Sasanarakkha Buddhist Sanctuary 2015: all 14 Lying meditations

[Kit_L]

Just back from SBS. Here in order from Day 1 to Day 14 are all the recordings. Much better audio this time; we used Line 6 headsets–transmitters to receivers, and took the sound directly out of the mixing deck to the recorder. Even on the last day, where there was heavy-duty construction literally on one of the adjoining walls, all audio is a clear as a bell. Enjoy; comments welcome and please share with your friends.

 

 

 

 

Day 1 (Introduction and general):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-1st-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

kitlaughlin.com/bodypress/1st-Lying-Meditation-SBS2015.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 (General, variation):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-2nd-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

kitlaughlin.com/bodypress/2nd-Lying-Meditation-SBS2015.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 ('Watching breathing', exercise in perception):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-3rd-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Tracking-Breathing.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 (Feeling breathing; exercise in perceiving differences in self-instruction):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-4th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Feel-Breath.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 5 (Variation on perceiving/experiencing breathing):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-5th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-3rd-breathing.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6 (Pausing the breath briefly at end of in breath):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-6th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Pause_Breath.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 7 (Counting the breath to see if you are staying awake!):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-7th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Count_Breath.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 8 (Pausing breath both in and out):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-8th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Pause-Breath-In-Out.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 9 (Finding serenity amidst noise; this is how the presenter adapts to what is happening):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-9th-Lying-Meditation-SBS-Serenity-Amidst-Noise.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 10 ("Skeleton" practise: only the main headings and lots of space):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-10th-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 11 (increasing awareness via tiny movements):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-11th-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 12 (Finding Serenity in the Body):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-12th-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

Day 13 (Trying to find Serenity amidst much Noise!):

 

 

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2015-13th-Lying-Meditation-SBS.mp3

 

 

 

 

 

I have loaded each of the above URLs; they all work fine for me, but please let me know if they work for you.

 

[Nathan]

Thanks Kit - the links all worked fine for me. 

[zenwoof]

Thank you for the holiday gifts

 

Can you just disable the mp3player? It's either a function of a plugin, the IP Board software, or the theme...

[Kit_L]

@zenwoof: the board software is vanilla, and appears not to have any plugins. Do you have any suggestions where to look for mp3 players—or are these a feature of the browser being used, I wonder (and I would not want to disable that for my use). Interesting.

[jon.valentine]

Thanks Kit! You are, as always, a mensch.

 

Time to start a lying meditation practice methinks. I always get a lot out of it when I do one, but never do it consistently; that needs to change.

[Kit_L]

Even more than sitting, IMHO, lying needs daily practise until you can stay wide awake but completely relaxed for the drill. Dividends are paid quickly after this point.

[zenwoof]

@zenwoof: the board software is vanilla, and appears not to have any plugins. Do you have any suggestions where to look for mp3 players—or are these a feature of the browser being used, I wonder (and I would not want to disable that for my use). Interesting.

 

Odd, then the mp3player must be native functionality of IPBoard, and as such there should be an option to disable it in the admin settings?

 

Well, looking at your source code, 'http://kitlaughlin.com/forums/public/mp3player.swf' is the source of the mp3player. Perhaps deleting this file will prevent the board from converting links to an embedded flash player.

[Kit_L]

@ZW, would I not also need to delete the file that calls that extension, too, to avoid problems? Let's talk about this off-line.

[Nathan]

@Kit, yes, that may cause problems without doing some extensive (manual) editing of configuration files. I tried looking at the IP Board configuration documentation for options related to the embedded Flash MP3 player, but the online documentation is not very good at all. I suppose you've already gone through the configuration panel looking for any options mentioning Flash, plugins, etc.? 

[Admin]

Thanks Nathan and Alex: deleted the tag that called the hideous .swf player. Now it works the way I want it to! Thank you both.

[zenwoof]

Question regarding "the practice is over": how long do you stay in yoga nidra? As I practice at sleep time, I usually disregard when you say that, and try to remain in that yogic sleep state for as long as I can, until I am overcome by sleep.

[Kit_L]

For most people, I recommend that the practise not be done on their bed because the association with sleep is too strong (and they fall asleep). But if you are still awake, and are holding that state, you can continue it as long as you like. 

 

I like to separate the practises only to enhance awareness. I do them on the floor, on a thin mat, and then get into bed. The relaxation stays and sleep comes easily. Something you could try once the recording ends is breath counting—see what is the last number you remember (the next day, I mean). Breath counting will tell you whether you are really awake.

[Craig]

Kit your post reminded me - another interesting "whether you are awake" practice that my friend had was in the morning to keep a note book and write down the first thought you remember having in the morning. It was part of his dream practice, I tried it for a bit but never made progress as I didn't use the recommended note book. Might be worth an experiment if someone wants to do it!

[Rik]

Kit your post reminded me - another interesting "whether you are awake" practice that my friend had was in the morning to keep a note book and write down the first thought you remember having in the morning. It was part of his dream practice, I tried it for a bit but never made progress as I didn't use the recommended note book. Might be worth an experiment if someone wants to do it!

My lucid dream practice when I was younger has taught me that you're absolutely going to forget a bunch of stuff if you don't immediately pounce on that first thought on waking. You don't have to use a notebook, you can use a sheet of paper to take notes and then use those to write it out later.

[jaja]

Hi, Kit.

I spent 10 days practicing daily these lying meditations and, I have to say, they helped immensely; thank you for your suggestion.

I am, however, concerned with something I (think I) learned through the practice: I have quite a lot of tension on my face and not all of it is to be connected with my jaw as I previously thought. In fact during the lying meditation I'm able to relax my jaw muscles and almost the entire body…except for the area surrounding my eyes. I'm taking about eyebrows, cheeks and even nose; it's really intense and sometimes is almost the only thing I can perceive. It lasts for the entire session and disappear (or at least I think so) moments after I get up.

Do you have any suggestion? Aside from that, the only other muscle that doesn't always relax is my left trapezius.

[zenwoof]

@ jaja : Have you continued your practice, and found yourself still unable to relax the area surrounding the eyes? I don't have an answer for you, but having done yoga nidra at least 60 times the past few months, I'm inclined to say yoga nidra is exposing tension around your eyes that you were unaware of, rather than creating it.

[jaja]

@ jaja : Have you continued your practice, and found yourself still unable to relax the area surrounding the eyes? I don't have an answer for you, but having done yoga nidra at least 60 times the past few months, I'm inclined to say yoga nidra is exposing tension around your eyes that you were unaware of, rather than creating it.

 

Yes, most certainly those tensions are always present although I'm not usually aware of them. Now that I've practiced daily for almost a month I can say things are overall better when my life is somewhat smoother (which is not surprising), but still the face is a weak spot for me. I've also practiced without listening to those audio files for as long as I was comfortable doing, in those sessions I noticed it takes me an hour or so to be (almost) completely relaxed.

 

I want to point out a couple of nice side effects

 

•  Yoga nidra seems to be doing wonders for my anterior pelvic tilt, more than stretching and corrective exercises have ever done! Now I'll be really happy if it could do the same even for my foreword head posture, if so I'll be able to straighten completely my spine — currently I'm using a small pillow under my head.
• Right after the practice (and sometimes even for several hours) I'm able to breathe deeply and feel it even in my pelvic floor. When it happens I feel I have more energy! I lift weights easily, hatha yoga feels fantastic, I can maintain my meditation posture indefinitely and my voice is more deep. I believe it has a lot to do with my abdomen being more relaxed, but unfortunately tensions come back really fast. Is there here in the forum a resource on that? Maybe some stretching or massages I can do to soften those tissues?

[Kit_L]

@ Jaja: read the thread started by Olivia, if you have not already (if you have, read it again):

 

http://kitlaughlin.com/forums/index.php?/topic/789-muscle-tension-and-flexibility/

 

What ZW suggested above ("I'm inclined to say yoga nidra is exposing tension around your eyes that you were unaware of, rather than creating it") is likely 100% accurate (don't you hate that?)

 

And the solution is to keep going. To have the incredible effects you note above after 10 days (think about this amount of time in relation to the length of your whole life, which is where these patterns come from) is $%^ amazing, isn't it? And ZW's 60 days is two-thirds of the way there, if you really want to change any deeply held habits (three lunar months is a staple in the spiritual world).

 

Muscular tension is just another deeply held habit; no one thinks about it this way.

 

Keep going; great work.

[zenwoof]

When I first read jaja's post, I was actually extremely excited for him (as I would be if I was in his shoes). To become aware of tension you've been holding, especially tension around the eyes, means that awesome gains in the 'yoga of daily life' (as Kit calls it) are ahead of you, when you finally release that tension. At least I've found that to be the case...

 

Kit, I've just recently played around and done a couple yoga nidra sessions on my own; after listening to recordings for so long, I feel I have a sufficient amount of cues memorized. What is your take on self-driven yoga nidra sessions, absent of any audio recordings?

[jaja]

Thank you for you words, Kit.

 

Things are going fine, I think I'm progressing! I have some issues, but I'll try to work through them on my own before asking too much newbie questions. Regarding the thread you linked, I keep reading it because it's so dense of informations I'm not sure I'm grasping them all; moreover I don't really know what road should I follow to accomplish my goals (maybe zenwoof could help with this bit). As for now, I'm experimenting with some breathing techniques borrowed from Daoism; I think I can sense they could help soften the rigidity of my abdomen and allow me to breath freely.

 

Any input is welcome.

 

Thank you.

[Kit_L]

Alex asked:

 

 

 

What is your take on self-driven yoga nidra sessions, absent of any audio recordings?

 

This is my daily practise, every day. And in time, if you can stay present, you will not need to work your way around the body, either; all sorts of other interesting things will arise. A definite yes from me on this.

[jaja]

all sorts of other interesting things will arise.

 

Like, for example, involuntary movements of the body? Because that's just happened to me. My left shoulder started doing circles and my face contracted in a grim, then my right shoulder started moving too…and the movement involved also my arms. My back muscles joined the party and later on my abdomen made me tale-tucking really hard while my chest was pulled towards my slightly bended knees. You get the picture. After an hour or so of those movements coming in “waves”, I decided it was time to stop.

 

It's been the weirdest experience of my life and, in a way, also the coolest. Kit, could you please tell me if I should be worried? Also, since it's evident I carry a huge amount of tension in my body: should I suspend my strength training?

[Keilani Gutierrez]

wow, jaja.

that reminds me of one time meditating (lying down) where I started tearing up and feeling the overwhelming relief of getting something off my chest, only without having the stressful event occur. it felt nice.

how did the experience make you feel, before you got worried? i would offer seeing this as the indication of what to do. i too carry tension and frequently get bursts of flexibility in intervals. everyone has more or less the same stuff, with slight variations. whats fascinating im finding, is that like in chemistry, sometimes small variations can produce different results.

still, sounds like an interesting experience nothing to be alarmed about, i feel.

[jaja]

Hi, KG, it was indeed interesting! As well as mysterious, that's why I'd like to read Kit's perspective on this.

 

Anyway, I opened a thread to discuss this in detail and I think my last comment have the answer to your question. 

[Kit_L]

Short reply here: keep on with the strength training, but stretch out what you've been working once you are done (it's much easier to stretch when everything's hot, too).

 

Do not worry; the body is way smarter than we are!