By a Falun Dafa practitioner in China

(Clearwisdom.net) I have recently become diligent in my cultivation due to encouragement from fellow practitioners. Every day I feel that time is limited and I need to hurry up. I began to reduce my amount of sleep, but the consequent sleepiness bothered me a lot. I could not guarantee quality in my Fa-study. Sometimes, it took me a long time to finish one page, and while sending forth righteous thoughts, I could hardly keep my hand in position. Although I spent little time sleeping, I didn't study the Fa well. I started to ponder why.

A practitioner once pointed out that we all have only 24 hours per day, which was very enlightening. It's true that the time given to us is the same, and it's up to us how to use it wisely. I fell short in this regard before, and now the time has become less and less. I should focus on and spend most of my time doing the three things well. Yet my biggest obstacle was this "demon of sleepiness."

However, as soon as we discern it, we can disintegrate it. In fact, the "demon of sleepiness" is a human notion, and it is what we ask for when we pursue comfort. When we think that everyone needs eight hours of sleep each day, how could three hours be enough? We are sure to feel sleepy and be unable to get up in time in the morning to do the exercises. We will need to catch up on sleep in the daytime. At times, I told myself to go to bed early for fear that I could not get up in the morning. As long as I had this thought, I was not able to get up. In fact, it's all caused by our human notions. Everything happens for a reason. It's because we have planted the seed of believing "little sleep causes sleepiness," that we experience difficulty waking up and studying the Fa well.

So what should we do in the case of sleepiness? I usually prepared myself a basin of icy cold water. If I felt sleepy, I washed my face with it, or I would walk around for a while. At times, that was not enough. I recalled the ancient story of "hanging oneself by the hair and pricking oneself with a needle," so that I could stay awake while I read, but that also did not last long. Then I recalled Master's teaching regarding the issue of eating meat: "You are not forced by anyone, and neither do you force yourself to not eat the meat. Instead, this comes from your own mind." ("Lecture Seven" in Zhuan Falun, 2000 translation version) I realized that the same principle applies to bedtime! The most important thing for us is to get rid of human notions. How could a god feel sleepy? Although Master has told us that it is the human being who is cultivating, not a higher being, we should think and do things with a god's mind, as we are told that now "Divine beings are among men." ("To the European Fa Conference in Stockholm") In "Lecture One" of Zhuan Falun Master says, "Some people may think, 'I'll practice cultivation after my illness is cured.' There is no precondition for practicing cultivation, and one should practice cultivation if one wants to." We want to study the Fa, so we should study the Fa with a pure and pious heart and without any other thoughts, such as what time it is, it's getting late, what we should be doing, etc.

"Sleepiness" is not a state for cultivators. Once I understood this, I no longer felt sleepy as I had overcome this obstacle.

Through my sharing, I hope that my fellow practitioners can also make breakthroughs in this matter as soon as possible.

Please point out anything inappropriate.

Posting date: 12/10/2007
Original article date: 12/10/2007
Category: Practitioners' Insights
Translated on 11/30/2007
Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/11/21/166933.html

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