Buddhism - Not Exactly the Path of a Good Night's Rest
On the path, one expects to wake up early -- think morning meditation. In order to meditate, I attempt to wake up before my children. (Admittedly, I only marginally succeed, and end up with children who are learning to leave mommy alone in the morning.) My long range goal involves getting my Buddhism on in the morning before I have to go getting them ready for school. Eventually I'll get there. But this is not the sleep deprivation of which I speak...

When I went to Karme Choling on retreat, I meditated for much of the day. I spent time on a cushion clearing my thoughts. This is a nice idea: meditating, swimming in the river, and eating veggie food. It goes along with sleeping well -- NOT.

I had two nearly sleepless nights while I was there because I processed at night. My mind totally shifted into overdrive as some sort of compensation for not really thinking all day. Weird, eh? Perhaps not strange, but not at all what I expected. It hasn't happened again in that way, but I also haven't been meditating ALL DAY since then. (Only for about 20-30 minutes every morning.) But, last night, I experienced Buddhist-related sleep disturbances again...

I'm reading this book, Sit Down and Shut Up by Brad Warner. I had planned to post on the book today, because I'm really enjoying it. (That might just be another post.) Clearly, the book is making me think about some (new to me) Zen concepts.

Last night I dreamed about this 13th century Zen teacher Dogen (or at least what he had to say). Then, I woke up, and had an "aha!" moment. It happened OVER AND OVER AGAIN. But it wasn't bad. I wish I remembered all of the insights of my dreams. They were good dreams. I hope they reside somewhere in my mind, and will be of use to me in future situations.

Who knew that sleep deprivation could feel so useful?