Back in Yoga School

First full day of year two of my Masters in Yogic Studies at the Amrit Institute in Ocala Florida.

Yoga practice started at 6:00 a.m. with an intense Yoga Nidra session.
Nidra being: The literal translation of Yoga Nidra is Yogic Sleep. It is an ancient form of meditation that will take you into the deepest levels of relaxation while still remaining fully aware. When practicing the Amrit Method of Yoga Nidra, your brainwaves drop into the alpha and theta state. As you progressively enter deeper and subtler brain waves you become more relaxed, integrated, expansive and present. Eventually, you completely shift out of identification with the body, mind and ego. In this deep state beyond ordinary waking consciousness, you naturally re-align with spirit, allowing you to effortlessly disengage from restrictive physical, mental and emotional patterning. Here, you are free to create a life that is an expression of higher consciousness, rather than acquired conditioning. (Amrit Institute)
That flowed into a posture series while maintaining the Nidra state of mind. Gurudev talked after for two hours that felt like five minutes it flowed by so fast. We are investigating the principal of managing Nidra in our practice through awareness of it rising and falling. We got to share our transformative experiences since last years training.
So many miracles have been happening for me since I met Gurudev that it is hard for me to comprehend let alone translate into words. But I did share with him how since coming back from India I have felt cleansed and have not wanted to eat fatty food, or restraunt food and that I can not drink alchohol the way I used to enjoy it. Now I can not finish a glass before I get a migrane and do not want any more. I shared how since returning I feel that I can 'hold a space for people' when they are telling me about challenges or upsets in their lives and allow them to relate their experiences and emotions without it negatively affecting me. I feel like by holding a space for love around people their stories travel through me without it attaching to me and I am able to relate to them from stillness with love. Finally I shared how postures are spontainiously coming to me in the middle of the night and how a cat adopted me and is teaching me much about patience and non attachment to material things like my once nice couch.
The afternoon and evening sessions were very eye opening for me. I think I have realized that I relate to the world from a removed perspective and am detached from most of my physical experiences almost to a hinderance. I can easily 'float out of my body' to a different plane as a means of escape, but that is not what meditation, or Yoga is about. I have had a misconseption. Yoga is a discipline, an investigation in to techniques like prana management or breath controll as a means to tie the physical and energy bodies together for a more powerful experience. Not as a means of escaping from the physical world. This is a new awareness and concept for me. Most people identify with the physical experience as a means of relating to their energy self, I guess I approach things in reverse. So my practice this week will be trying to stay attached to my body in a greater awareness of present time and combine my energy experience with my physical. We shall see. Happy Edge hunting.
Troy