DEEP SLEEP AND THE UNMANIFEST REALITY - PART 1

Deep sleep is often mistaken for the non-objective Awareness, the pure Awareness which is not aware of itself, because during deep sleep the consciousness retires into rest and is not conscious of itself. However, this state has a limited duration, after which the waking state (which includes the dream state) again takes over. 


Both the waking and the deep sleep states are alternating periods of consciousness-in-manifestation. During the waking state there is a sense of presence; during the deep sleep state that sense of presence is absent. 


But the pure state of Awareness that you really are, is the total absence of both the presence and the absence of the sense of presence. And it is not time-bound. Can you permanently go without sleep now? Yet 100 years ago, before manifestation, were 'you' concerned about sleep? 


Consciousness, deep sleep, waking, time-duration are all aspects associated with manifestation. How could this be equated with the unmanifest Awareness which is pure subjectivity and intemporality, and doesn't have the slightest touch of objectivity or phenomenality?.


 –        Nisargadatta Maharaj



Remember, to know Yourself, return to the silence before words.

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