“Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.”
~ W.H. Auden

Spiritual teachers often refer to the common waking state of mind and spirit as “sleep”. They talk about the danger of falling asleep, and the need to “wake-up”. In general, the word “Awakening“ in 2015 has become commercially synonymous with the word “Enlightenment”. Yet there is a lack of refinement in language here, which can lead to a range of misconceptions.

Sleep is a beautiful and essential ritualistic human and spiritual need – taking us beyond the thinking mind, beyond the configurations of feelings and emotions, and even beyond perception itself – to that place from which perception is reborn when we wake up. When the Dalai Lama joked: “Sleep is the best meditation,” he wasn’t actually joking. Nor was he recommending we collective scatter our consciousness and anaesthetise our feelings and emotions by going into states of materialistic trance.

Sleep is not a “lesser” state. What is meant by spiritual “sleep” is something else – something closer to the word “Stupor” or “Stupefaction”.

What is Stupor?

stupor (plural stupors)

• A state of reduced consciousness or sensibility.
• A state in which one has difficulty in thinking or using one’s senses.