Ra-Hoor-Khuit Network's
Magickal Library

Yoga

How to sleep

Rest is suspension of the moving activity of the mind in a state of homogeneous balanced vibration. While resting one should reside in the belief that no new disturbing forces are coming into the subtle bodies. If rest is done with self observation on the level of consciousness, or pure awareness, it is meditation. 
Without self observation, rest becomes deep, dreamless sleep.
For all people, with the exception of high adepts, sleep is a necessary process to regenerate the body and to reestablish equilibrium in the emotional and mental bodies. The principal of consciousness never sleeps, not even in the deepest states of dreamless sleep. By remaining in the state where consciousness is aware of itself, you can remain in full conscious awareness even while the body rests and all emotional and mental activity is at a standstill. This kind of sleep becomes a meditation.
The point in time just before falling asleep at night and just before waking up in the morning are especially valuable and significant. At these times you are still consciously self aware, but the activities of the mind and emotions are in abeyance. 
Because you are conscious, but the attention is unoccupied with any particular thought or perception, you are able to receive intuitive impressions coming from the higher levels of spiritual consciousness. This state is very much akin to the states achieved in meditation. You should try to make the period between waking and sleeping longer and longer until it includes the entire time during which you sleep.
Always be careful to make the last thought in your mind before you go to sleep a positive and spiritually uplifting one. Since this is the last thought to go into the unconscious mind before sleep, it acts as a very powerful suggestion which will continue all night in the deeper levels of mind while you sleep. Like wise, when you awake in the morning, start your day off with a brief period of meditation and then proceed into your day's activities, operating from the higher level of consciousness established in your meditation upon awakening. To facilitate this process, it is often good to read a few pages out of some sacred book or to go through a few mantras either mentally or out loud.

This page last updated: 02/27/2018