1983-07_24 Awakening Intelligence Q&A - 1

Talk: 19830724-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-awakening_intelligence-1557 Start_time: 00:00:02 Display_question: Can under or oversleeping affect my meditation? Keyword_search: sleepy, fear, meditation, dullness, overeat, oversleep, emotional, emotions, inquiry, resist, unpleasant, burning, energy, too much, exercise, boredom Question_content: Questioner: Well, there's just something I wanted to share because of an interview with Vimalo. I was about three days ago just freaking because it's as if I'd never learned to meditate ever before. And I could not keep my mind from just racing everywhere. And I had no idea what was going on. And Vimalo said, “Well, maybe you're just getting too much sleep.” I mean, just something that simple having to do with chemistry. And so I cut down on the sleeping and on the eating, and the problem disappeared. Larry: Maybe it was auto-suggestion. Maybe Vimalo hypnotized you. Questioner: But it could be something very simple. Larry: Yeah. Questioner: I have problems with that sleepiness and that dullness too. Larry: Yeah, have you gone into that, Roger? Roger: Sleep? Larry: No, you know just in other words… Have I had enough sleep? Why is this? Have you put a verbal question, sometimes putting in words, “Why am I so sleepy?” And then sit still and listen. Questioner: I think I’m sleeping too little. Larry: Oh, in your case, maybe sleeping too little? Questioner: … But it's not the problem. It's during the course of the day and just seeing that there's just not enough inquiry going on. It's not burning. And it feels too much on the surface. Larry: Is there something being resisted in life, something that wants to come through into consciousness, that's being resisted, that wants to be looked at, but would be unpleasant, because that often is very tiring. Questioner: I’m afraid I didn’t catch… Larry: In other words, the investigation might start with a simple question is, “Am I getting enough sleep? Or too much or not enough?” et cetera. But sometimes it goes into the emotional realm where you eliminate: You've not overeating, you've had plenty of sleep, you've had exercise, et cetera, and yet you're still tired. In other words, “you shouldn't be tired,” in quotes, but you are. And what that could point to is some whole emotional. Yeah, that's right. And it's taking a lot of energy to hold it down. I say this there's a very rich literature in the psychoanalytic literature about the relationship between, let's say, sleep and fear, boredom and fear. I mean, I don't know what it is, but that might be a fruitful direction to go into. I think we have time for one last statement or question. Sure. End_time: 00:03:04 ___________________________________________________________________________________