What is Nyasa?
Nyasa is a Sanskrit word which translates as "placing," "applying," or
"touching." But it is much more.
Nyasa is the conscious act of touching or placing the fingers or hands
on sacred, sensitive, or medicinally active points of the body. In
hindu tantric meditations and pujas, the practitioner lays his hands on
himself in each of these places, in special sequences.
The meditator infuses each location with a special mantra,
visualization, or feeling, which is spoken aloud or mentally conjured.
In the case of nyasa during tantric maithuna (sacred sexuality), the
male anoints each part of the female with aromatic oils, ashes, or
sandalwood paste, and the touching and mantra infusion both sanctifies
each body part, arouses it sensually, and creates empathy, or
connection, between the partners.
In modern western terms, nyasa creates mind-body connections by linking
together neural networks, merging physical sensation in the body with
thoughts and feelings of sanctity, joy, devotion, protection, and
warmth. It is the predecessor (by thousands of years) of the practice
of "anchoring" thoughts and behaviors in modern Ericksonian
hypnotherapy and in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).
In eastern spiritual terms, nyasa is a consecration, a ritual
protection (through invocation and the creation of sacred space
*within* the body), sensuality and foreplay (in the case of maithuna),
and a physicalized meditation on divinity of the the body itself.
Interestingly, the guided relaxations taught at the end of most yoga
classes today, and called "yoga nidra" (yogic sleep), were originally
complicated mental nyasa, in which the practitioner would relax on her
back and mentally "place" the sound of a mantra in each part of her
body, accomplishing relaxation, connection, and sanctification all at
once.
In the early 1960s, Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of
Yoga decided that the religious overtones of this practice might repel
many westerners who might otherwise benefit from yoga. So, by his own
admission, he created "yoga nidra" by combining traditional yogic
technique with western hypnotic relaxation and the information he read
in Herbert Benson's seminal 1960's work "The Relaxation Response."
Before 1960, "yoga nidra" did not exist as you see it in classes today. There was only nyasa and the
dream yoga techniques known as "nidra yoga."
To experience a simplified, non-religious western nyasa, try the
following:
First, close your eyes visualize a yellow smiley face, just like the
ones made popular in the seventies and now seen on email "emoticons."
A big, happy smiley face right in your palm, and the size of your palm.
Look at your imagined yellow smiley face until you start to smile.
Now, with your eyes closed, "place" that smiley face in the center
of
your chest, by touching your palm to your chest, rubbing your palm in
gentle circles, and saying the word "happy" a few times out loud.
Then repeat this "placing," this time on your belly, placing the smiley
face in your belly by rubbing your belly gently with your palm,
visualizing the smiley face laughing out loud, and saying "happy".
Feel the results.
Notice the changes in your body.
Warmth, tingles, circulation, connection, joy?
Now repeat the process, touching any part of your body that needs it -
sore joints, achy sinuses, whatever. The more you repeat the practice,
the more you can't help smiling - and you'll feel warmth and blood
rushing to each area where you "place" the smiley face... Mind-body
medicine at it's simplest.
Smile, breathe right, and keep your tongue up!
Your Friend,
Tao Semko of www.UmaaTantra.com
P.S.
You can learn and practice authentic tantric visualizations, with or
without mantra, in Santiago Dobles's Secrets the Gurus Will Never Show You, available from Smashan Press.