fivebells .:
Jigme Sengye:
I'm curious about your technique for dealing with drowsiness as an emotional reaction.
I use the physical sensations associated with it as an anchor, and try to remember what preceded it, as a clue to its cause.
That's interesting. Could you give an example?
It's impressive that you can continue noting into sleep
It sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. It's also not a choice. I'd rather stay conscious while meditating. It's more that I'm only lightly asleep at that point, having just dozed off while noting and only stay asleep for a few seconds or at most a minute. I'm not sure if the noting is accurate, either, since I tend to wake up again when I notice that I'm asleep. Sometimes I just notice sensations rather than making silent verbal notes. I think that the fact that the noting and noticing of sensations happens during brief bouts of sleep at all is from the momentum of the meditation. The force of habit of the thing I was doing just before going to sleep just continues as I nod off briefly. This effect can't last very long. If I start to dream, I might dream that I'm noting or noticing sensations. I'm not sufficiently conscious in those moments to distinguish the real noting from the dreaming of noting, in other words thinking I'm noting, but not actually doing it.
I find that meditating in this kind of very brief sleep also to be more noticing sensations than actually making silent verbal notes.