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Falling asleep
Lately I've been falling asleep during meditation. A teacher suggested that I try walking meditation. It does keep me awake and focused. I also find a can do a short sitting meditation afterward. Does anyone see a potential problem with this?
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Hi nature lover,
The suggestion from the teacher and the result sounds fine to me!
Kind wishes,
Dazzle
The difference between deep meditation and a lucid dream is very fine one. Both lock out your external senses and you enter your mind. In a lucid dream, you can do anything, including things you are not... umm... expected to do, in the dream.
Falling asleep does not need to be a wasted meditation. What would you have done had you not fallen asleep? Condition yourself to be aware when you are dreaming, always...
What a peculiar idea. Is that like the wind entering the air or vice versa? I'm not trying to be snarky ... I just want to know if there's something I've missed.
In a lucid dream, you are now fully aware. Your senses are entirely and fully controllable. All the "information" that would have been created by outside stimuli, can now be produced by your own mind for the your own mind.
Eventually you will able to make this dream super real. Dream food will taste like real food. Now, start violating your mind's understanding of the Laws of Nature. Fly. Walk through walls. Move objects without touching it.
Most mystics talk about this as some kind of great experience. It is not.
Some equate it with Astral Projection. That's a trap.
You WILL start enjoying the experience and having fun. Avoid that.
You're here to work.
Try to observe what your mind is doing when you violate rules. Do not push it too hard, walking through the wall must feel natural. You should literally feel the violation happen.
Be careful. You will start imagining magic or monsters or spirits. Know: you are creating them. They are like Buddha's Mara. They are only as real as you allow them to be.
Once you are an expert of this. Learn how to force yourself to wake up at any time. I literally mean A-N-Y-T-I-M-E. Instantly.
You MUST learn how to do this. Ultimate control over the mind requires this. No one can teach you how to do this. You must discover it for yourself. It is a function of your own mind.
Once you can do that, and only once you can do that, you can make a dream into a closed loop... something it wasn't meant to do. :-/
Sometimes simple is best
However, I hope you don't stop doing sitting meditation, as I think that practice tends to facilitate concentration more.
If you are an experienced meditator, you might want to try to see why you are suddenly falling asleep.
If you are relatively new, there are some things you can do to stave off sleepiness:
- make sure you are in an alert posture, and maintain it. Don't slouch.
- psych yourself up before you session-- cultivate energy by reflecting on how awesome meditation is and how grateful you are to be able to do it.
- turn your mindfulness on the feeling of sleepiness. It may not actually be sleepiness, so make sure you are not so quick to label it as such. Be wary of any aversive reactions you may have. Just see it with intense mindfulness.
But is this not considered dullness if one falls asleep. How is one to be sharp (aware) and dull at the same time?
I was taught to examine if you are too tired to practice. If so, then just go to bed. If not, then it is just an obstacle to your practice that you will need to get over. many go through this. It is a fine line between to relaxed and too tense.
But if one does not intend to fall asleep, then falling asleep during meditation is an obvious hindrance.
Yes.
No. This interpretation is unskillful and doesn't help the OP any.
In meditation, you want to be fully mindful of what's going on in your mind. But you shouldn't act on what's going on.
Feeling sleepy (feeling the sensation of sleepiness) is distinct from falling asleep (the act of going to sleep). Yes, feel the sleepiness, but don't fall asleep.
In the same way, feel the anger, but don't act on it just because you want to "fully experience it." This would obviously lead to much unhappiness.
OP, if you want to sleep, then get some sleep. But if you're going to meditate, don't... fall... a... sleep! Be awake, literally and figuratively.
However, if you were in half/full lotus position and meditating on a focused purpose and fell asleep... That would be dullness (unless you're narcoleptic