Converting sleep into meditation
 

How to convert sleep into meditation?

By intent.

Before sleeping, switch off the phone, tv, playfully reflect on the day gone by, withdrawing into yourself energies left scattered and likewise releasing the energies in your auric field that diminish luminescence. Then release thoughts and in an aspect of trust and surrender slip into sleep, seeking nothing save unification of in-form consciousness with the vast void, both within and around.

Then let go.

Whatever you keep in your mind during the day, whatever spiritual discipline you do during the day - if it's important enough to you and you put in the effort, it will become second nature and it will come up in dreams, because it's in your subconscious now. You've created a good habit and it will continue in your dreams.

To the extent to which you are aware of the dream of life in waking hours, you can be awake in the sleep state also. My teacher spoke about this very thing yesterday. Here's a clip (Day 22 Apr.17/22) while it lasts on YouTube.

The idea is not to live life in a dream state but to be awake in the dream (in every dimension).

True, Uma. Being aware in dreams …

How about the deep sleep state? That’s a blank but scriptures say we should be awake there too ~ Turiya. Something like illuminating the dark void.

What do you try to achieve?

Many people seem to think that sleeping is only for the body, so they try to use that time more efficiently. But sleeping isn't just for the body. It has important things to contribute to all parts of our lives.

Meditation, however, can be part of being asleep as easily as it can be part of being awake. Meditation is almost an "attitude" rather than an action - a way of being that you can carry everywhere with you.

So if you'd like to meditate while being asleep go for it. Relax, quiet your mind, let go and go to sleep. Just don't do structured meditations. Let sleep do it's job.

Thank you for asking Unseeking Seeker. This is what I've learned:

The restfulness and peace from the deep sleep state we can approximate through yoga nidra or wu chi - that also plays into meditation and daily life as we try to live from a centeredness. The deep sleep state during dreamtime is when the mind becomes completely quiet and we slip into unconsciousness and wake up feeling really rested and recharged - so that's important for health and wellbeing. It is said in hatha yoga that shravasana (the corpse pose) is the most difficult one - because mind is so active (ego mind - all the vrittis of all the chakras).

My Guruji has said to be fully awake/conscious whilst meditating but as relaxed as when you sink into a hot bath for a deep soak. The wu chi practice really helps train the mind for this. Just being able to stand and move beyond the body's complaining requires a deep centeredness. We're trying to act from a space of being, a void space that is pure consciousness - doing from nondoing.

He also said that we enter this state of complete surrender when we actually fall asleep. We let go everything and just allow the process to carry us. He said that he had to work very hard to attain that "being carried" as a permanent thing!

Turyia (turyia titta) comes after the spiritual journey is complete, not to the seeker. Turyia is described as the state of the Pure Seer, totally awake in all states (waking, dreaming, deep sleep). The deep sleep one is then experienced as bliss - the "ananda" of Satchitananda. Perhaps we can have glimpses of that but not hold on to it completely and permanently until meditation becomes our normal way of being.

I really can't describe what I haven't yet attained, so this is my idea about it based on my experiences and my interpretation of the teachings. There is no experiencer in deep sleep. It is like the consciousness of rocks. Turyia is as close as we can get to it but even that is a stretch for a lifetime and comes with much wu chi type of practice and burning of karma etc.

Hope this helps.

QUOTE 3 EXCERPT:


Well said. If I understand you correctly, you are talking about the conscious sleep meditation during which one can remain aware in the three states (deep sleep, dream formation, and the so-called "waking state) as well as during the transitions between the three states. I have practiced this for many years and have found it to be very illuminating. :thumbsup:

NOTE: I tried to view the video whose link you provided, but it was already "private" and "unavailable".

Thanks Uma & Still_Waters. We know the theory. Swami Lakshmanjoo, possibly one of the greatest exponents of Kashmir Shaivism also says the same. Any practical pointers how to be aware during deep sleep?

What Guruji is saying is not to make the goal staying awake during the dream state, but rather to be so invested in one's inner being (soul being awareness) that one is always in witness mode and very fluent in the language of energy (prana/chi/qi) as one's greater reality (sukshma sharira is more real than sthula sharira) so that - because of this practice of mindfully using your energy body or subtle body or sukshma body with the chakras in it, which is to live in the human experience from a more wakeful and more empowered and more responsible state, then naturally either lucid dreaming happens or one is more mindfully engaged in the dream narratives during sleep.

What you're speaking about I have tried deliberately also (staying awake during dreams) in the past but got a very poor night's sleep out of it. That's because I wasn't really living in my witness space during the waking hours, hence I was still in lower ego mode, meaning just viewing my own subconscious mind (which is interesting but not very useful for consciousness shift unless you change your conditioned behaviours). However when my sadhana has been strong and I'm in a great space, and really walking my talk and living more in consciousness of my energy body, then my dreams will consequently be more vivid, more memorable and more full of light and I remember them better and I behave better in those dreams.

In the talk he said that when we have those kinds of dreams (the dream world is loaded with our own subconscious fantasies but it's also another dimension of reality) then we are more likely to attract more evolved beings to the dream. Whatever we put out there we attract towards us.

So that's what he was talking about. I hope I'm making sense.

About the video. They are only putting them up briefly on Facebook/YouTube for free. There's an option to donate to receive them all if you wanted to. I'm sure the topic will come up again. All links in my signature for now.