Nap Time
Table of contents
- 1. Notes
The theme for today is Nap Time.
We all know how refreshed we feel after a good sleep
and perhaps, dream.
Sleep: nature's meditation
A skill possessed by, at least, all mammals,
bringing curative and essential benefits
we'd study and pay for
if it didn't come naturally.
Taken for granted,
disrespected by culture, science, and religion,
pressed into service
as a metaphor for ignorance
and an unproductive way to "spend" time
and in prosperous countries, at least
an activity often done, unnaturally, alone.
No wonder, then
that most adults live with sleep deficit
...while the value of sleep
is slowly regaining recognition
in both scientific and spiritual frameworks.
Can cultural support be far behind?
Sleep: a time for healing and regeneration,
a state of deep consciousness
and foundation for knowing,
a time of active learning
that organizes memory into knowledge and wisdom,
hosts dreams and creative daytime abilities,
freshens the mind for novel engagement
with reality,
with vital living.
And who said,
sleep should happen only at night?
This is a cultural convention
not a natural formula.
Every night - and day - can be a little experiment
in which you can discover this for yourself
see how one day is better after good sleep
or even better qualities arise
from a habit or consistent practice.
If corporations instituted collective daily sleep breaks
there's good reason to expect
a boom in the economy.
If we institute this in our personal lives
there's every reason to expect
profound results
and perhaps equally significantly
it's relaxing and pleasurable experience.
Let's hear it for Nap Time!
Notes
In today's meeting we went for practice over "talking about" this topic and spent one hour sleeping (or resting deeply) before coming back together to compare notes.
The "observations" are not regarded as statements defining sleep experiences, such as dreams, in-between states of awareness, or the how-it-feels-after effects, "in the abstract". Rather, they are elements of an ongoing practice of self-awareness within a process, also-dreamlike in significant ways, of bringing the dreamer's mind into relationship with the "intersubjective" world where dreams are reflected on and expressed with other dreamers.
So, what does this mean, really?
The assumption is that self-observation as a practice can, over time, cultivate -- gradually weave a tapestry of - self-knowledge in the form of creative and self-recognizing mindfulness. These observations are threads in that tapestry.
- Waking quickly and getting up in a non-leisurely way led to a feeling of anxiety at jumping back into a chaotic-seeming state of the world, compared to the relaxation of aware sleep.
- I was able to settle into the central idea of a creative project I've been working on - I couldn't seem to do this by "thinking" about it in an awake state.
- Events in my recent awareness seem to "find their place" and fit in, then new ideas emerge from that.
- I had a creative idea for a story to write.
- I had no creative experience, but awoke refreshed and ready to do my daily activities.
- I couldn't sleep (which is a characteristic experience for me) but I really relaxed and it was good ...
- It was interesting to rest during a time when I expected to be "busy".
- I notice the importance of small or subtle qualitative differences that could deepen over time.
- Tag page (Edit tags)
- What links here
| Images 0 | ||
|---|---|---|
| No images to display in the gallery. |