Introduction

2500 years ago, Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, a treatise on knowledge of the Self, defined yoga as “the state that appears when mental activity is suspended”. This text, which holds our Self up to ourselves much like a mirror, is considered one of mankind’s treasures, having endured through the ages and cultures. Still today, it speaks to the needs of modern man unable to hold on to his bearings.

The End of Suffering

Its principal function is to slow down mental activity and bring us to a state of openness linking us to the “life force”. This state of great serenity is traditionally referred to as Sat-Chit-Ananda ( Being-Consciousness-Joy).

It is Yoga, without asanas, practiced lying down or sitting. In the first phase, it starts by inducing states of deep relaxation and developing a tension-free degree of concentration. In the second phase, it reduces mental chatter to arrive at the recognition of thought patterns. In the third phase, it leads towards states of peace and silence well beyond our intellectual faculties.

Teaching Nidrā Yoga is a way to take part in the effort to maintain the equilibrium so threatened by contemporary life. Remarkably suited to our era, it is a traditional activity to relieve those who suffer in their daily life. In the frenetic rhythm of our society, the urgent necessity to recover a sense of self and relaxation and bring about a re-centering is both urgent and growing world-wide. In responding to these fundamental needs, the teacher of Nidrā Yoga plays a social role while being devoted to passing on an ancestral lore, bearer of trust and personal dignity.