Is going to sleep practice for dying?

Question

I am very grateful when I wake up, and then think, that could have been the end of me!

Answer 1

It's the little death that we normally survive :o)

Answer 2

This is a lot better question than it looks to some people. The problem is that we're still not totally sure a.) what sleep is, and b.) what death is. The one main difference is that you aren't dead while you're asleep; your basic bodily functions are still working, just at a slower rate.

Unconsciousness, the state we're in when we're asleep, is as close to death as we're going to get while we're alive. You can't experience being unconscious, because if you can experience something, then you're conscious, or at least semi-conscious. (The question of what happens when we're dreaming is a philosophical can of worms I don't even want to open right now.)

Likewise, you don't experience death (because, being dead, you can't experience anything). So in a sense, you're right to be grateful when you wake up.

However, you're not practicing for being dead. When you're dead, you don't get to do anything, so there's nothing to practice for. In fact, you can be sure that when you're time comes, you won't need to have done the slightest bit of training.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

For some people possibly. My father always said that my mother didn't go to sleep, she died. What he meant was that she woke up when she was ready and no amount of shaking or noise could wake her until that moment. My son's the same. When there was a car crash outside the house at about 2. a.m., he slept right through. I honestly believe he could sleep through an earthquake and wake up on his mattress in the rubble asking, 'What happened?'

Answer 4

Death occurs in various ways, some not at all as peaceful as going to sleep. If you mean is being dead like being asleep then I hope not. Either we are gone entirely at death and experience absolutely nothing (not even dreaming we still exist) or we go on in some way, and hopefully that way is different to being unconscious and having endless forgotten dreams - which seems like a pointless existence.

Not that sleep is pointless, far from it. Sleep is about one third of our lives! And I fancy there is a lot more going on in sleep than resting.

So, assuming we survive death (my fervent hope and belief), I would say that the whole of life is a preparation for it.

Answer 5

It is both - a practice of dying and then living again. It is in fact much more than that. We dream, and there the thought idealised, or mortified in case your dreams are nightmares. I think it is one act but too many. We have faith and we surrender our will in the hands of a potentially dangerous process of going unconscious - this I believe takes courage. And then maintenance work is done both in our mind and in our body. Then we wake up and still remember from the time when we nodded off.

This is amazing. I think I will sleep differently tonight.

Answer 6

Going to sleep is a function that ur body needs to recover from the previous daily events, when u sleep u enter different levels/realms without even realising it, and there is noway ppl can practice dying as when we die our soul has disappear out of the body, so the body that is left its just a shell and does a shell sleep?

Answer 7

In deep sleep we return to the source, temporarily, to rest in love, as we do when we leave the body permanently.
This is not something that needs practise. It is waking up in your body and being in this world you are practising! If you feel grateful to wake up each time, then you must be doing quite well. x

Answer 8

I'd say it's very very similar. Death is waking up somewhere else.
Sometimes when I wake up I wonder if I'm in the same reality as I was when I went to sleep. Sometimes there are things that are slightly different...
What do you think about that?

Answer 9

Good to be grateful, but if you didn't sleep you would be dead after a couple of weeks. Going to sleep can be said to mimic dying but it's necessary for life.

Answer 10

Practice for dying is being wide awake and thinking about dying and what it means to us. The problem with dying is that we don't think about it enough, we keep pushing it away as if that will stop it happening. It won't. We all die. If only we could always remember that our lives are short and we should live them as brightly and beautifully as we can. And love ourselves and each other as if we are going to die tomorrow.

Answer 11

It may be the case that some people do tend to die in thier sleep. But, i dont really think that ANYTHING can really prepare you for death. Sleep is merely a physiological fuction in all forms of life. It helps our minds and bodies to recover and function at optimal capacity. Now if you are NOT sleeping.......Thats a Problem...