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What's wrong with falling asleep in meditation?
Unless you have a goal in mind, what's wrong with falling asleep meditating? I find it more relaxing that going over the day's happenings, who said what to whom and why, etc. Churning all that around like a rotor-tiller. And still remarkable things do come up in dreams and visions just the same.
Maybe the question should be, Why do some folks have a goal of not falling asleep?
Maybe the question should be, Why do some folks have a goal of not falling asleep?
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I would consider what you describe as "Relaxing before bed" or "Quieting the mind before a nap." Sweet dreams!
The aim is peaceful awareness because this strengthens the mind. But sometimes you just need to accept you are sleepy and have peace with it indeed. Sometimes I just decide to nod off for a while, letting sleepiness be when I notice that is the best way.
But this is not often the case. Most of the times it is like a disinterest in the meditation object. The breath becomes boring for example. If your mind doesn't like to be aware of your meditation object, it often prefers to sleep instead. And to always go sleeping, that's not going to get you in deeper states. You'd be better off in bed!
So try to love to meditate. Think about all the beautiful times you can have if you are aware of it! Awareness is great.
Sabre
I have been doing this since 1974. At first I used to repeat a question over and over again, and get good answers, until I ran out of questions. Since then I wait to see what I will be 'shown', silently, eyes closed in darkness, motionless, not moving at all, not even to scratch an itch (they go away by themselves if left alone.)
I have been known to do this for as much as 8 hours, until my alarm went off, without falling asleep or getting anything. Just lying there silent and motionless. I thought it had only been a few minutes, but even if the clock was wrong the Sun wasn't.
But then other times I have visions or vivid dreams, or even astral travels, which I especially like. When I am aware that I am dreaming, they are interactive, like being in a 3d videogame or something like that. I'm not always human, often not in this world, and often have no body at all, just formless awareness flying at the speed of thought, and penetrating into people and things.
And sometimes I just fall asleep, and that's okay too. I never know what will happen next, and I like surprises and revelations.
But the teacher disagreed: "Let him stay. No one can sleep for seven days."
Sleep all you like. You have to wake up some time.
He probably thought it was a great place to sleep, and maybe sometimes he had angelic dreams. Who knows.
I think meditation is a journey of Self discovery, and everyone should take it at their own pace, learning as they go along, and modifying the common knowledge to suit themselves, as to their best advantage.
So I'm fine with what I'm doing, and I'm fine with what others are doing, even if they are not in agreement with me, or satisfied with their own performance.
So the old monk settles in for a day of solitary meditation outside, on the river bank, but soon the sound of water and birds and wind in the leaves lolled him to sleep. This time, he toppled over and fell into the gentle current of the river. So deep was his sleep that he didn't even wake up, just bobbed on down the stream in meditative pose, floating on his back and snoring.
Now some of the younger monks were tending the garden downstream, and were naturally astonished to see the old monk float past them, snoring away. They laughed and decided to let him stay in the river until he woke up, to teach him a lesson about sleeping in meditation. They also went to tell the Master what happened, still laughing.
The Master shook his head, and said, "The old sleeping monk will soon discover that first there is a river, then there is no river, then finally it is again a river! If only you monks had learned this before now!"
The monks bowed deeply. "We see now that laughing at the old monk's problem was being cruel. Even sleeping monks have Buddha nature. Thank you for the teaching."
"No, you fools," the Master said. "I mean, there's a waterfall further on downstream. Go catch the old monk before he goes over it!"
IMO, beginning meditators especially should make an effort to stay awake. This is because most people are psychologically conditioned to fall asleep when they close their eyes and relaxed. This association should be broken ASAP or it will continue to be enforced, even when sitting up.
I have a friend who would always fall asleep when meditating, even when in front of his private meditation teacher (non-Buddhist)! The teacher never made it a point to address the issue ("Good, you're very concentrated!") and I believe his practice has stalled because of it.
Meditation, in some ways, is the opposite of sleep. That is why the Buddha is called "The Awakened One."
So strive to be awake.
Sometimes you need to sleep A LOT before you can meditate properly. Many people are tired from work or study (or worse, both!) and so their mind lacks sufficient energy to meditate effectively. Take a nap, take two naps, sleep longer at night, whatever you need to do (and have the time to do). Sleep until you wake up naturally, no alarm clock. Then you will be ready to meditate.
Lack of sleep is not the only reason people fall asleep when they meditate, but I would guess that it is most likely the main reason.
If you fight the tiredness you simply replace one hindrance (sleepiness aka "sloth and torpor") for another (restlessness). So fighting the sleepiness is usually not the wisest option, in my opinion.
Metta,
Guy
All you say is true if you've really stressed your mind, but if you fall asleep every time you meditate it is more probably just a lack of interest in meditation or the meditation object. If you take a nap everytime you meditate, the mind will always think it is time to sleep when it sees the meditation cushion and that is not the way. Especially for beginners, they'll start losing interest in meditation because they always think it is just plain boring.
Meditation is about peace yes, so fighting is indeed never wise, but concentration in meditation is just as important. When the mind has nothing it likes to focus on, dullness until the level of sleep just happens, nomatter if you are tired or not. And if you just keep accepting that, it will never improve concentration. If you are focused you can sometimes see this disinterest in the breath happening very clearly and you can just steer the mind away from dullness back into awareness.
I think this is what's going in in this particular case. It's quite clear he doesn't care about awareness, doesn't have a goal, likes sleeping, likes dreams and that's exactly why he keeps falling asleep. But that has nothing to do with meditation, dear Starduster
Starduster, if it still keeps happening, you might like to pick up walking meditation. It's hard to fall asleep when walking
Metta,
Sabre
Maybe you are right. Maybe Starduster can try your suggestion and see if it works.
Metta,
Guy
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however, I have not tested this.
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