About This Teaching
Drowsiness, Ajahn Dtun says, is something everyone experiences: after a day of duties and work, the body needs rest. When it comes during sitting or walking meditation, one should be patient and try to work through it.
It has different causes. If one has not rested enough, try to work through it, and if that is not possible, it may be necessary to rest. If it comes from eating too much, some reduce their food, and some monks even fast, so that body and mind feel light for meditation. He tells of a practitioner who noticed great drowsiness after overeating, took less food the next day, found the body lighter and the mind easier to calm, and realised that this is how to practise.
Determined practitioners do not give in to drowsiness or laziness. If they have resolved to rest at ten or eleven but are heavily drowsy by eight, they keep going, for example by switching to walking meditation. A practitioner must be smart about the workings of their own mind and its kilesas; practising and developing concentration a lot, they will understand their own mind well enough to know how to remedy such states.