Why Is Meditation Bad In A Sleepy Condition?

[Echoes]

I actually liked to meditate when I was a bit sleepy so far. It felt like I could go in deeper, because the sleepines seemed to take on the job of "diving deeper" or letting go and I had to just sit and observe how the sleepines is steadily leading me in deep states. It's like observing the sleepines. The negative point of course is that sometimes dozing off can happen. And isn't it easier to enter deep meditational Delta brainwaves when sleepy? In deep sleep, where only nothingness or our true nature seems to be left, delta brainwaves have been recorded.

 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Echoes

[Leo Gura]

Would you let your surgeon operate on you if he was in a sleepy condition? Why not?

[Echoes]

9 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Cause you're sloppy and not actually raising awareness as you otherwise could.

Would you be let your surgeon operate on you in a sleepy condition? Why not?

But it seems that the monkey mind is also more quit, and certain (unconscious) blockades that prevent to go in deeper states seem to be more easy to break through. It's like the sleepines is cutting through resistances or something. Maybe I am confusing meditational states with something else? 

Edited March 10, 2017 by Echoes

[cetus]

@Echoes

 

[Leo Gura]

It's not that you can't or it won't work.

It's that if you have limited time, you want to use it effectively.

5 minutes of strict meditation is worth 5 hours of sloppy meditation.

@cetus56 Doing an all-night sit in a retreat setting is a very different thing than doing a 30 min sleepy, mechanical daily session.

Working through sleepiness is it's own kind of skill you can develop. It can toughen you up, but it doesn't produce actual contemplative insight. You can clearly see this by doing 30 mins sleepy meditation and 30 mins of alert meditation. The alert session will be 10x more powerful.

[cetus]

@Leo Gura After reading this post and watching the video I decided to give A late night "sleepy" meditation a try. It was interesting moving through different levels of awareness and waves of sleepiness /wakefulness while staying mindful. I did notice that the wakeful waves seemed to be progressively meet with heightened clarity of mind. At one point consciousness even became boundless as if cloudy skies had suddenly parted and became infinitely clear.  

[Leo Gura]

@cetus56 Certainly if you can do an all-night sit, that's some real good training. Takes balls to pull that off in a non-retreat environment.

I don't like all-night sits because it just screws up your sleep cycle. I'd rather meditate during the day, when I'm alert.

[cetus]

@Leo Gura I'm almost doing that now. I had 4 hours of wakeful sleep after that meditation and I'm back at it again. But yea, I gotta try a straight run sometime.

[OBEler]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

 

5 minutes of strict meditation is worth 5 hours of sloppy meditation.

How do you define sloppy meditation? I thought everythig is ok during meditation if you sit still. My thoughts are going daydreaming and I am losing focus quite often for long time but what can I do to make a "strict meditation"? Nothing is under my control, I thought this is not sloppy but the way it goes

[Joel3102]

@Leo Gura I have a weekend mindfulness retreat coming up, can you get much real progress from just one weekend? Want to do a 10-day but not possible for my schedule till the end of the year.

[Alex K]

@OBEler Maybe Leo means self inquiry, not meditation. I too do not see how a "do nothing" could be sloppy if you sit straight and monkey wonders as it pleases.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Alex K