How Meditation Impacts Sleep Patterns
If one wants to understand the connection between the mind and the body, one should contemplate the connection between the hardware of a computer and the software of a computer. Can the hardware work without the software? It can’t. How can the software function without the hardware? We need to load the software into the hardware for it to work. So also in life, if we want a human being to function, to work completely, we need the body or the hardware and we also need the mind or the software. But can the hardware and the software work by themselves? No, a power supply is needed.
Similarly, the body and the mind cannot function without the power supply or the soul. And to realise this is our ultimate goal. The body-mind connection is such that without the mind, the body would never have been created. It is because the Mind and Ego, ME carries Karma that the fertilisation or conception happens, and the zygote is formed. Then the body is created. Therefore, it all starts when we return to earth in a birth. But once we arrive, then what? Then it appears like we are the body and the Mind and Ego, ME and that we have a Soul, our power supply. However, we don't realise that in reality, we are the Divine Soul. When we realise this, then we are able to transcend the cravings of the body and the misery of the mind. Then we are able to impact our waking life and our sleep and we are able to spend time in silence, in meditation. We are able to control peace in our life, both when awake and when sleeping. It all starts when we start seeking the truth. To seek the truth, one must contemplate. To contemplate, one must meditate. Unfortunately, the term meditation has been misunderstood. Meditation is commonly understood as the state where we sit on the floor, cross-legged, with our spine erect. Unfortunately, though our body is still, our mind wanders. This is not meditation.
Meditation is the ability to slow down the mind. It is to reduce the MTR, the Mental Thought Rate. Then we are able to still the mind, kill the mind. When we kill the mind, we reach the state of Consciousness. Meditation is the start. The goal is Consciousness. Meditation is a method. The destination is the state of Consciousness, also known as the state of thoughtlessness, mindfulness or awareness. When we go on a quest to find the body-mind connection, meditation leads us to the state where we transcend the mind. Then there are no thoughts. In that state of Consciousness, our sleep is very peaceful. There are no nightmares in our dreams. Don't we all dream? Who controls our dreams? It is not under our control. But it is our mind, our thoughts that are at work. When we wake up, we realise that it was just a dream. So, how do we reach the state of dreamless sleep? How do we reach the state of having a sound sleep? It happens when we are able to still our mind and kill our mind. Unfortunately, where is the mind, we cannot find. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts. It appears to exist, but in reality, there is no mind. When we have this realisation that there's no mind, then we live in Consciousness. When we live in Consciousness, we reach that state of Satchitananda — we experience eternal bliss because there's no mind. And no mind means no toxic thoughts, no fear, worry, stress, anxiety, regret, shame and guilt. Our life is full of peace and tranquillity because we have reduced the Mental Thought Rate from 50 thoughts a minute to just one thought a minute. The mind, normally, drills us and kills us, bombarding us with 50000 thoughts a day. The AK47 is known to be a dangerous weapon. But the MK50, the MindKiller 50 is even more dangerous. It shoots at us 50 thoughts a minute, 50000 thoughts a day. It can destroy us. It can destroy our peace, our bliss, our joy. Remember this, wherever there is a piece of mind, there can be no peace of mind.
So, how can we have a peaceful sleep? How can we have a dreamless sleep? If we want to have a peaceful sleep, first, we must kill the mind. To kill the mind, we must still the mind. We must be in that state of Consciousness, in the state of Truth Consciousness, where we realise that we are not the body and the mind, we are the Divine Soul. Then we must lock ourselves in this consciousness and activate the intellect. The intellect is a tool of discrimination. It locks the mind and blocks the mind. It controls thoughts and reaches that state where we realise that we have a body, but we are not the body. We realise that the Mind and Ego, ME is an illusion. We become free. And all this happens through meditation.
Therefore, we must start this journey of body-mind connection. We must start this journey of self-realisation through meditation. We must remember that meditation is not about those fancy things that we read about in magazines or seen on screen. It is not about asanas or exercises, pranayama or breathing techniques. Meditation is going on an inner voyage. Meditation is starting that journey where we cut the outside noise so we can hear the inside voice, the voice of the Divine. When we are able to still the mind when we are awake, then we will also be able to still the mind when we sleep and in this state, we will not wake up and weep because we had a disturbing nightmare. Disturbing dreams and nightmares will become a thing of the past because our mind will no longer last. But first, we must still the mind, kill the mind. Then we have started a life of meditation.
