How to Apply the Buddha's Instructions?

The buddha's instructions are to know when these states are present in us and when they are not. When torpor is present, like the different mental factors get very unwieldy. So we experience that in a very familiar way, is kind of a drooping or sinking,. Torpor has to do with sluggishness of mental factors. The mind, when it's conditioned by these states, is described as inert - molasses cleaving to a stick; butter too hard and congealed for spreading. And thou just as sloth and torpor begins to creep into our minds, we may miss it, or we may be in a kind of denial that it's there