Though it is true that the world is a figment of our imagination, like the snake, and that brahman is the reality underlying its false appearance, just as the rope is the reality underlying the false appearance of the snake, this application of this analogy fails if we try to extend it further by inferring that just as the snake will be found to be a rope if we look at it carefully, the world will be found to be brahman if we look at it carefully. No matter how carefully we scrutinise the world or any other second or third person object, their illusory nature and the true nature of their underlying reality will not be revealed, because by attending to them we are sustaining and perpetuating their seeming reality. Their unreality will be revealed only if we scrutinise the first person, the ego, which is the false foundation upon which their seeming existence rests. – Michael James Happiness of Being Note: In this explanation...
The fruition of your spirituality is to fully understand your own true nature, to stabilize in your true identity. Ultimately, everything merges in the Self. You will transcend that beingness, and you, the Absolute, will know that you are also not that beingness, that consciousness. Beingness is transcended, but beingness will still be available. In the deep sleep state the beingness, the 'I amness' goes into oblivion, you forget yourself. The 'I amness' comes and goes in the waking and deep sleep states, but the Absolute remains unaffected by that. The true state, which is whole, undifferentiated, is beyond birth and death. Be friendly with your undifferentiated state, your true Self. There was never any division, but you are under the delusion that you are not one with it. You are never bound by body and mind. You are limitless. You, the Absolute are aloof, you are beyond any experience. In the absence of the basic concept 'I am' there is no thought, there is ...
There are various types of charity, but the greatest charity is the renunciation of the knowledge ‘I am’. When you give that up you escape birth and death. Waking state represents activity; deep sleep represents peace, quiet. When these two are present it means ‘I am’ is there, but you the Absolute are neither the waking state, deep sleep nor ‘I amness’. – Nisargadatta Maharaj Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.