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Sleep and Sadhana · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  What happens when we sleep? Where does the consciousness go?
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  For most people, sleep is a blank state.
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  We have little awareness of what goes on during sleep, except for
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  times when we are having a dream in a state near enough to the
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  waking state that we actually remember details from the dream.
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  We may try to interpret and understand the dream, we believe
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  there may be some significance to it, but we are not quite
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  sure. Western scientists trying to
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  study sleep have identified several types of changes in the
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  brain waves generated during periods of sleep, and they have
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  tied them to periods of waking, consciousness, dream state,
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  light sleep and deep sleep. However, they bring us no closer
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  to an actual understanding of sleep itself, its purpose, and
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  what takes place in the consciousness during sleep.
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  There are many things in the world which we cannot directly
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  observe, but which we interpret by the effect they have.
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  Electricity is one of those things.
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  We don't see the electricity, but we experience its results.
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  Similarly, we can begin to understand what happens to us
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  during sleep by our experience after waking.
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  Sometimes we wake up groggy and tired.
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  Other times we wake up energetic and can't wait to start the day.
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  Sometimes we are disturbed by some kind of dream, chaotic or
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  alarming or satisfying or uplifting.
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  Clearly, the consciousness does not simply stop when we sleep,
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  we simply do not pay conscious attention to it.
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  During sleep, our body uses the time to regenerate itself,
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  resetting a lot of the body's functions, repairing tissue,
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  balancing out the body's response, relaxing the tension
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  of the prior day. But sleep, obviously, is much
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  more than downtime aimed at the body's regeneration needs.
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  They're also vital worlds we enter, or mental worlds.
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  Some even meet spiritual teachers and undergo various
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  forms of spiritual growth while they sleep.
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  It is a well known phenomenon that someone can go to bed with
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  some certain concern or problem and wake up the next morning
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  with the solution at hand. There are a number of methods
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  that spiritual practitioners use to make sleep conscious.
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  This does not mean trying to stay awake as some people have
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  interpreted it. Rather, it is to build a bridge
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  between the waking awareness and the sleep state so that the
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  experiences in dream can be brought consciously into the
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  waking state, which implies the sleep state begins to gain a
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  conscious element while the deep sleep state still takes place.
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  Another practice uses affirmations and various forms
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  of focus or preparation of the mind through aspiration, prayer,
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  consecration, etcetera, to ensure the consciousness does
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  not drift downwards toward darker and denser levels that
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  could otherwise drag down the spiritual Sadhna.
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  Sri Orbindo writes quote sleep, because of its subconscious
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  basis, usually brings a falling down to a lower level unless it
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  is a conscious sleep. To make it more and more
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  conscious is the one permanent remedy, but also until that is
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  done, one should always react against this sinking tendency
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  when 1 wakes and not allow the effect of dull nights to
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  accumulate. But these things need always a
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  settled endeavour and discipline and must take time, sometimes a
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  long time. It will not do to refrain from
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  the effort because immediate results do not appear.
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  End Quote reference Sri Aurobindo, Basis of Yoga Chapter
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  5. Physical consciousness,
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  Subconscious sleep and dream illness.
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  Pages 97 to 98.