Resistance is Yoga Sadhana


The practice of yoga nidra is a wonderful way to deepen the connection between the full range of consciousness and your physical body. It is enjoyable and helpful to practice it on an occasional basis — we did it for the last class of the session in the Willow Street gentle/therapeutics class and you all are welcome to come to the New Year’s Yoga Nidra workshop on Sunday, January 4th — but it can be even more productive as a regular weekly practice.
Here are some good resources if you have found yoga nidra helpful and want to find out more about it and establish a home practice:
To read more about yoga nidra, I recommend the following books, both of which I believe are available at Willow Street Yoga Center.
These CD’s lead you through yoga nidra practices of various lengths and emphasis:
For finer photos, take a look on line at what photographers with big lenses and tripods (or maybe even telescopic cameras) have done. If I’d gone for a walk, I could have taken a picture of a big red moon over the dome. I’m just imagining that I did that (imagination sometimes being as good as the “real thing”), as I get ready to get back into bed under a cat for another hour and half of sleep before getting up to practice.
The camera may not lie, but it certainly, like our own perception of things relative to that of others, have a distorted or unique perspective. One of the essential principles of the yoga world view is that of maya or illusion. In classical yoga, everything in the world is illusion; the only thing that is real is Atman–ultimate consciousness or god. In the tantric world view, the role of maya is more complicated. It essentially boils down to the idea that we are under an illusion when we think of the world and divinity as separate, and that this illusion of separation leads to a suffering of the individual spirit. Whether one hold with either of these world views or not, it is always true that thinking our limited perception is the only truth will likely lead to discord, misunderstanding, and strife.