To: K-list
Recieved: 2004/08/24 13:18
Subject: Re: [K-list] new to list - K and insomnia?
From: Lone Path
On 2004/08/24 13:18, Lone Path posted thus to the K-list:
Hi Paul,
By comparison to this group, I know very little about K because, as with you, I only discovered what K was just recently, a few years ago in fact, and yet my K has been active for the last 35 years as I know it, so I can only write according to my own personal experiences. With regard to insomnia, this happened to me after a spiritual experience I had 10 years ago. I won´t go into all the details of the spiritual experience but I will mention a little about the insomnia. For me it was not a problem because I was so full of energy that I could have lifted a mountain and I needed very little sleep from then on, I would often only sleep 3 nights a week. I don´t know whether this applies to you too, whether you are just worrying about not sleeping because it seems to be the ‘norm´ to sleep, or whether the insomnia is actually causing you to feel tired and exhausted all the time. I know you say that your life is being ruined by insomnia and that it is disrupting your ability to
function at work, but you don´t explain if this is due to tiredness or whether it is due to a feeling of overwhelming energy.
You seem to have practised certain techniques in-depth, something that I have never done, and perhaps the cause of insomnia is due to an abundance of energy through too much practising of this or that technique, after all you do say, “Initially in December, I was able to ameliorate the insomnia somewhat by ceasing my sitting practice. “… and ... “But then I foolishly went to a sesshin (an intensive retreat), something that I do 2-3 times/year. This I think intensified the insomnia to the point where it did not matter whether I did zazen or not’. I have always followed a path of allowing things to be and evolve as they are, a path that has directed me into spontaneous practises as and when they were needed to facilitate my evolution, and these practises were not known to me until much later when I read about them or was told about them. In fact I have always wondered why everyone is practising this or that technique and, no disrespect to you or anyone else, I have always seen these
practises as a way to control and force our spiritual evolution and in some cases to avoid the discomforts that are incurred on the path. Humankind always needs to be occupied for some reason or other, otherwise they get bored, so I always saw techniques as a way of occupying oneself also, albeit occupying oneself in a more useful way.
My advice is always to allow things to evolve in a natural way, to not force this or that to happen, nor to avoid the consequences of our spiritual evolution. Having said that, if the insomnia is causing you to be ill then of course you go and see a doctor in order to be diagnosed. My personal advice is, therefore, to take a rest from all practises, to not even meditate, to just live your life in total observation of what is happening within you as your interact in life, to spend more time living life than practising techniques. Perhaps then, through rest from techniques, but rather through self-observation, you will see what the inner problem is that causes the insomnia (if there is a problem at all), or the insomnia will disappear spontaneously, in which case you will know that you overdid the practising of techniques. Learning to do nothing, to just observe, is also a meditation of sorts, and a way to ‘see´ what is within, it is contemplating and consolidating what is within
whilst interacting and living life at the same time. Having said all that, this is of course only my point of view, but perhaps it is worth thinking about.
Best wishes and much Love,
Grotweed
---------------------------------
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.