughts arising in the mind. The extraneous thoughts. Only make that one thought arise that you want. When only that keeps arising, then there is no space for other thoughts. That is why we say no break between the breaths, because in that tiny gap millions of thoughts enter.

How to forget some unpleasant experience? Every time you remember it, it becomes stronger. You keep putting the same stamp exactly at the same spot again and again; how strong that imprint will be. So why do you keep doing that? Put some other imprint, some other stamp. And if you said ok, mantra, mantra, mantra. Keep putting that stamp again and again so you can remember nothing else.

My Gurudev said that Tulsidas, the author of that Tulsi Ramayan, which is the most popular, wrote the most popular religious text in the whole of north India, the Ramayan Tulsidasa in the Awadhi language, and everybody reads it. Mothers recite. No matter how a person is quoting, no matter how much effort you make, you cannot reach the end of that Rama. So no matter which language people speak, the most popular Ramayana is this one written in Awadhi in the sixteenth century. Mothers who cannot read and write, they teach chapters while they are cradling the baby.

In India, religion is taught by mothers, not in the Sunday school. In America and Europe, people have Sunday schools. That’s where their children go for learning religion. In India, they learn in their mother’s lap, and mothers recite the texts without reading as the way their mother recited and the way their mother recited and the way their mother recited.

How many Italians can recite one canto of Dante? Take out one beautiful canto of “El Paradiso” on the light. It can elevate children’s consciousness. The love that moves the sun and all the other stars, why can’t you recite that to your children? Why do they have to sit down and analyze the poetry in university classes? You who are the daughter of your son, Dante speaks to Maria, to Mother Mary, you who are the daughter of your son. Such depth in every language.

This text, Tulsidasa Ramayana, has sixteen thousand verses. My Master said that in the entire Tulsidas Ramayana, sixteen thousand verses, he said there are only seven, I don’t remember, seven or nine or eleven or five verses in which the sound ra and ma does not come. There is hardly any verse in which the sound ra or ma, which was the personal mantra of Tulsidas, does not come. They are verses that are learned at the mother’s knees, but the point is that the imprint of the word Ram in his mind was such that in all sixteen thousand verses there are hardly any that do not have either the sound ra or the sound ma.

That was also with Gandhi. This country got its independence under Gandhi’s Ram Nam. People don’t realize that. The whole country sang. I remember the times when thousands of volunteers would go to get arrested, would go singing this. The whole country of three hundred and fifty million sang this Ishwara Allah Tere Naam. Ishwara and Allah are thy names. That was a little modification on the original from the Ramayana. It was a leper yogi who gave the Ram mantra to Gandhi, and Gandhi fought the battle of independence by reciting that Ram mantra and taught the whole nation. If I was shot, I would say ahh. When he was shot, He Ram!, He Ram!, then he fell. That’s the power of mantra.

When I am teaching in the eastern countries like Taiwan and Korea, people don’t ask me what is the meaning of my manta. They ask me is: will this mantra then go with me in death? That’s what they ask. They don’t ask for the meaning because it’s a blessing, it’s a gift. “It’s a divine gift I have received. It doesn’t matter what it means, but will it go with me to the next shore?” That’s the question they ask. There are some things I greatly respect in the American and European cultures, in the western culture. When I pray for someone’s wellbeing who is in hospital, when I do it for the Americans and Europeans, it’s so much different. You have to keep doing and keep doing and keep doing. It takes so long to bring a result. And when I do it for the Chinese or the Koreans, it happens within the hour. They are open. Their minds are not locked by the idea of “me, me, me.” Even now.

This is the answer to the question about samskara.

The beauty of space is that within one space there can be other levels of spaces which I have been speaking about as to the cave of light, cave of sound and so forth. The deepest is the cave samadhi.

So practice, but first learn. Between now and next year, just master five breaths in which you do not have any break between the breaths anytime you sit down and start counting your breaths. Then it’s mastery. Then come back in the next year for the next lesson.

The question has been asked, “How do I feel when there are two or three students here who really have this ecstasy in their meditation already, and they say, ‘we sit down and we feel now we are doing it right. It happens very nicely and we were successful in the meditation but one can be fooling oneself. How do we know that we are not fooling ourselves?’” When you sit and meditate in front of the Guru, he will detect your signs and he will tell. There are ways of detecting those signs, but enjoy what you have. If you had a beautiful meditation, don’t let it become a point of ego – “Now I am such a great meditator, now I am the universal teacher, now let me call the nearest advertising agency and declare myself the master.” Stay away from that.

When you succeed with five breaths without a break, then try for seven. When you can take twelve breaths without a break, you will already begin to touch the first rungs of samadhi. It’s only twelve breaths away. I assure you of that.

The question is asked how is it that the breath stops. I said the breath stops, because we all have a bad habit of dying. Keep dying every time. Every time we are given a body, we go die. Is that a good habit? What is death? It’s a long pause between two breaths that reflects in our breathing. You want to stop the long pause, stop the short pause.

Understand the physicality of the breath, the energy content of the breath and the mind content of the breath. The physical content of the breath which is the physical breathing process, the pranic content of the breath which is the flow of pranic energy in the breath, and the mental content of the breath which is the thought that moves the breath.

That which does not see with the eyes wherewith one sees the eyes know that to be Brahman, and not this that you are all worshiping. That which does not breathe by the breath. That by which the prana is impelled and is moved so that mental content of the mind says to the breath, ok, move. Only then breath moves. The mind is switched off, the breath stops.

So to merge the breath in the space element, when it becomes as invisible as space, the pause that occurs at that state that is mastery of death. There are cases where the yogi is waiting for his favorite disciple to arrive, and the favorite disciple has not arrived. He says he will arrive tomorrow morning, and the yogi who had announced that he was going to leave his body in the evening says, “I’ll wait till tomorrow morning.”

A Yoga Nidra Exercise

This should be done lying down. Switch off the lights.

Relax the way you have learned to relax all parts of the body. Just check every part starting from the forehead in the sequence of the anatomy. Every muscle and every joint. As you relax, your breath relaxes. It automatically lengthens and becomes deeper. When you have relaxed completely, bring your attention to your breathing. Breathe gently, slowly, smoothly.

I’m taking you through a very short version.

Observe the gentle rise and fall of the stomach and the navel area. Observe how that area gently relaxes as you inhale. How it slightly shrinks as you exhale. In this practice, no mantra, no thought, only the feel of the breath flow.

Now feel as though you are inhaling from the crown of your head. Feel as though you are exhaling from your navel . No mantra, no thought, only the feeling of a flow as you exhale from the navel going upward again inhale from the crown.

Now inhale from the crown and exhale as though you are exhaling from the heart center. No mantra, no thought, only the feeling of the flow.

Now inhale as though you are inhaling from the crown and you are exhaling from the throat center. As though you are inhaling from the Brahma-randhra and exhaling from the Vishuddha chakra.

Inhale as though you are inhaling from the crown, as though you are exhaling from the center between the eyebrows.

Now inhale as though from the crown, exhale as though from the throat center.

Inhale from the crown and exhale from the heart center. No mantra, no thought, only a feeling of the flow.

Now feel as though you are inhaling and exhaling both from the heart center. No break between the breaths.

Now when you breathe in, go into a dark cave. Let the breath continue as though from the heart center. It is the cave that is breathing. Your primary focus is in being in that cave. The consciousness is in the darkness of the heart cave. Total rest. No thought, only a feeling of being in the cave.

Slowly come out of the cave and come to your normal awareness of breath.

Gently open your eyes.

Turn on the lights. Feel rested? Five minutes in the cave, rest.

I use that for my cardiac condition. One who practices this before leaving the bed cannot suffer from constipation; he will have to run straight to the bathroom. It’s a total rest, heart, intestine, digestion. People don’t know this yoga nidra practice. This beginning level can help with the heart condition, with the lung condition, with digestive, intestinal, colon, everything. Five minutes two or three times a day, wonderful.

(This is from a lecture on “Yoga Nidra Refined Silence” given by Swami Veda Bharati in Rishikesh, India, in 2004.)

A Brief Form of Yoga Nidra

Posted on 3 June 200931 July 2021 by ahymsin

This is a brief, preliminary version of Yoga-nidra (not a full Yoga-nidra). It is a way of taking quick rests during the day for a few minutes. It may be done sitting in a chair, resting on a sofa, or lying down.

Here is the synopsis:

1) Close your eyes, relax, and be aware of your entire body from head to toe.

2) Breathe diaphragmatically as though the breath is flowing from top to toes, and toes to top.

3) Bring your awareness to the Ajna Chakra, and exhale and inhale three times

4) Bring your awareness to the Vishuddha Chakra, visualize an immaculate full moon there, and exhale and inhale three times.

5) Bring your awareness to the Anahata Chakra, and exhale and inhale three times.

6) Feel as if there is a Cave in the Anahata Chakra, and breathe as if you are inhaling into the Cave and exhaling from your toes.

7) Breathe with no thought, no mantra – but only the awareness of the breath and the prana flow.

8) When you feel rested, open your eyes and gently sit up.

Three Minute Relaxation for the Very Busy

Posted on 29 March 200917 March 2024 by ahymsin

Bring your attention only to the place where you are sitting.

Be aware of only the space that your body is occupying from head to toe.

Be aware of only this moment in time.

Very quickly, relax your forehead.

Relax the eyebrows and eyes.

Relax your nostrils.

Relax your cheeks, jaw, and corners of your mouth.

Relax your chin, neck and shoulders.

Relax all the way down to the fingertips.

Relax from your fingertips to your shoulders.

Relax your chest, stomach, navel and abdomen.

Relax your thighs, calves, feet and toes.

Again relax all the organs from the toes upwards and bring your awareness to your breathing.

Observe the gentle rise and fall of your stomach and navel area: how that area gently relaxes as you exhale, how it slightly expands as you inhale.

Observing that, feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils.

Exhaling, count in your mind ooonnne, inhaling twooo, exhaling threeee, inhaling foouurr, exhaling fiiive; inhaling fiiive, exhaling foouurr, inhaling threeee, exhaling twooo, inhaling ooonnne; continue to count your breaths one through five and five through one. Feel the flow and the touch of your breath in your nostrils, breathing slowly, gently smoothly.

No break in your breathing; no break in your counting, one to five and five to one. Maintain the count.

Feel the flow and the touch of the breath in the nostrils, and continue the practice as long as you wish, and do as frequently as you like.

Without breaking the count, gently open your eyes.