“What does it take to stay alert during meditation? I have a hard time staying awake. My thoughts race through my mind and I can’t get them to stop.”

All of these questions were troubling a most earnest student who desperately wanted to learn to meditate. She was great at partying, another compulsion of her mind, and thought that meditating would help her get her social instincts under control. What I will always remember is trying to “love her” into having any meditation experience.  Nothing seemed to work.
My final image of her would be an 8 a.m. group of beginner meditators, sitting together.  And there was dear Karen with a can of Red Bull by her knee.

I knew that her dilemma was to get to class and stay awake after a hard night of partying. Taking any stimulant was– to her –the only option. But there was another option : Fall asleep – go ahead and let it happen.  You wont sleep forever sitting there and when you wake up you will be refreshed and just maybe inspired by the insights.