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Falling asleep..
OneLifeForm
Veteran
the past couple sits I've had the only thing I could do really was snap myself into being awake.. constantly falling into a dream. I'd be out for a moment only but it happened soooooooo many times and was exhausting really.
They say there is no bad sit but it appears I'm practicing like a Tibetan now!
I've been on the same schedule for the past couple of weeks and it hasn't been like this up until the last two or three daze.
Experience, insight, advice, etc. etc.?
Thanks
They say there is no bad sit but it appears I'm practicing like a Tibetan now!
I've been on the same schedule for the past couple of weeks and it hasn't been like this up until the last two or three daze.
Experience, insight, advice, etc. etc.?
Thanks
0
Comments
I've been going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time too. I don't know.
Your present meditation does fall into the description of uncomfortable but that is not much different than the flip side of all your other sits which were agreeable.
If meditation does not allow anything to arise that you are not capable of facing, think of the repeated unexplained torpor as just the enforcement of that truth. When you are ready to address what ever is causing this drowsiness, you just will.
The worst case I saw was one poor soul who suffered through years of repeated head dropsy and recovery, probably once a minute. His body bobs were like a flickering candle in the zendo and yet he continually persisted. His movements drew complaints from his sitting neighbours but all were in awe of his unending efforts.
In his particular case he eventually recognized that he had a right livelihood problem. He gave up his job as a scientist who daily dissected live fish for the government and his meditative snoozing ended that very same day. Everytime he had come close to meditatively unearthing the core issue in his life practice (that apparently he wasn't yet ready to face) something switched him off.
Not everyones case is so dramatic but I have been on the receiving end of many variations of such stories for many years.
Most who just persist just eventually find themselves beyond such experiences without cognitively uncovering a direct dharmic cause.
The point is to remain open that this may also be a pivotal teaching for you.
I have been noticing fear come up quite a bit lately.
I have trouble accepting where I am currently at, at this stage in the game and I think that may well be a big factor in why my sits havent seemed to be really getting me anywhere.
Kind of like I've been consciously refusing to look at what is really going on.
The head dropsy serves as a "justifiable" distraction.
It is funny, I get done with the just sitting portion and go on to recitations and other things and I'm completely awake.. and then after sometimes I exercise and eat breakfast and I don't feel that drowsiness at all.
It is that fast of a switch.
Like my ego is fighting hard for me to keep ignor(ance)ing
I have recently altered a lot of things in my lifestyle for the forseeable future and it is something that is not agreeable with the habits I was adjusted to before.
I had a lot of distractions before. Now, not so much.. no where to "hide" so to type.
As awareness grows I'd be wise to respond accordingly.
Due to ignorance though I sometimes want to pretend that I'm not aware.
It's a helluva thing.
It passes.
We have busy lives, with a lot of sensual stuff going on, so the mind is going to be tired. Yeah, what you gonna do? There are tricks and stuff to prevent certain kinds of dullness, but it's quite difficult to recognize which types these are and I found out 90% of the time the best thing is just to not fight sleepiness. Just sit and be sleepy. That way it'll soon pass when the mind has rested in the sleepy mode. I had many meditations where after 20 or 30 minutes of sleepy absence the mind suddenly changed like the sun sometimes suddenly cuts through the clouds. That's the way the mind works. You leave it alone, it'll know what to do.
If it becomes more of a systematic problem, you can always try some of the other approaches, but chances are just letting things be will do the trick.
With metta,
Sabre
We're all in the process of "training" our brains to be more mindful. All training regimens have bumps and turns in the road. It's all about maintaining effort in the right directing. Our brains naturally think we're going to sleep when we close our eyes and relax our body. Eventually, that'll change.
Hang in there.
I didn't really fight it too much today and I think that helped though I still experienced the drowszzzzz.
Do you close your eyes when you are meditating?
I do not and find it extremely difficult. I think the first recommendations I had for meditation before I really started was to keep them open as later on the eyes being closed could become an obstacle or something like that.
The rational being that it is better to learn to meditate with the eyes open for that is how we spend the conscious part of our day and it makes it easier to move the meditation over into our daily lives.
There are pros and cons with both the eyes open and the eyes closed. I'd go with what ever method your teacher or school recommends.
At this point I do either but most folks find that for the stability of the practise, at least for the first few years, it's best to just stick with one form or the other.