Customer Reviews

Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga

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Richard Miller's Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga delivers on it's promise. Not only will you discover and deepen your inner peace, but you will understand how to find it again and again, until, like Miller, it lives within you all the time. The book provides the philosophical underpinnings for the practice, offers concrete applications, and inspiring anecdotes about people who have overcome fears, phobias and other obstacles in their lives. On the accompanying CD, Miller leads you on a journey (one you can repeat every day for the rest of your life) to discover, beneath your current mood, beneath your body's aches and pains, and beneath your mind's self-limiting beliefs, the vastness of who you really are. I often use the CD at the end of my own morning sadhana. He is the teacher I turn to for inspiration. This is a simple and effective Yogic strategy for obtaining and sustaining positive mental health.

Yoga Nidra may not necessarily be what some people are expecting. This form of guided meditation doesn't have you envisioning warm sunshine over the body or the sound of a babbling stream. Instead, you are guided through a series of sensing exercises as you examine the relationship between emotions and feelings and their effect on the body - eventually helping you to realize the duality created by the mind that ultimately causes suffering. For instance, you are asked to notice the constriction of the heart as you think about a time when you felt closed off to a person or situation. Then you are guided away from being directly in those feelings, observing them instead. I've been practicing this for some time in the form of vipassana meditation, and Yoga Nidra is a nice supplement to that practice.

The CD is very well produced and Richard Miller's voice and pacing are quite good. His instructions are clear, without talking too much. Some meditation CDs are very wordy to the point of distraction, but this one isn't like that.

However, the book that comes with the CD is in desperate need of an editor. I'm a yoga teacher and generally used to reading flowery material, but this one goes over the top. I found myself reading and rereading sentences trying to cut through all the adjectives to get to the meaning. I think Richard Miller's points are often lost in his overly descriptive text. A good editor would do this book a great deal of service.

I don't think you necessarily need the book to get something from the CD. However, it is useful to understand what the meditation is all about b/c it isn't the same as other forms. It's a shame that his text makes the practice seem overly involved. As such, it took me an extra few weeks to get around to listening to the CD b/c the book made it seem like the meditation was going to be a lot of work.

My advice is to listen to the CD and THEN read the book, even though Richard Miller says otherwise.

Richard Miller has masterfully packed this small yet rewarding book with lead after lead to self-realization. The book not only contains a careful stage-by-stage walk through of Yoga Nidra but also includes personal stories of experiences from his students that help illuminate the simple and precious beauty of self exploration contained within the practice. Miller's use of analogies and vivid, colorful, concise language weaves a connection between psychology and Eastern spiritual philosophy that creates a supurb introduction to Yoga Nidra. This book is crammed with depth and I recommend it for beginning and advanced practitioners alike! No matter what form of yoga or meditation you practice, this book will compliment your development as few other introduction books do. Enjoy!

I am happy to have this little yet powerful book in my hands. I have practiced Yoga Nidra with Richard on retreat, but this little gem with accompanying CD has given me the opportunity to deepen my practice at home. Chapter 2, gives me the goodies of understanding such as the sheaths and stages of the practice as well as breaking down the steps. Richard makes a lovely connection between the Zen steps of progression which lead to awakening and the movements which happen within us as we expereince the return "to what you have been all along, infinite, unlimited spacious Presence." It is the on going practice with Richard's Yoga Nidra that has helped me to STOP the search....and just be.

With this gem of a book, Richard Miller beautifully unfolds the principles of Yoga Nidra in a fresh and accessible way. An ancient practice of meditation, Yoga Nidra leads one into an expansive self-awareness, and a meaningful connection with transcendent being. With the accompanying CD, Richard masterfully leads the listener deeper into a meditative experience of welcoming all that is.

I switch back and forth between using this CD and Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati's Yoga Nidra CD. Between the pair of them, I have gotten tremendous results. Because I use meditation to supplement treatments for illness, I can see how much it has effectively touched my entire life. My body heals faster and my treatment sessions have become much more effective and I am progressing so much faster. The more I practice meditating, the more effective it becomes and yoga nidra has become such a powerful tool on the road to recovery.

I am a 60-year-old woman who has struggled with severe insomnia since her mid-twenties. I have used many strategies to help with this, some with more success than others. This book and CD have been very useful tools for me. It's emphasis is a form of meditation that you can take with you into your daily life. I have only been practicing it for a month now (although I have long practiced yoga) with very promising results.

I fell asleep each time I tried to use this. I think it would be better to take a workshop or class. I donated it to the public library book sale.

I find the guided exercise CD to be a key benefit of this product... it allows the listener to be in the body with a kind of awareness that can only be transformative (with practice), and Miller's insights on first-hand experience and knowing are skillful confirmation of authentic spiritual learning rooted in personal presence...

I have tried a couple of meditation CDs including Jack Kornfield who I still admire very much. However, this one to date is my favorite. This DVD is like a good yoga practice, turning inward, sensing the body, and creating relaxation by balancing both sides of the brain. His voice is very peaceful, lulling you into a deep relaxation. Helpful for those nights you need help falling asleep.