[11] Transforming Obstacles: A Magical Journey of Yoga Nidra with Mayra Lorenzana-Miles

7:07PM Apr 2, 2025

Speakers:

Keywords:

Yoga Nidra

meditation

mind training

obstacles transformation

Shel Silverstein

breathing exercises

relaxation

gratitude

inner work

alchemy

lucid dreamers

inspiration

teaching

mindfulness

spiritual growth.

Yay some of the recidivists I see,

Hi friends. So I've been thinking and thinking about tonight, and what do we want to talk about? And we're going to continue doing what we were doing before, before we begin. And I, I guess I don't, do not know. Do I have new people here that do not know Mayra, that I have to go to the little Hi, so thank you. So my name is Mayra Lorenzana miles, and I'm a long time student of Andrew and a passionate Puerto Rican girl that has been here in the United States March longer over 40 years than in Puerto Rico, but married an attorney. Grandchild is the heart, my heart right now, and so I've been we've been doing this for about a year in this platform, in the way I teach a little bit of meditation. Well, sometimes meditation once a month, and then we've been doing for almost a year now. This is class number 11, Yoga Nidra. And Yoga Nidra being one aspect of meditation, where we relax the body deeply, very deeply, trying not to fall asleep, because it's just to hover in that area in between, the Liminal state where we may tap into answers, creativity, healing. In all this year, I have not spent a class saying and selling it like this. Is why we need Yoga Nidra, because he can cure all illnesses and cure insomnia and cure because I do not believe that there is such such a thing. I think that is another tool in our toolbox, one that I care for deeply, and I think can be magical if we kind of relax into it. And we begin a little bit discussing a little poem from ch Silverstein that I just recite as a as to get in the mind in a fun state, not in a very serious way, for the fun state. And then then we talk a little bit about the slogans we are in, slogan number 11 today, from Atisha, a Bengalis t shirt, and Yogi from the 12th century on, mind training. And then we go into a long 35 to 45 minutes of Yoga Nidra, which I think is like an ideal time for Yoga, Nidra. But today, I do not know why, just because my mind is a little out there after we do the poem. If you guys have around you, maybe five people have a book that you are reading that is some inspiration for you, any teachings and you want to play a game, what we're going to do is we're going to just open the book and five people are going to read where your mind falls and let's, let's See what happens. Okay, so if that is the case, if you find one around and you would like to participate, please, I welcome that. So let's begin any questions before we do. So when I one of my thing is I have a vision disability, so I have to sometimes get really close to the computer or take things to my head to be able to see it. So here we go. And this is the poem by Shel Silverstein, if you're a dreamer, come in if you're a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic bean buyer, if you're pretender, come sit by fire for we have some flex golden tails to spin. Come in and come in. And I think meditation and Yoga Nidra is all about coming in. And today, when I was last trying to get connected here. I got into the basic website. And the title and the website at the beginning for nightclub says where meditators and lucid dreamers meet. I bet How many of you remember that if they say that in the beginning? So nightclub here where we participate in the inspiration that is in the first screen when we open nightclub is where meditators and loser dreamers meet. Isn't that what we're doing? Yeah. And the question is, How come we've been doing this for so long and we don't notice? Yes, we've been talking about awareness, and we don't notice. Um, so the slogan that we have for today is number 11. And to go a little bit more, I was working from Judy leaves of PDF on the 59 slogans of mind training. And we're beginning a part where is how to face obstacles. And I'm also doing two of the courses on mind training on my own, and today, all of a sudden, it makes sense. How can we transform obstacles? They keep us telling us that obstacles are good. Chaos is good because we transform obstacles, and transforming means that it becomes something bad to something good. And it's always kind of like, okay, but it's still bad. It still doesn't feel good. But the transformation is what we were talking in other classes, the transformation of the obstacle, the jewel, part of the obstacle is because we have the chance to react in a different way. And that is the alchemy that is the magic, the opportunity to react differently. And the 11th slogan, after we go through everything that we're going to says when the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps into this path of body, on the path of mind. So isn't that a good timing? Isn't that what we were even talking yesterday in meditation, and being a continuation of that. So how do we transform the mishap? It's not like if I close my eyes and maybe move my lips like to be which everything is going to be different, and I'm going to be in some other heaven. Is the opportunity with the mind training to react in a different way. And the mind training is not looking for perfection like we always have to react in a certain way, in a perfect way, in an angelical way. I just told to help us stop and think about them and we repeat them and repeat them and repeat them again, because that's the way that we ingrain them into the system. Does that make sense? Anybody would like to contribute to that thought? Just shy so after saying that, let's see five quotes of books. Who wants to go first? You can unmute yourself. I don't know if Kate allows to do that. Unmute yourself and find a book and just close your eyes, open the book and see where your eyes fall. You

okay, who comes first?

Okay, I have one.

Okay, go ahead.

This is from Robert a Johnson, a book of shadow, and a quote from Isaac Denison, the Danish author out of Africa who once wrote, There are three occasions for true happiness in human beings. The first is a surplus of energy. The second is the cessation of pain. The third is the absolute certainty that one is doing the will of God. The first is the province of God. The second class only for a brief moment. The third is to be one by virtue of much work, inner work? Well,

we're doing inner work. Thank you. That's a beautiful quote. Let's see how what continues in that? Anything that just do not think it through. It's just open a book. If you have one close by, don't read it first, just read it out loud. Okay,

I opened the book, uh huh, and I were already using it as an AI ch book by Stephen Karcher, and so I opened it to a. The hexagram the field, but my eyes fell on one of the transforming lines, and it bundled in the bag without fault, without praise and a time pregnant with possibility, there's nothing to praise or blame, but you desire is already there. Consider, consider things carefully.

We are there. You made the next one. I feel the vibes in my body. I'm goosebumps all over.

I can read. This is a book called vanishing treasures. It's a bestiary of extraordinary, endangered creatures. This is retire of everything, even miracles. Charles the 10th abdicated. His son ruled for 20 minutes, and La jarath outlived her fame. She died unvisited in 1845 was taxidermied and put in the foyer of the Jardin de plant. But the wild Parisian reaction, it seems to me, was the only reasonable one. It should never have died down. We should still be wearing our hair in 12 inch towers. Why did we ever stop? The earth is so glorious and so unlikely. The giraffe, Stranger than the Griffin, taller than a great high house, offers us the incomparable gift of being proof of it.

Goodness, magical. One more, unless you have more.

Sorry, I just I left out a line. Okay, the giraffe in ups in obscurity as complete. Her entry in the in obscurity as complete. Her entry in the world had been brilliant after she died,

beautiful. One more. This

is from word weird craft by Matthew Ashe return, there's a sacred fire burning within you and me. The flame you tend within your being is not completely yours and yours alone, just as mine is not mine and mine alone. The flame is merely ours on temporary loan. Eventually we must return our flame to the source, the source of the pattern. This flame, this light which has been tended and passed down through the ages by our ancestors, is a great gift, as you and I carry and tend the gift, this gift, it gets brighter and warmer until eventually, others begin to see it and feel it and wonder if it is the same gift they see and feel within themselves. It is. It is a gift of life, light, warmth, love and remembrance. It is a gift of soul and essence made conscious. And it is a gift to be shared as holy and freely as possible.

Wow. So we're all in the mystery. Okay, we're all in that space, and we may have called it in different teachings, in a different way, but actually I feel the same rhythm of the dance I before we do anything else, if you like, to close your eyes and just whatever words remain in your memory of these readings, there be the way that nature talks to us, that unity with God, the oneness, the magic and and all go back to our basic questions.

And if I may say, everything that we have read here goes to a connection, an interplay, and play,

take any hands to the nose

and let it go through your mouth and. You can open your eyes. I have a little more humor. And then we're going to begin with the meditation. We begin with ourselves. We talked last time about giving and taking. Today is making those just allowing the mishaps of life to become our teachers in terms of the opportunity to react in a different way and transform the alchemy of life. So, I don't know if you guys have seen it, but there's this Netflix series called a man in the inside, and he's Ted Danson. It's only eight episodes, and he is, you know, at home of elderly people, they have to have a lot of money because it's so nice in in I feel like sometimes each one of the episodes that was a teaching of some like, I saw a lot of Dharma there, but in the last one I don't want, if you haven't seen give it away, he goes, he knows that he's going to leave the place, and he's with a friend, and they look at each other after a magical day of just doing things around the city, and he looks at them and says, and I paraphrasing, is not exactly when you look back at life, all the great things that happened to you were magical. And I think sometimes in moments like today, and we look back, we look back at these passages that we read today, and there was a certain amount of magic there, and we just don't have sometimes we just open our eyes that that's one of the things that meditation does. And sometimes that's one of the things that Yoga Nidra allows you. It allows you to relax your body to a point with sometimes we even kind of see sparkles so or things get in a higher dimension of color, or we just feel like a little spark in our heart, or we just feel kind of tired, but whatever is it with? There's a shift. There's a shift, and it's a shift in the subtle body. But I always invite us to look at life looking that if, when you tie the dots of the picture, looking back, those things were magical. Okay, so we're going to begin the little sitting. If you want to lay down immediately, you're welcome to do that. I like to begin a little bit of relax section sitting. And then you can stay sitting with me here, or you can lay back in your pouch, in your recliners. Are very good in your bed, if you're going to be in your bed, maybe a little blanket, have a pillow on your under your knees, or you decide. But we're going to begin again with some breath. The more I go our long, the more breath I think that we need just to kind of clean. It's a cleansing. So we're going to have three big exhales to the mouth. So we inhale,

we hold

and we let go, inhale, hold. Imagine that you are really flushing out everything that is not wanting, all the stress or the toxins. Inhale, this time to hold to 234567, exhale and

and then let's take an inhale to six, inhale, hold to four, exhale through your nose to eight. And

inhale, and you hold and you exhale to eight, one more,

hold and let it go.

For some of you, if you like to visualize, you imagine. That the stream or the air comes up, goes like a candy cane toward the back, in front of the spine, all the way to an area behind the belly button, about four finger width down. And when it comes up, comes from there all the way it's the subtle body. Forget about the three channels or something like that. Just imagine like a jet stream cleansing that area of the body. So we're going to inhale, going up, up back, eyes, the nose, the throat, the heart, all the way down. It comes from there, flushing out. You can also imagine, like a laser light,

and the energy goes, where the mind goes, where your thoughts go one more.

Bring into mind a sense of gratitude as to this opportunity,

imagining all the miracles, all the opportunities, all the connections they need to happen for this to happen right now,

and also knowing how fragile this moment is, it's a little bubble in time,

allowing your feet to relax, your sit bones to become heavy, shoulders more or less over the hips, if you are laying a sitting

and if you're laying out down already, just find a little bit of alignment, that if you go into that breathing of the spine, there is a straight line for your spine as much as you can you if you're sitting, the head goes up a little bit, chin comes down and back, opening the back of your neck. If you're laying down, making sure that you are not looking straight up, crunching the back of your neck, but then you are looking more like to the end of the wall, meeting the ceiling a little bit of an angle,

although your eyes are closed, front and back of the shoulders are relaxed, the hands are placed in a manner they can stay here,

finding a sense of stillness, relaxing the muscles of your face, the corners of your eyes and

bringing to mind The inspirations that were read to us this today. I

and now noticing the space around it

for tonight, if you like, just imagine like a bolt of light,

all the walls around you are just pure crystal, like light and.

Now, if you're not laying down, allowing the body to come into a supine position, if that's your favorite pose, is the easiest one for Yoga, Nidra, but does not have to be the only one

finding comfort for your head,

your arms to your side again,

checking with the back of The head that you are not looking straight up, allowing the feet to flare to the sides. And if you're sitting, allowing the knees to open a little bit so you relax your sit bones And

a mind training whatever way to decide to there would be with concentration other disciplines, the slogans or the teachings.

I was the tool to become aware of what is going on in our bodies, in our hearts, In our minds.

Then we make the practice hours you

So for now, if you're laying down of your sitting just imagining that you are just laying back in the most comfortable mattress and

where your body makes contact to the perfect pressure and comfort to every part of your body, and you just slowly allow the body to just fall into place, to a sense of ease, like it's floating. So maybe the right shoulder, the left the spine, your seat,

the heels,

the head,

and you become one with the surface, And at the same time, you are so light and

notice In the back of the head, imagining your hairline and

drop in

your jaw, relaxing the back of your eyes, And the energy keeps coming down to your shoulders, flowing from the shoulders to your fingers, almost like it empties out of the fingers.

The chest is open and

the heart is completely completely open and exposed, and there's no fear of hurt and.

Solar Plexus, your glutes, your stomach,

knees, lower legs, ankles and feet.

And he says, You can breathe through every pores of your body towards the heart and

softly, like a way, without too much effort, you inhale towards the heart and you exhale from the heart to every pores of the body, far, far far away.

And you inhale from every corner of this universe through your forest all the way to your heart,

and you exhale From there all the way out, far, far away and

and you come back into the heart.

And in there you set an intention for your Yoga Nidra, And you repeat the your guiding tension three times. And

if you have a specific mantra or to a specific teacher, you may just invite them for this morning moment of your intention, you

then we're going to go a little deeper into relaxation, just placing your attention in different areas of the body, softly, gently, and try to wait for the next part, stay if you can

try not to fall asleep. When you're falling asleep, there will be the moment where you can hover and experience sensations being less inspiration.

So bringing the attention to the right palm index, index finger, middle red finger, right little finger. Maybe you feel your fingers vibrating, relaxing and letting go the top of that right hand, the palm, right wrist, right elbow and right shoulder,

your right arm and.

The front of the right shoulder, the back underneath the arm, the right side of your chest, your waist, the area between your ribs, spacious, open and relax. The right side of your stomach,

right hip,

maybe you have a little visual of your leg,

the right thigh, knee, lower leg,

the right ankle,

heel, the top of the right foot,

The bottom,

your big toe, second, third, one.

For letter to

your right foot is open and relax and

even imagine in The spaces between your toes,

your right leg,

the right side of Your body, including the right arm.

It feels airy, boundless. Balance, open

the left thumb,

index finger and

middle

ring,

little finger and

fingers, but feel like they're vibrating your energy. Relax and let them go. The top of that left hand and

in the palm,

the wrist,

open, pure energy, the elbow, the shoulder,

The left arm, from your shoulder to your fingers, spacious. And relax

the front of that left shoulder,

the back and.

The area underneath that are vibrating

effortless

the left side of the chest and the waste, the area between the ribs, spacious,

vibrating and open

The left side of your stomach, area,

left Hip,

ah, by

knee, left lower leg,

ankle and your heel, the top of that left foot.

The bottom,

vibrating. Open your toes, beginning with the big Toe,

second third, fourth. Pluto.

This phase, spaces between your toes open.

Your left foot as a whole,

your left leg,

the left side of your body, from your shoulder to your toes,

relax

vibrating energy. Let go.

Now, imagining both legs, spacious, vibrating and imagine in The space your legs occupy.

Now, imagining your torso, from your shoulders to your arms, your chest and your back.

And imagine in the space your torso occupies,

open

no inside and no outside, no up and no down, just open and relax

now, bringing the attention to the area that your Whole body, from your shoulders to your toes, occupy and

the back of the head and.

Your forehead,

the outer corners of your eyes,

the inner corners of your eyes,

the back of your eyes,

and as if you could be floating In outer space,

open,

spacious,

pure light,

your nose,

the back of your nose, your

mouth and

The sides of your tongue,

the back

your jaw,

your ears.

Now, imagine In this space your head occupies, and

now Imagine in this space your whole body occupies, and

allow me Now for a few minutes, I would be quiet.

Whatever thoughts, ideas, questions you may have, you may Ask You

Slowly, without moving. See if you remember what was the last image or thought that you just had.

What about before That one I

What inspires you? What

What brings A smile to Your face and

what Can you rejoice about today?

Let go of all the images or thoughts. Just relax your body further, just letting go and.

And maybe coming to that heart area and just remembering your intentions at the beginning of this practice, and if you like, repeat it to yourself three more times you

if you like, bringing the image to that Wall of energy and light that was around you, that is around you,

and Then coming to about four feet from your body

to two feet from your body, noticing that the body gets a little heavier, a little Bit more solid, your skin, your muscles, Your bones,

your organs,

your breath and

and begin to take deeper breaths on your own,

without moving too fast and

if you're laying down, you may want to roll to one side or the other for A couple of breath and

you can begin to bring movement to your wrist and your ankles, maybe moving the head from side to side, very gently and

and then slowly, if you're not and if you like, to join us in the sitting position again in front of the screen. And

maybe the only thing that we have to say just to smile, any comments. Oh, Joe, thank you.

So you cannot mute yourself if you want to say something, I could not stop thinking about the readings that we had, although I did not remember with details, there was one word in each one, like God, giraffe, magic, and they kept coming like little puzzles that were feeding the space of the meditation. So I don't know if anybody had that experience. Many times in after this meditation, silence is the best compliment.

I heard I saw your hand and Joe, but I didn't know if you were trying to say something.

Thank you so much. Leave now, but thank you. That was beautiful. Thank

you. Thank you for joining us.

Yes, it looks like we're very religious here. So quiet and peaceful. I think mission accomplished. Oh, thank you. It's very nice. Yes, did it make a lot of sense? Do you feel the body just getting a little lighter?

Oh, yes, and tingly?

Yeah, that's a subtle body talking to you. Yeah. I

so I go back to the beginning, and thank you for sharing, and thank you for playing, thank you for sharing the tales that we're sharing. And I the common out. The common aspect of the path comes together in in some funny ways, and sometimes we just have to just be open enough to to receive, to let it unveil. So Thank you always for allowing me to spin my tails. And hopefully they are not my tales, but they are just sharing experiences of teachings that I have received like I always say, any mistakes that I make in the interpretation of the slogans or something more formal, they are all mine and my interpretation, I know those of the teachers and the teachings that are out there. I invite all of us before to think about not only sharing the merit to everybody, but look at this screen and imagine in the heart, in the commonality of all of us, and we are just a little representation of all sentient beings. So whatever we accumulated today, whatever married knowledge, even of what we didn't like, is one that we can share so others can also know what they like or dislike. What makes them grow, what makes him smile, what makes him dance? Anything else? Okay, so we do the same thing again, and this is just like a the way that I close all my classes, and I've been doing this for many years, but it's almost like a symbolism of just take it, gathering all the energy around you and coming together in the hands. Have a little bit of space in between, just gathering that energy, and we go body, speech and mind with a sense of lightness and reverence to the magic of life. Sweet dreams tonight, may your awakened hearts grow and flourish ever more and more. Namaste. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We see you soon.