Page 81 - Dhamma Practice

being in thoughts. Then, suddenly, we drop off to sleep. As we come to, we ask: “Where did we go, just now?” It is like falling off a high place. After this brief sleep, we wake up refreshed. For anyone who practices vipassana, this is a natural condition that can occur. It is natural.
As mentioned before, the way to resolve (sleepiness) is to unburden our mind. We can do it, right? Try it one more time—take our mind and move it outside of our physical body. In this empty space, as the mind is unburdened, how does it feel? Does it feel dim or clear? Does it feel awake or drowsy? It feels awake, right? This is good. Now take this unburdened mind and place it around our face—how does it feel? How do our eyes feel? Brighter! This is because when we feel sleepy, the atmosphere begins to dim, and it begins to darken. Once the darkness moves below our eye lids—that’s it! We fall asleep. Observe well when we practice vipassana, not just knowing but be aware of what happens and what the consequences are. When sleepiness emerges, we do not pay attention to it, as we try to contemplate other phenomena. We try to contemplate only inflate- deflate or the breathing phenomenon while thinking that sleepiness is not a conscious phenomenon that we should contemplate. This is a misunderstanding.
Observe that when sleepiness emerges, other phenomena will not be clear, correct? Inflate-deflate fades, breathings are difficult to pinpoint, even thoughts
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