(Minghui.org) For a period of time, I felt sleepy when I was studying the Fa and would fall asleep without even realizing it. I tried to pinch myself to stay awake, but I could only hold on for a while. As soon as I picked up Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa, I fell asleep again.
In an entire afternoon, I didn’t even finish one lecture. If I wasn’t sleepy, I could finish about three lectures in the same amount of time. I tried my best to regain consciousness, but I fell asleep again after reading only a line or two. Every time I slept while trying to study the Fa, I felt that Master was there to push me to wake up.
After failing multiple times to keep myself awake during Fa study, I started looking inward for the reasons. I recalled something Master said:
“Our practice is unlike ordinary practices that make one absent-minded, in trance, or infatuated. Our practice requires you to cultivate yourselves with full awareness. Some people always say, “Teacher, once I close my eyes my body will swing.” I would say that it doesn’t necessarily need to be like that. You have already developed a habit of abandoning your Main Consciousness. Once you close your eyes, you put your Main Consciousness to rest, and then it disappears. You have already developed this habit. Why doesn’t your body swing while you sit here? If you maintain the state in which your eyes are open, will your body start swinging if you slightly close your eyes? Absolutely not.” (Lecture Eight, Zhuan Falun)
Wasn’t falling asleep when I was reading Zhuan Falun giving up my main consciousness? I knew I should not do that and that I should take care of my main consciousness.
I picked up Zhuan Falun again, gathered all my energy, focused on my main consciousness, and started to read. After reading just two lines, I felt a sense of some kind of energy slowly gathering my upper right side. When it neared my head, I felt that it was starting to control me, and I felt that I was about to fall asleep. At that moment, I gathered all my energy (my whole body was shaking!) and that feeling of sleepiness ran away with a “whoosh.” I became completely conscious.
I became more alert in regard to my main consciousness and continued to study. After reading more lines, that same sense of energy gathered again from the same spot. It cautiously approached my head and hung there, exerting its conrol, and again it forced me to fall asleep. But after I gathered all my energy and shook myself vigorously, it ran away, and I woke up.
I laughed and continued studying the Fa. As soon as I read a sentence, it came again from the same location. It almost controlled me, but I shook myself and said loudly, “I know you now. I can see you clearly. Don’t try to control me anymore.”
From then on, I have no longer felt sleepy when I study the Fa.
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Category: Improving Oneself
