Coaching practices for My Sits Have Gone Quiet but Kind of Dead I'm Not Thinking but I'm Not Really Awake Either More Like Dozing with My Eyes Open and I Can't Tell the Difference Anymore Between Settled Stillness and Just Zoning Out
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Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My sits have gone quiet but kind of dead
- A few minutes into sitting and I’m fogged-over and heavy, my head nodding, fighting to stay awake
- Every time I sit quietly and let my body relax I just drift off and fall asleep
- When I just sit in silence I drift off into daydreams, but when I only chew on the koan I never actually settle
- Sitting with my eyes closed to “let my mind drift” feels like too much effort and I just end up tense
Practices that may help
- Silent illumination: the quality of awake stillness
Cultivate a stillness that is lit from inside — quiet and alert, not blank and dull.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Working with sloth-and-torpor (thina-middha)
Dullness and sleepiness in meditation require energising antidotes, not more settling.
The Five Hindrances: Diagnosing and Working with Meditation Obstacles - Settling into restful alertness
Allow the body to reach deep rest while the mind stays quietly awake.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) - Integrating the koan with seated meditation
Bring the koan into the stillness of zazen so the sit and the inquiry reinforce each other.
Zen Koans: Inquiry Beyond Reason - Use a single, undirected object-gaze to invite daydreaming
Gaze softly at a single object (window, wall, sky) without trying to think anything in particular.
Boredom and Creativity: Why Your Best Ideas Need Idle Time - Balance torpor and agitation
When the mind dulls, energise it; when it races, settle it.
Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding - Grounding in posture: zazen as the foundation
Let the body be upright, stable, and settled before everything else.
Shikantaza: Just Sitting - Come up from shutdown
When you are numb or foggy below the window, use stimulation to bring energy back up.
The Window of Tolerance: Your Optimal Arousal Zone - Working with drowsiness — staying present while lying down
Use specific techniques to maintain alertness during the body scan without fighting sleepiness.
Body Scan Meditation, Made Practical - Shikantaza (just sitting)
Sit in open, objectless awareness — not focusing on anything, not following anything.
Zen Practice (Zazen and Beyond)
Related concerns
- When Five Hindrances Sloth Torpor Antidote
Dullness and sleepiness in meditation require energising antidotes, not more settling.
Working with sloth-and-torpor (thina-middha)
- Alert Resting State Meditation
Dullness and sleepiness in meditation require energising antidotes, not more settling.
- How To Overcome Sleepiness In Meditation
Dullness and sleepiness in meditation require energising antidotes, not more settling.
- Meditation Sleepiness
Dullness and sleepiness in meditation require energising antidotes, not more settling.
- Sitting With Others Zen
Sit with others regularly — group practice stabilizes individual practice in ways solitude cannot.
Practicing with a sangha (community sitting)
- What Is Zazen
Zen centers on zazen — seated meditation — in two main forms: shikantaza ("just sitting" in open awareness) and koan practice (sustained inquiry into a paradoxical question). Alongside these sits "beginner’s mind," the attitude of meeting experience without preconception. These are traditional contemplative practices; some mechanisms overlap with studied attention training, but Zen’s specific aims and claims are largely experiential rather than clinically validated.
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