Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

neko, modified 6 Years ago at 4/23/17 4:39 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/23/17 4:39 AM

Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 762 Join Date: 11/26/14 Recent Posts
Has anyone tried the traditional practice of sleeping sitting up?

Does anybody know if traditionally one uses some kind of back support?

I am already able to do it for a few minutes at a time and I do not slouch. It looks like a great skill to have while e.g. travelling and might be a good thing for posture. Also a great practice in and of itself. 
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Noah D, modified 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 10:26 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 10:26 AM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Absurd degrees of control over the body are among my longest term practice goals.  Along with lucidity in dream sleep & deep sleep.
neko, modified 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 12:39 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 12:39 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 762 Join Date: 11/26/14 Recent Posts
Noah D:
Absurd degrees of control over the body are among my longest term practice goals.  Along with lucidity in dream sleep & deep sleep.

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bernd the broter, modified 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 2:15 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 2:15 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 376 Join Date: 6/13/12 Recent Posts
neko:
Has anyone tried the traditional practice of sleeping sitting up?
I've never heard of something like that. Where did you get this idea from?

I am already able to do it for a few minutes at a time and I do not slouch.
How do you now? Do you film yourself with a camera and memorize the current time every 10 seconds?
It looks like a great skill to have while e.g. travelling and might be a good thing for posture. Also a great practice in and of itself. 
I think what Noah is saying is that this practice sounds really advanced.
neko, modified 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 3:29 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 3:29 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 762 Join Date: 11/26/14 Recent Posts
bernd the broter:
neko:
Has anyone tried the traditional practice of sleeping sitting up?
I've never heard of something like that. Where did you get this idea from?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8112619.stm

http://www.theminimalists.com/drew/

I think it is also mentioned in one of the interviews in

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Realizing-Awakened-Consciousness-Interviews-Perspective/dp/0231170750







I am already able to do it for a few minutes at a time and I do not slouch.
How do you now? Do you film yourself with a camera and memorize the current time every 10 seconds?


I have a rather reliable internal clock. Particularly when it come to sleeping. This is since I was a teenager and before I did any practice. I remember once travelling on a very crowded train, I was sitting in the middle of the space in front of the doors, with no back support, and I slept upright, cross-legged, for quite some time - only my neck was slouching a bit, but my back was reasonably erect. I was always able to decide beforehand with decent accuracy whether I will be napping for 5, 10, or 20 minutes. These are all pretty common skills by the way.

Since I have started meditating, I have learnt a couple more things. Since Stream Entry (that I got doing vipassana on hypnagogia, although I knew nothing at all about meditation at the time), I can fall asleep within 10 seconds of deciding to about 99% of the time, and I usually wake up shortly before the deadline. I still use an alarm, but it is usually not necessary. This too is a rather common skill and I have a few friends who can do this and have never meditated.

Back to the internal clock, I have on occasion meditated during deep sleep and in dreams. I have had several fruitions and A&P events in dreams. If I fall asleep during meditation while sitting because of strong dullness, I am never really 100% 'out'. I still know how long I was sleeping for, and the timer's bell never surprises me.

Most nights I am still 100% out. But it does not look too out of reach for me to give night-time lucidity a shot, given proper guidance.

I think what Noah is saying is that this practice sounds really advanced.

I don't think it is. It sounds intermediate to me. Appropriate for maybe second path, I would say.
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Noah D, modified 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 11:10 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/24/17 11:10 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
neko:
Noah D:
Absurd degrees of control over the body are among my longest term practice goals.  Along with lucidity in dream  sleep & deep sleep.

I'm bring sincere.  Idk whether it shares your goals though. Probably partially?
neko, modified 6 Years ago at 4/25/17 5:12 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/25/17 5:12 AM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 762 Join Date: 11/26/14 Recent Posts
Not sure what you mean by 'absurd' degrees of control over the body.
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Noah D, modified 6 Years ago at 4/25/17 7:08 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/25/17 7:08 AM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Oh sure.  Well what you describe in OP sounds a lot like yaza.  There was a reputed, modern 10 fetter arahant named Tuangpulu Sayadaw who did yaza for 30 years straight.  The idea is that there are subtle degrees of clinging stored up in the body which have to be sort of "boiled off" under pressure.  Of course this sort of ascetic practice would only make sense (to me) after years of body-embracing practices such as somatic descent, qigong, acupuncture, etc.  Things need to be healed & integrated before they can be detached & uprooted.
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Babs _, modified 6 Years ago at 4/29/17 3:23 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 4/29/17 3:23 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 709 Join Date: 2/5/13 Recent Posts
This is widely practiced thing. One friend of mine who did 4 years of retreat in kagyu school of Tibetan buddhism told me that they sit up all night every night, inside wooden boxes. He told me it took him 8-9 months to get used to it. Imagine spending 3/4 of a year just adjusting with your body... Phew.

I once saw in a documentary a senior Shaolin monk do this since he was 17 years old, at the time he was maybe 80 years old. I did some of it in zen but never full nights because it was too early for me. I've seen others do it too early too which just turns against them even to the extent of health problems. But it is a nice thing, gives a different spin on awareness only meditation and sleep yoga when done wisely.
Joshua Bowles, modified 6 Years ago at 5/15/17 9:21 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/15/17 9:21 PM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

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Sounds like a possible yoga nidra.  Although they teach yoga nidra lying down. Surely one could practice yoga nidra in any posture. 

Nidra means night sleep

But you're not really asleep nor are you awake.  There is a fine line that gets balanced on perfectly.  Like tightrope walking. Fall one way and you wake up, fall the other way and you're snoozing. 
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bernd the broter, modified 6 Years ago at 5/16/17 4:45 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 5/16/17 4:45 AM

RE: Sleeping sitting up (intentionally!)

Posts: 376 Join Date: 6/13/12 Recent Posts
neko:

Since I have started meditating, I have learnt a couple more things. Since Stream Entry (that I got doing vipassana on hypnagogia, although I knew nothing at all about meditation at the time), I can fall asleep within 10 seconds of deciding to about 99% of the time, and I usually wake up shortly before the deadline. I still use an alarm, but it is usually not necessary. This too is a rather common skill and I have a few friends who can do this and have never meditated.
Dude, I absolutely cannot do that and I probably would kill for that sort of skill u_U

Regardless, I was on retreat which always brings up all those crazy ideas and I thought that someone will probably make a business model out of this.
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