Advanced Sleep Training

Sleep Tips

In part 1 of this series on Learning How to Sleep and how to use utilize sleep to accelerate one’s spiritual growth, we discussed the importance of complete physical and mental relaxation before sleep and also finding the flame of divine aspiration and riding that into sleep.

In this second part we will delve further into the mysteries of sleep and share more sleep training tips from the Mother.  Specifically we will focus on how to penetrate deep into consciousness to the point of complete stillness during sleep and experience the state of Satchitananda (Bliss, Being and Consciousness).   Satchitananada is synonymous to Enlightenment of Samadhi.

Below is the excerpt from the book Health and Healing in Yoga where the Mother discusses the stages one goes through, starting from waking consciousness, to relaxation, to sleep, to subtle consciousness, all the way to Supreme Consciousness.

The idea here is to help you understand the value of training yourself to sleep and to share with you other valuable sleep tips, so you too can enjoy the higher states that become more easily accessible during sleep time.  Below the excerpt I provide some of my thoughts and analysis on this topic.

Book: Health and Healing in Yoga

Author: The Mother

To begin with, when one is conscious of one’s nights, the first thing to do before falling fast asleep, just in the state when one begins to relax, is relax all one’s nerves – I have explained this to you already, one relaxes all the nerves and lets oneself go… like this… you know – well, at that moment, one must relax very carefully all mental activity and make that quiet, as quiet as possible, and not go off to sleep until the mind is quite calm.

[…]

But if you are conscious, after having calmed your vital, when you begin to come out from your physical consciousness and enter a more subtle consciousness, you put your vital to sleep, you say to it, “Rest now, keep very quiet,” and then you enter your mental activity and say to the mind, “Rest now, remain very quiet”, and you put it to sleep also; and then you come out of the mind into a higher region.

And there, if it begins to interest you, for instance, if it is the first time you have gone there, you may look at what is happening, have your experience, learn things – at times one learns very interesting things; and then, sometimes one can become aware of a certain general state also, have ideas about other people, other things; it is interesting!

And later, if you have had enough of this, you say, “Keep quiet, sleep, don’t move”, and you put that to sleep and rise to a still higher consciousness, and so on, till you reach a state where you are on the borders of form, I am not speaking of physical form – on the borders of all form, much higher than the form of thought, naturally; on the border of all form and all vibration, in the silence, what here we call Satchitananda.

And when you are there, everything stop, all vibrations subside, and if you remain there just three minutes, you come back to your body absolutely rested, refreshed, fortified, as though you had slept for hours.

This is something we can learn to do.  I don’t say it can be done overnight, a little work is necessary also some persistence, but still… this one must learn to do.

Analysis of Sleep Training and Sleep Tips:

Really the most important thing here is for you to explore and find out for yourself the value of penetrating into sleep with awareness.  Below are a few points I want to emphasize from the excerpt above:

Sleep Tip #1 – Stillness:

The importance of complete immobility should not be underestimated with regard to moving into non-dual or Supreme Consciousness.  Many of us who have experienced Kundalini Awakening seriously have at some point felt (and been terrified by :-)) the physical paralysis that takes place during such times.  I believe voluntary stillness emulates this paralysis and give awareness and energy a chance to fly higher and deeper.

Sleep Tip #2 – Persistence:

As the Mother pointed out above, results will probably not be immediate and it will take some practice, persistence and patience on your part to meaningfully explore sleep and such higher states.  So don’t just try for a night or two and give up.  If you are passionate about spirituality, simply apply yourself and keep yourself open to what might be revealed to you.

Sleep Tip #3 – Altered States of Consciousness:

Satchitananda and non-dual, mind blowing states are great, but you might find other interesting experiences and see other interesting sites on this inward journey as well.   Stepping out of the mechanical ordinary mental activity is always intriguing and sleep is a very conducive time for such breakthroughs to occur, so I hope you do go into this more and discover aspects of your being and consciousness which you were never aware of and which are the real treasures of life.