Night Sitting and Opening of Meridians
About
the opening of meridians. You know that feeling of tiredness after
you've been active? You feel like you want to lie down and maybe take
a nap. It almost feels as if the energy of tiredness forces you to
lie down. That's one type of sensation coming from clogged meridians.
I am not recommending anyone to harm one's body and practice should
always be nonviolent and nonharming but one very efficient way to get
through the stuffyness is to sit through it.
You
sit upright and remain aware through the motions. This is much easier
to someone who has established the basic state in comparison to
someone who hasn't. For the latter type of practitioners it will be
difficult to remain aware through the four phases of falling into
sleep, remaining asleep and coming out of sleep. If your body starts
falling over soon after the sleepiness comes over you then you're
probably not ready to sit through sleep and be able to use this
practice as a way to open the meridians (that eventually leads to
lightbody).
If
you have the needed stability though, sitting through sleep is not a
problem. Maybe your body nods once or twice but mostly you're able to
remain perfectly aware and do not get affected by sleep and sleep
hormone, even if your system is completely under its influence. You
sit with dream images and dreamless sleep and it feels like enjoying
the bright night sky over mountains. And you come out of the session
feeling very light and refreshed. You don't come out feeling tired or
exhausted but the opposite.
This
"night sitting" or sleep sitting is one way to unclog the
meridians by bringing basic awareness into the midst of samsaric
sleep which is one, if not the main samsaric refuge.
Again,
to be able to do this one's mind needs to be firmly rooted in
recognition. If it isn't, being excited and enchanted by the romantic
idea of replacing sleep with meditation, can really do damage to your
body. I know many examples of this from my zen days. We need to know
where our limits are and not be dumb to pretend that they're not
there. If you're a samsaric being it is foolish to try to do the same
things as fully enlightened buddhas are capable of. If samsaric
beings don't get enough sleep it can lead to severe health problems
and even death. So this kind of practice is not for beginners but it
is for practitioners with some experience.
Try
sitting through your daily nap. Perhaps sit in the night before you
go to bedor in the middle of the night when you wake up for toilet.
Try, experiment and see how it goes.
Baba, 22 Jan 23
