Advanced Yoga Practices Plus Main Lessons - Expanded and Interactive
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Lesson
17 - Was I Asleep in Meditation?
(Audio)
Nov 25, 2003
Q: I
think I fell asleep during meditation, though I don't think I lost
consciousness. It seemed I was awake, but I had no sense of time or anything.
Then I realized my head was on my chest and looked at my watch. Thirty minutes
had gone by. I felt pretty groggy. I felt pretty unsteady and it didn't feel
right to just get up, so I lay down for a while. Then I was okay. Was I asleep?
A: No sensory experience, no mantra, no thoughts, but
still conscious inside - were you asleep? Probably not. Meditation sometimes
produces a sleep-like state, like you described, but the physiological
parameters are different. The metabolism goes much lower than in sleep. Heart
rate and breathing are much slower than in sleep, nearly stopped. The body and
mind come to a state of complete silence, while still awake inside. The level of
rest in the body and mind in meditation is deeper than sleep. It is a different
kind of rest that removes impurities; obstructions to consciousness that sleep
cannot reach. However, meditation is not a replacement for sleep, which has its
own dynamics in the daily rejuvenation cycle.
People who have been meditating for years may have less need for sleep due to
the accumulated purity in their nervous systems. It is not that meditation
replaces sleep. It is that the body and mind gradually have become purified over
time and the body needs less purification during its daily sleep cycle. It is
the purity resulting from long-term meditation and other advanced yoga practices
that generally reduces the need for sleep. In time, consciousness remains
present twenty-four hours a day. Then, daily activities, dreaming and deep sleep
are all playing like a movie on the screen of our silent, blissful awareness. In
this state we are never asleep anymore. This is the kind of freedom and
happiness we all are capable of achieving naturally - our inalienable
birthright.
You did just right by lying down at the end of your session until you were able
to get up feeling clear and smooth. This is another circumstance where extra
rest after meditation is needed. Much cleansing went on during the meditation.
Many different kinds of experiences can happen during meditation, ranging from
the sublime to the ridiculous. It is all part of the same process of easily
thinking the mantra and letting it settle in. Then the purification happens. We
let it happen. Then, when we become aware, we return to the mantra and let the
mind dive again. This process, done twice-daily for twenty minutes, will
gradually transform your life to bliss.
Remember to count any experiences while off the mantra as part of your
meditation time. It is okay that you became aware of the time again after thirty
minutes. It was a natural event in your meditation. Whenever anything like that
happens and you go past your allotted time, be sure to go through the
appropriate rest period to finish the session. If you keep your meditation
balanced with the right amount of rest at the end, you will always get up
feeling refreshed and ready for activity.
The guru is in you.
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Note: For detailed instructions on deep meditation, see the
Deep Meditation Online Book.
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