QUALITY OF SLEEP
Zen monks sleep, sit, eat, and speak peacefully because they have done the Inner Workouts to train their Mind.
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Dear Coach,
i like your books. Question: Why can’t i sleep at night?
– a fan from WA
Dear Fan,
The sound of your insomnia is the sound of your undisciplined mind. Being a ‘fan’ of my Path, will not cure your restless ego. You must sweat the nature behind my words in print. Your tossing and turning at night will not be cured by the latest Tempuredic bed mattress. The best mattress is the un-mattered Mind. Your Inability to Sleep at night is a manifestation of your UnWillingness to walk the Path during the day.
– coach ilg
**
One of the determiners i use in the design of an Online WF Training Prescription for a new Student is quality of sleep.
Like quality of digestion & elimination, the quality of sleep that a new Student brings into this Work can be an accurate reflection of their mental fitness. Knowing the patterns of sleep quality, helps provide shape to the harmonic convergence of WF Disciplines and Lifestyle Principles that so quickly account for our noted ability to Transform those who Study here.
This is my cat Spencer. His formal name is, Spencer Sandis Smith. He has graced the hallowed halls of DL a few times. Spencer is one of several Teachers of mine that taught me about quality of sleep. He is not a Zen Monk. Or, maybe he is.
Like other Feline Beings, Spencer, you see, never awakes with a stiff neck after a nap. This Feline fact astonished me for many years, especially because Feline Beings can nap for the better part of a day with their necks and spines “contorted” in ways that makes my own neck hurt just looking at them.
Trained by my Teachers to “Question everything, particularly your Word Choices,” i began to ask myself, “Who the hell came up with the word, “contorted.” I mean, who is to say, what’s contorted and what is natural suppleness? One man’s contortion is a yogin’s nirvana.
As i matured into spiritual work and begin working with a Teacher in the DreamState Realms, quality of sleep was examined and trained as a wavelike reverberation of mind. That is to say, our subtle anatomy – the chakras, pranic vayus, and nadic lines – tend to ‘spin off’ undigested thoughts, emotions, and other mental clutter during DreamStates. Most people’s DreamStates are mere rubbish piles from dirty cells (not eating the herbs, for example), and dirty Citi-Shakti (DL; 1/29/05).
Zen Monks sleep peacefully upon wooden slats and rarely with any bedcovers. These Monks, these Athletes of the Spirit, then arise long before you do, instantly fold their legs into padmasana (full lotus) and sit for hours with spine straight and breath moving in and out from their bodies like contented slow waves lazily massaging the sandy edges of a deserted tropical island. They do not fidget for their mind is clear. Nor do they legs fall asleep from ‘poor circulation.’ They do not feel obligated to rush away from their sitting in order to “do something” or “be someone.” For them, sitting with the truest nature of their minds is not a waste of time. For them, time has been transformed into Terrain for Sartori. Zen monks sleep, sit, eat, and speak peacefully because the have done the Inner Workouts to train their Mind. They are very happy, sacredly happy sitting on Mother Earth. They do not need to go to Acapulco or Vegas to find peace or happiness. They travel within, not without.
Rock climbing “bums” are quite content to lounge about on granite shelves the size of your computer desk etched into monolithic cliff walls without the slightest trace of nervousness or “tight muscle tension syndrome” which afflicts the stressed out mass of mediocrity. When i free climbed Half Dome in Yosemite (well, i free’d all but 40 damned feet of the 3,000′, 24 pitch, 5.11d route) i slept like a baby curled up fetal on Big Sandy Ledge, Thank God Ledge, etc., for days. These ledges are about the size and texture of a narrow sidewalk. Just curl yourself up on one, the next time you take a walk on one. Comfy, eh? So utterly fatigued from the physical and mental extreme efforts of the climb, my body was but a limp rag when the opportunity arrived to sleep. The granite may have well been goose down, baby.
Spencer, Zen Monks, and Climbing bums all sleep with contentment.
Why don’t you?
Why does my Teaching Staff have to spend so many initial months with new Students to wean them off prescribed and over the counter ‘sleeping aids’? And who the fuck are the doctors prescribing these mental, physical, and spiritual poisons as if they are candy? Parents these days are no better; raising their tiny, beautiful little Beings on Children’s Nyquil so they don’t “cry so much.”
Just the other day, i had to work like hell to get it through this young 33 year old woman’s head that her addiction to sleeping aids were not an aid to her sleeping at all…those friggin’ pills are force feeding a total line of toxins into her natural cellular beauty that is, i promised her, going to have very negative physical and spiritual repercussions down the road.
American’s who are not on the Path of WF stick out like the stressed out monsters they are…They are ones that can’t shit, can’t sleep, can’t meditate, can’t lose fat, don’t “have time” to workout, won’t get on the SUNRIDER herbs but are faster than desert lightning to rationalize their use of prescribed and over the counter drugs to amp them up, bring them down, make them happy…
Having trouble sleeping? In my professional experience, i have found that overeating and underdigesting are two leading reasons for poor quality of sleep.
Undersweating is the other one.
You want a WF Sleeping Aid Prescription?
Okay:
* average 7 hours of Cardio Per Week
* do Yoga once every three days
* don’t eat anything without pausing to appreciate how the food got to you
* replace coffee and soda with Calli and Fortune Delight.
* live the 4 Lifestyle Principles of WF; they are natural forms of meditation in action.
* stop reading “newspapers” or watching TV before bed,
instead wear YogaToes, have some Calli Night, and read spiritual literature or listen to one of my Meditation CD’s to fall asleep
The Path to your Self Transformation is steep.
You will stumble.
Stumbling is still moving.
Just make sure you Stumble Upwards, not backwards.
This is the Path of WF…
And…
That is all.
love,
coach ilg
These teachings are the "Rasas" or "sap" of Wholistic Fitness. You’ll find insights to ponder, student chi to keep your own chi topped off, and plenty of proven training techniques to test on your own body, mind, and spirit! Also, you’ll find my very popular Race Reports, and news of our Sangha’s (community’s) latest transpersonal fitness adventures!