Why is it that one of the 10 precepts is to refrain from sleeping on a raised bed??? The Buddha clearly stated that by renunciation he meant no clinging to desires, not eliminating comfort. What's wrong with a little comfort and a good sleep? Is such a thing really that detrimental to your spiritual well-being???
ive read of people who thing the metal springs in most mattresses are bad for their energy and life force. sometimes i feel more grounded when im just sittiing on the ground for some reason, more connected and in touch with things somehow.. but i dont know what buddhism says about it. also, maybe your not in tune with your true natural comfort, or sleeping on the ground? maybe your just conditioned to think your beds what you truly like, when the greatest peace is actually found on the ground???
I do enjoy my time on the floor...in fact, I personally prefer sleeping on the floor. I agree with you when you say it makes you feel more grounded. This was a question my girlfriend posed, that I couldn't really answer. But I can't deny the comfort of a nice cushy mattress to sink into, and still don't quite see why Buddhists are encouraged not to use them.
There is no encouragement. You are given the precepts. You choose to take them, and you choose to keep them. No one says you have to do any of it, take or keep. It's all choice based on your own convictions. You are the choices you make ... HTML: HTML: HTML: HTML:
Oh, my bad I suppose. I guess I thought that the whole idea of the precepts was to encourage practitioners to behave in a certain way that's in line with the Dharma. Just them being there seems like encouragement to me, but I do understand that it is your choice to take them. But back to my original question, perhaps you could clear this up for me: Why would not sleeping on a raised bed be a precept???
maybe because when they were made the "wealthy people" slept an raised beds which would be sort of like a status symbol...maybe it's a metaphor? don't put yourself above the ground ....uhm....I don't know how to further explain..you get it?
Also it is actually much better for your back to sleep on the floor. Further, to constantly indulge in phyiscal comforts and pamper your body only makes you more and more of attached to it. As a great Hindu saint said, comfort comes as a guest, lingers to become our host, and stays to enslave us.
The toothache, the headache, the backache, the tired feet, the tired eyes, the tired mind, the nightmare, etc., tends to 'keep one honest.' To do otherwise may make people think that the homeless are saints, to be emulated. One needn't be an ascetic. Me, I just want my back massage and back heater recliner.
There was a point in time were the only thing man could sleep or sit on was the ground, Do not be a domesticated little baby, no offense. Just a riddle.
I think of it this way; we are perfectly comfortable on the ground, why go do something elaborate that is not needed, if we are comfortable the way we are? The only thing that keeps me from sleeping on the ground is the cold, I also feel more grounded, sleep better and have better dreams, and I know that it is better for you to sleep on the ground, but I still usually sleep on a bed, since it's getting warmer, it'd be nice to pitch a tent in the backyard or put down sleeping bags and sleep out there, and if we had somewhere to put our bed we would sleep on the ground, we did it for a little while, but the bedframe was just in the way in the hallway the whole time. Someday...
The mericle of mind over matter is amazing, if you get used to sleeping on the cold ground or with a bed on the ground, your body gets used to it. Thank GOD for elation.
