Yesterday I was talking on the telephone to a long time acquaintance. "How are you"? I asked. "Fine". "Well, fine except for a huge sleep deficiency". This had me wondering. Not enough sleep in the sleep account I guess! So how does one know? How to tell the difference between simply feeling tired, which I feel most of the time, and an actual deficit? (See also here for an article on the subject).
Last evening around 8.00 pm after meditation I was having jabs of pain in my chest, generally felt unwell and so went to bed. Couldn't have done anything else. Eleven hours latter I woke up! Now I know some of the signs of sleep deficit; and now you know the reason why there was no posting yesterday. From now on, if I've not posted by 9.00 pm I'll not post. That's my blogging resolve from now on.
It is so very easy to burn the candle at both ends. I'm beginning to see that this can be a form of greed.
A visitor from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition told me the other day that his teacher told him that 'greed' or 'desire' are not strong enough words for the first of the three poisons. He uses the word 'addiction' instead. I can understand why. And I can understand why one of the chapters in Rev. Master Daizui's book, Buddhism from Within, it titled 'Radical Sobriety'.
Yes, Buddhist practice is about sobering up, radically!
Uh! This is posting number 300, another mile-stone. And speaking about stones, how about that big one balancing in the previous posting? And for those who concern themselves, I'm much rested and fine.
