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Stevo
Australia
4 Posts |
 Posted - May 12 2013 : 11:09:42 PM
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Hi all,
I have a question that i'd like to throw out there! I have been meditating for about 1.5 years and i use the breath as my focus point during meditation. I have discovered recently that I am able to keep my attention on my breathing for most of the time i am meditating, and also during the day when i am off the cushion. This has lead to a huge reduction in mental chatter.
However, i find that the main distruption to this new found mental clarity is sleep! I can go to bed one night with a clear mind, only to wake the next day with anything but! It usually takes 2 meditation sessions that next day to get back to where i was the previous night. So, although i'm happy with my progress, i feel that my practise is stagnating. I should add that it seems to be independent on whether or not I had a good nights sleep. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any tips for over coming this hurdle?
Thanks in advance!
Stevo |
Edited by - Stevo on May 12 2013 11:55:48 PM |
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Mykal K
Germany
267 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2013 : 06:10:35 AM
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Hi Stevo,
quote:
However, i find that the main distruption to this new found mental clarity is sleep! I can go to bed one night with a clear mind, only to wake the next day with anything but! It usually takes 2 meditation sessions that next day to get back to where i was the previous night. So, although i'm happy with my progress, i feel that my practise is stagnating. I should add that it seems to be independent on whether or not I had a good nights sleep. Has anyone had a similar experience? Any tips for over coming this hurdle?
IMO, things look good. There seems to be some inner purification at work, which is good. This is nothing to worry about. Proceed with your practice, it seems to be going just well.
Mykal K
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ak33
Canada
229 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2013 : 07:28:43 AM
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| Yes, I can relate. My sleep has not been good for many months now, I wake up with the same problems you do. But I have found it does not affect my practices much, so proceed as planned. |
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2013 : 2:59:11 PM
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Stevo, I would say that holds true for not just meditation, but everything overall. There are only two real exceptions I've noticed. The first would be memory which consolidates information or skills learned the previous day. A second is a balancing or priming effect, where for example the effort (disruption of balance) exerted the previous day towards some goal becomes easier (balanced), though it also works the other way where lack of effort makes that same exertion less effective the following day.
For one, wakefulness and sleep fall within the cyclical nature of everything, maya, relativity, where the net result of all activity cancels out. In the words of Nisargadatta Maharaj, "in my world, nothing happens." I believe it was the Shaivite-Tantric seers that introduced the core principle of immanence that makes a sadhana at all possible. It is finding the transcendental within the mundane or densely contracted and arranging it in such a way that it forms a bridge to the beyond. At ever-finer levels, we are told of a causal body that mediates and even manifests the condition of successive denser bodies in the cycle of life in a way that parallels the more shallow states of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep.
So the effect of your meditation isn't lost. Sleep just factors in our so-called karmic history or the content of the unconscious that spans back much longer than what goes on in just one day.
In other systems, sleep is said to 'dissolve the spirit in the house of the liver, or in the bone marrow, which nourishes the core but also scatters the energy.' The physical body too make use of natural cycles in the conversion of one hormone or neurotransmitter (eg. melatonin) into many others that mediate wakefulness, sleep debt, and ability to sleep. It interconnects with the subtle body in endless ways. In one example I've noticed regularly to the point of being able to predict it is following a period of sleep deprivation with a sudden recovery, causing pressure in the head in the same way as overdoing an energy raising exercise excessively.
Overall then, the extra all-round feel-good, mental silence, etc., that seems to build up with practice and get seemingly torn down by sleep make up a normal healthy drain-charge cycle. The response from the lessons here is to keep up whatever you do as regularly as possible so that an overlaying momentum keeps building steadily to the point of passing through milestones or points of no-return (eg. rise of the witness, it's permeating sleep, etc.). This is making use of the inherent potential in the 'ordinary,' as opposed to trying to find ways around it, which more often than not end up as efforts working against ourselves from the failure to take into account the endless interconnections and delayed consequences, such as experimenting with sleep deprivation, modified sleep schedules, and so on. |
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Stevo
Australia
4 Posts |
Posted - May 13 2013 : 10:32:54 PM
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Thank you Mykal K, ak33 and AumNaturel for the responses! It seems that there maybe lots of things like this that arise during meditation, but the real problem stems from seeing them as issues that need to be solved, rather than scenery that will eventually pass by.
AumNaturel, you mention that a milestone is the witness permeating sleep. Is this the next milestone that I should expect? Is there anything one can do to foster its development, like trying to meditate while falling asleep at night? I'm guessing it's just a case of keeping to the regular meditation routine!
Thanks again,
Stevo |
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AumNaturel
Canada
687 Posts |
Posted - May 14 2013 : 09:52:47 AM
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Lesson 250 mentions a lot of the points here (as do L213 and L227):
"The nervous system needs to cycle between practices, activity and sleep to achieve the most efficient transformation to higher functioning."
I also like the part a few paragraphs down since it applies to so many other things as well:
"The difference between witnessing sleep and too much energy in sleep will be felt in daily activity. With witnessing, we will feel refreshed during the day. With too much energy running around, we will feel a bit tired and frazzled, even as the energy keeps going on – time to ease up on the gas pedal in that case [..] regardless of the reason [..] self-pacing in practices should be applied."
Stevo, that is my understanding as well, keeping it over the long term since it is the core practice. There's also the other limbs of yoga, mantras, tantric elements, etc. that the lessons integrate from a unique and fine-tuned perspective that can be added gradually very early on. I try to consider expectations, anticipations, comparisons as mental baggage, and just enjoy the immediate benefits during and after practice whatever they happen to be. |
Edited by - AumNaturel on May 14 2013 12:56:04 PM |
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kami
USA
921 Posts |
Posted - May 14 2013 : 12:53:45 PM
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Hi Stevo,
What you describe is a very common phenomenon, IMHO. And I can relate very well. There can be inner silence throughout the day, but mental chatter noticed upon waking up. And in my case, there is no observed relationship to practices before bed (in fact, the deeper the silence in meditation the night before, the "louder" the mental chatter upon waking) or to witnessing all night, lucid dreaming, or too much energy causing restlessness.
As stated above, it seems to be related to deepened purification. The practices we employ during daily activities (focus on breath, mindfulness, inquiry, etc) work more or less on issues in conscious awareness. Dreams and mind chatter that comes up on waking are "bubbling up" of subconscious issues. Lately, I welcome the chatter when it happens, observing the underlying grasping/clinging that is holding the stuff in place.
Also, I'd recommend not expecting any milestone. Expecting something specific makes us very rigid and causes more clinging. Practice as you do, and let go.
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Sleep messing with inner silence
