We can practice while lying down.
Modern life is hectic, so being able to sleep deeply and soundly at night is no longer considered a luxury
nor a rare quality of life; but for someone with insomnia, it is lucky not to have to increase the dosage of
sleeping pills. Lying awake at night whereas sitting up in the daytime but feeling drowsy, having to rely on
cups of coffee to stay awake, that’s how much suffering life is!
Recently, I visited an elderly distant relative in his 90s who was critically ill in bed and was being cared for
24 hours a day by helpers and family members in turn. He would sleep for less than 15 minutes before he
woke up and had to be gently patted by his companions. He dared not sleep! Why is that so? Because he
is afraid that he will never wake up again. When he sees a visitor, he would shout "Help me! I don't want to
die!" This dragged on for three months and his life is flickering like a candle in the wind. At last, the candle
ran out and the fire of life was extinguished.
When he is living, he is worried that he could not sleep, and when he is old, he is afraid of not waking up
from his sleep; but we spend a third of our life sleeping, and we do so out of necessity. What do we do
about it? Let's learn Fu Dashi’s "Sleeping with Buddha’s Accompaniment Every Night” – sleep with
Buddha’s accompaniment every night, wake up with Buddha’s accompaniment in the morning, every single
day .
Firstly, sleep with Buddha’s accompaniment every night.
In addition to maintaining awareness through daily activities during the day, it is important to maintain
awareness even before falling asleep. There are many ways to help us fall asleep, such as the old method
of counting sheep, focusing on the breath or on a specific object, repeating mantras or hand gestures, or
blink to bring us directly back to awareness, etc. It is a deliberate effort to end the day, put aside our
thoughts and simply wait patiently for sleep to come. If we have dreams in our sleep, we can also bring up
our awareness and have the ability to stop the dream from continuing, which will ensure a deep, sound,
and full sleep.
Secondly, wake up with Buddha’s accompaniment in the morning
When we wake up, the first thing to do is come back to our awareness and then live in our awareness:
when we wash up, eat breakfast, study, work, socialize, and last all day until bedtime. Day after day.
Thirdly, falling asleep and death.
For the person who is afraid of sleeping, you need to make further efforts to identify the source of the fear
and ask yourself: Can I let go? How afraid am I of dying? Is it all right if I die tonight? Have I made peace
with my death?
Sleep has been described as "death’s younger brother". Whenever we fall asleep, we can say that we are
practicing death. What a valuable experience!
In the same way, practitioners practice not lying down to sleep to maintain awareness because they are
afraid of losing their awareness when they fall asleep. Is it the same as the fear of the 90-year-old man?
How do we have an unhindered mind and not to have fear?
Fourthly, awake and reborn.
Those who like to sleep and drag getting out of bed should also try to identify the source of their fear. Ask
yourself: Am I avoiding daily activities and work, and should I be taking responsibility for that? Am I living in
a dream world, afraid to wake up and face reality?
Each waking is a new birth, just like night and death can be frightening. The problem lies in being too
extreme, and the solution is to sleep when you should sleep, wake up when you should wake up, keep a
balance and let both coexist.
Lying down takes up one third of our life. It is indeed valuable food for cultivation. How can we not explore it
well?
