Is sleeping Zazen?

[Prashanth]

Allow me this question, and I mean it with no facetiousness and definitely don't mean to be flippant: am I in Zazen when I am asleep?

In sleep, we let the thoughts, dreams go by without holding on to them. In sleep there is also a dreamless, thoughtless phase, and for the breathing enthusiasts: in sleep, most of us breathe in a fairly calm rhythm.

I know Zazen could be beyond all these, at least when intellectually analysed, but is sleeping then a "form" of Zazen?

To put it more crudely: if I have to sit and do nothing, what difference would it make if I instead slept and did nothing? At least I will spare all the ritual and physical commitment that sitting requires.

Apologies if this was answered elsewhere before, and for running long.

Gassho.

Sat.

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[Jundo]

Allow me this question, and I mean it with no facetiousness and definitely don't mean to be flippant: am I in Zazen when I am asleep?

In sleep, we let the thoughts, dreams go by without holding on to them. In sleep there is also a dreamless, thoughtless phase, and for the breathing enthusiasts: in sleep, most of us breathe in a fairly calm rhythm.

I know Zazen could be beyond all these, at least when intellectually analysed, but is sleeping then a "form" of Zazen?

To put it more crudely: if I have to sit and do nothing, what difference would it make if I instead slept and did nothing?

No, sleep is not a form of Zazen although, possibly, it could be sleep in which we dream of Zazen.

Why is sleep not a form of Zazen? Usually in dreaming, we react to thoughts and events with dreamt thoughts and emotional reactions. That is just more mental entanglement and reaction in what we witness.

Furthermore, the non-dreaming times of sleep (or being in deep anesthesia, in a coma, etc.) are not Zazen, for we are just blanked out, with total loss of consciousness. Rather, Shikantaza Zazen is letting thoughts and events come and go without getting tangled in them, without particular reaction and added thoughts, sitting in profound equanimity. (So, it is possible ... and I have done so ... to sit within a dream in dreaming Shikantaza). It is not Zazen unless we summon that Wisdom and Light of Wholeness and Clarity which shines through all the thoughts and events of life ... whether waking or in a dream.

In fact, it is Basic Mahayana Buddhism 101 that ALL of this life ... including the so-called "awake" times when we are not sleeping ... are something like a dream. So, we should dream our dreams of life well ... AWAKE! whether asleep or awake.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Prashanth]

Oh, that was a very informative answer. Thank you, Jundo. I will work on understanding it deeper.

Gassho.

Sat.



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