The Cultivation Realms Before Realizing the Tathāgatagarbha (2025-07-11)

Ven. Shi Ruyuan: Master, you told me that these past two nights—was it insomnia, or was my manas making diligent progress, or what is going on? I just cannot sleep. Whether lying down or sitting up, the sound of the Buddha's name keeps reciting in my head, and the matter of contemplating the Dharma principles that you, Master, taught me also keeps turning over in my mind without stop. Last night I simply could not sleep. In the first half of the night, just after I lay down a little after eleven o'clock, in a state between half-sleep and half-waking, a bright sun appeared in my mind and shone me awake. After waking, I felt hot and excited, my heart was stirred and I could not sleep all night; my mouth felt dry and thirsty, and drinking water three or four times did not quench the thirst. After a while, when I lay down and was just about to fall asleep, I dimly heard a gentle voice, like that of an elderly person, saying to me: Hurry up and apply yourself to practice. Since I could not sleep anyway, I sat up and contemplated the Dharma principles, feeling that there were endless Dharma principles to contemplate in my mind.
Comment: Why could Ven. Shi Ruyuan not sleep? The reason is that when one's spirit is full, one does not feel like sleeping. What does "spirit" specifically refer to? Spirit refers to a person's mental state. If the energy within the body is sufficient, the mental state is good; a person is energetic, not drowsy or wanting to sleep, and does not need excessive sleep to replenish energy. Why must a person with insufficient spirit sleep? When the body's energy is insufficient and consumption is relatively high, the spirit is deficient, and sleep is needed to replenish energy. Why do sentient beings need sleep? Because for humans in the Saha world, the physical body is composed of the four great real seeds, and it needs the qi and blood generated by segmental food to maintain the normal functioning of the physical body. Qi and blood are the source of energy; when qi and blood are sufficient, energy is abundant, and a person is energetic and not drowsy.
Both meditative concentration and sleep can replenish and regulate qi and blood, and therefore people need sleep; meditative concentration can substitute for sleep in replenishing qi and blood. Sleep can replenish energy; the energy the body needs is the qi and blood that nourish the body's five organs and six viscera, sinews and bones, muscles, skin, and so on. During the day, the bodily, verbal, and mental activities of the five aggregates consume a certain amount of qi and blood; at night during sleep, the qi and blood of the five organs and six viscera are automatically regulated, and when the regulation is sufficient, one wakes up automatically. Therefore, the more one consumes during the day, the more needs to be replenished during the night's sleep, and the longer the sleep time. Random thoughts and distractions likewise consume qi and blood. Meditative concentration can regulate qi and blood because in meditative concentration the body and mind do not move: first, it reduces the consumption of qi and blood; second, it can replenish the four great elements and regulate qi and blood. Therefore, the deeper the meditative concentration, the more abundant the qi and blood, and the less sleep is needed. Thus those without meditative concentration sleep more, while those with meditative concentration can nourish their spirit and sleep less.
Because Ven. Shi Ruyuan possesses the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna, naturally her spirit is full and she does not feel like sleeping, and she sleeps little. After she entered the first dhyāna, her sleep became even less than before in preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi); each night she needs only two or three hours of sleep, which is enough. But why could she not sleep even one hour these two days? First, it is because her mind is pure and luminous; the bright sun shone upon her, prompting her to investigate Chan and awaken to the Way, so she had no sleep but applied herself to contemplative investigation. Second, it is because she has a Dharma-protecting deity urging her to cultivate the Path diligently, deliberately not letting her sleep, and waking her whenever she lay down. This is the protective function of a compassionate and responsible Dharma-protecting deity. Even those who lived very close to her were affected, being woken several times during the night as well.
Why is Ven. Shi Ruyuan's Dharma-protecting deity so responsible, while others cannot even sense the existence of a Dharma-protecting deity? As long as one upholds the precepts, has aspirational resolve, and wishes to cultivate diligently, one will have the protection and guardianship of Dharma-protecting deities, though ordinary people cannot sense it. If someone has exceptionally excellent spiritual faculties and cultivates courageously, the protective function of the Dharma-protecting deities becomes very great. The magnitude of the protective function, and whether it is conspicuous or not, depends on the practitioner's roots of goodness, power of the Path, power of aspiration, and level of cultivation.