“It’s not something you read from the book and you can start doing it from level 0 to 100 right away.”
Question: “The Buddha advised us to practice wakefulness and to reduce sleep. But if we don’t have enough sleep, we’ll feel sleepy and can’t meditate well. Besides, in the long run, our health will also be affected. What do you think?”
Than Ajahn: “When you start practising, you do only what you can do. If you need to sleep for 8 hours, then you’ll still have to sleep for 8 hours.
But as you advance in your practice, if you have more wakefulness, then the need to sleep will be less. You will know how much sleep you need. So, sleep as much as you need, but not as much as you want.
You have to know the separation between ‘need’ and ‘want.’ If you need to sleep for 8 hours, then you sleep for 8 hours. As you progress and improve on your mindfulness, you’ll find that you’ll be sleeping less and less. It will be automatic. When you sleep, you will wake up earlier than the time you’ve expected to wake up because your mind is getting stronger. This is something you will gradually develop. It’s not something you read from the book and you can start doing it from level 0 to 100 right away. You have to start from level 0 and go to level 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and eventually reach 100.
It’s the same like learning other things. When you just start learning something new, you cannot do it perfectly. Just like running, when you first learn how to run, you cannot run 10 miles in one day right away. You have to start running half a mile at first and keep increasing the distance. This is the same way with practice. What you’ve read might be the maximum speed to progress. But when you start practising, you cannot start from the maximum level. You have to start from the point where you can do, and try to increase it as you move forward.”
“Dhamma in English, May 8-12, 2018.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
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