When you can’t fall asleep and you try to force it you will
accomplish the opposite because any effort is against sleep. Sleep is a relaxation. You cannot do anything for it to happen, you
cannot force it, you cannot Will it.
When
you move into the unconscious, into the depth of yourself, that
fragment which is consciousness, that fragment which is Will, is
left on the surface. You cannot take
your surface to your depth, you cannot take your circumference to your
center. The mind cannot go there. It's a place beyond the mind.
When you make efforts to go to sleep, it is self-destructive,
you will push it further away and become more awake. That’s called the law of reverse effect, the
oldest sutra of Taoist and Zen.
The only way to fall asleep is to do nothing. Just relax and wait. You cannot Will it. Will is against the
unconscious because Will requires force.
That’s why willpower and promises
don’t work except make you feel miserable, guilty and ashamed when you can’t keep them. That’s why New Years resolutions fail.
Let things happen, don’t force them. There are things which can be forced – all
that belongs to the conscious mind can be forced. But there are things which
cannot be forced – all that belongs to the unconscious, to your depth, cannot be
forced.
Will
cannot bring anything out of your depth. Only surrender brings it, only when
you let go, when you are relaxed.
Doing nothing is the hardest thing to do. Doing pushes everything further away.
You
go through rituals but there is no ecstasy. You look for technique, it
keeps you cold; because you are in your mind you cannot go into the
depth of yourself.
Everything
people do is to satisfy their minds. That's what all the rush is
about. In the end they have nothing. As long as you are trying to
understand you will not go anywhere. The mind keeps you from yourself.
When the inner world is taken care of the outer world will follow.
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