Sleep vs Inertia

Getting enough rest is key if we’re going to enjoy life consistently and have good experiences in our spiritual practice. With the availability of the electric light, we have the choice to stay up and surf, watch TV, read and so forth. Many people then keep themselves alert with doses of coffee or cola.

Being conscious is useful but where is the quality of life?

There is a trap in this dynamic as well. We always desire more joy. Life is structured in bliss, so it is fundamental to our nature. If our daily life has become a drudge, we seek pleasures after hours. But then we get tired and this saps our joy even further. And so on. Our efforts at increasing joy are doing the opposite – increasing inertia.

We’ve all heard the saying “Early to Bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” I’ve heard a number of health experts suggest this as well. But recently, I made some observations that illustrate another angle on this.

First – we need enough sleep. But we also want quality sleep. Quality comes in part from sleeping at the right time.

In Ayurveda:
6-10 am is Kapha time – good for exercise, activity
10-2 pm is Pitta time – time for the biggest meal of the day
2-6 pm is Vata time – good for mental activity
and the cycle repeats:
6-10 pm is Kapha time – time to wind down
10-2 am is Pitta time – best sleep time
2-6 am is Vata time – best time for waking, with nature.

Clearly, the western culture does not run on this schedule. Ayurveda suggests bed by 10. In fact, vaidyas have said that if everyone kept this schedule, there would be no one in the health clinics. You should avoid stuff like coffee and sweets after 8pm and TV and computer after 9:30. An evening walk after dinner is also good, much as exercise is good in the morning. Of course, individual needs may vary.

The first 2 hours of sleep are the deepest, when you get the longest delta cycles. Ideally, this happens before midnight. This also aids digestion as it’s Pitta time.

You may say, as I have, that “I’m a night owl”. This actually speaks more to habits than natural rhythms. If you stay up past 10, you get into a new waking cycle. It gets harder to get to sleep. The midnight snack drive is due to the matching noon feast time.

What most westerners do after staying up late is sleep in. It’s something I’ve done myself many times. But sleep after about 6am is in Kapha time of day. This is the time for activity. Sleeping then will increase heaviness or sluggishness.

This inertia feeds on itself, looking for more. In the Vedic model, this is called Tamas, of the 3 gunas. Rather than getting more rested, we get more dull. It is opposite the Sattva we want for better experiences.

In other words, while the occasional sleep-in is fine, the way you’ll restore restfulness and clear the fatigue backlog is by going to bed early. I had a lot of resistance to this but once I shifted into an earlier lifestyle, I was surprised what a difference it made.

Life is meant to be enjoyed. Joy is the very life in our veins. All that gets in the way of this being our moment to moment experience is the condition of our physiology. Get clear, get happy.
Davidya

Our Limitations and Obstacles

Ganesh is right: there are no barriers. Any limitation we see is a mistake in perception. This mistake may be due to resistance to what is. We thus don’t see clearly and see barriers were there are none. Just in holding a “bad” feeling/ friction/ resistance about a circumstance or person reinforces this. The mistake can also be due to incomplete perception. Our vision is not good or clear enough to see rightly and thus we again create obstacles where there are none.

Clearly, these are basically the same thing. And those barriers we’re creating are just more resistance; more obstacles. Obstacles feed on themselves. By not liking what we see, we resist and essentially make it worse. We amplify the issues into monsters. We still have Boogey men under the bed. Contrast this to Santa Claus, for example. Which brings happiness?

In India, they tell the story of the Snake and String. You walk into a dark room and see a snake on the floor. You startle and experience fear. But when you turn on the light, you discover it was just a piece of string. Was there ever a snake or was it just a mistaken perception?

It can be quite a surprise when we see through the barriers we may engage, especially around things that are important to us. Relationships can be a good example. Has the person we fell in love with changed much when we fall out of love with them? Or is the change mostly in our perception of them?

Relationships can also be a great foil for overcoming obstacles as another person may see the situation differently and thus give us some insight. Light the darkened room, as it where. Resistance (karma) is notorious for giving us blind spots. But keep in mind that some of those blind spots are shared perceptions. Your partner or even the whole community may see the same way. One example here would be the amount of waste we produce that degrades our quality of life.

Now, certainly each of us is born with certain talents and a unique purpose they are aligned with. And we have what Buckminster Fuller called “special case” perception – we’re designed to be focused and experience one thing at a time. The key is putting that channel of focus into the larger context. And making the channel as clear as possible.

This way, we enjoy life much more, fulfill the purpose of our being, and are not obliged to come back over and over again until we get it right. 
Davidya