TEMPERATURAS MEDIAS

׳ I -,lie practice of prana nidra is designed to bring the 1 experience of the energy body, or pranamaya kosha, to mn conscious awareness. Pranamaya kosha represents the

\il, 11 energy that animates the physical body, the annamaya ho\ha, and vitalizes the mind, the manomaya kosha. Prana moves continuously throughout the body in autonomous iii ti I often rhythmic patterns, fuelling the vital systems o f the I it x ly and mind. The conscious mind, that p art connected wiili the frontal lobes of the brain, often does not actively monitor these energies. A nother p art o f the m ind, the immnscious p art connected with the primitive, ancestral

I miI of the brain, continuously monitors this life-giving and lilc-maintaining system of prana.

11 is possible to train oneself to be m ore consciously nul distinctly aware o f prana and the pranam aya kosha l»V practising various yogic techniques such as pranayaina, toga nidra and prana nidra. As a result o f achieving greater iitv.uvness, one can further explore, and ultimately better manage, this dim ension o f the personality.

Awareness

H.hIkt than inundating the conscious m ind with data about

!•i.inamaya kosha on an intellectual level where it will remain lliroretical, the aim o f the practice o f p ran a nidra is to י' *> pand the awareness and experience o f prana to previously

Leave the awareness of the empty space within the body and come back to annamaya kosha, the gross physical body.

Focus at the nose tip and feel the breath entering and leaving the nostrils.

Become aware o f all external sounds.

Slowly move the fingers and toes; move the head gently from side to side.

Stretch the arms over your head.

Only when you are externalized and totally back in youi physical body, sit up and open your eyes.

Hari Om Tat Sat

energy flows, particularly at the levels o f vitality, feelings and )-motions.

As one learns to recognize, m anage and direct these niergy components, one becomes aware o f new levels one’s bring. T he aim o f p ran a nidra is to make one’s awareness ni oneself more extensive and more subtle. It allows one to experience:

• The connection between annamaya kosha and pranamaya kosha and thus to become aware o f vitality and energy Hows throughout the physical body. In this way prana nidra is useful as a physical therapy.The connection between manomaya kosha and pranam aya kosha, die mental states and the energy level o r vitality. This can happen when one witnesses different types o f thoughts, al t itudes and feelings giving different ‘voltages’ o f energy.

Therefore, prana nidra is useful as a mental therapy also.

• The structure and function o f the pranam aya kosha itself: the pan ch a pranas, nadis an d chakras. New understanding of how one’s personality relates to the external world results from experiencing the energy Mows in ida and pingala nadis. Different experiences arise when specific chakras receive different ‘voltages’ of energy through one’s concentrated awareness. Whole new perspectives on life open up as the granthis, the psychic knots that bind one to specific modes of dealing with life, are released. Thus, prana nidra is useful in establishing new habits, perspectives and lifestyle.

• I he connection between pranam aya kosha and vijnana- maya kosha: the connection between balanced energies and the rise o f intuitive knowledge. This knowledge allows one to u n d erstan d and act spontaneously, in harm ony with the situation, ra th e r th an having to crosscheck everything through the intellect. Prana nidra is useful in providing the courage to let go of conditionings and simply live one’s dharm a.

• A fusion o f pranam aya kosha with anandam aya kosha, die ocean o f bliss. Therefore, it is useful in establishing

unconscious areas. In a technique similar to yoga nidra, the awareness is systematically directed to various forms, levels and experiences of prana.

In both yoga nidra and prana nidra one experiences, at increasingly subtle levels, things about oneself of which one was previously not aware. One relaxes the physical body, the annamaya kosha, in shavasana or any other relaxation posture. One relaxes the energy body or pranam aya kosha, through the breath. O ne relaxes the m ental body, the manomaya kosha, by awakening the experience of opposite feelings or memories. One awakens the vijnanamaya kosha, the intuitive sheath o f knowledge, through the use of symbols, and the anandamaya kosha, the inner awareness of bliss, by encouraging deeper and deeper states of relaxation while maintaining the witnessing awareness. When relaxation is complete, receptivity is greater.

In yoga nidra and prana nidra the consciousness is in a state between waking and sleep, yet it is subject to neither.

In this state, the m ind is exceptionally receptive. While the m ind is open and receptive, yoga nid ra brings the deeper layers o f the psyche into the conscious experience and prana nidra brings increasingly subtle experiences o f prana into the awareness. Sage Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras state that we can become steady in wisdom through knowledge gained du rin g the processes o f sleep and dream (1:38): Svapna- nidra-jnana-alamban - “O r else (the m ind can be made steady) by giving it the knowledge o f dream an d sleep for support.”

Pranamaya kosha

Prana nidra is similar to yoga nidra in both purpose and technique. They both access knowledge directly by opening previously unconscious layers o f the m ind. T h e main difference is that prana nidra is more specialized. It deals with four main types o f experience: i) the flow o f energy in the pancha pranas, ii) the flow o f energy in the nadis, iii) the flow o f energy in the chakras, and iv) the expression of these

I Awareness o f prana associated with the breath in any of lhe following ways:

• Parts o f the body: limbs, organs or systems

• Pranayama, such as natural abdom inal breathing and m ental nadi shodhana

• One or more o f the pancha pranas: prana, apana, samana, udana and vyana, including their direction and intensity

• Expansion and contraction o f the pranic body

• Exploration of the nadis, especially ida and pingala nadis

• Exploration o f the chakras

• Chakra shuddhi

• Tattwa shuddhi.

'i Conclusion: carefully externalizing the awareness and I iringing the attention back to annamaya and manomaya koshas.

Two introductory practices are given:

PRACTICE I : AWARENESS OF PRANAMAYA KOSHA