*Day 17*
Are you awake, sleeping or are you dreaming? The problem is that you are doing both. While you think you are awake, you are actually dreaming.
We do not notice the differences between the waking and dreaming states. That is why we try to make our dreams come true.
To consider dreams real is a sign of ignorance. Look at a child who starts crying after he wakes up from a dream.
He thinks that the dog that was chasing him in his dream was real, and so even after waking up he keeps crying and shouting, saying that a dog bit him.
While considering a dream as real is a sign of ignorance, understanding that reality is just like a dream is a sign of an enlightened person.
The main problem lies in not understanding the difference. Instead, you sit, day-dreaming. There are two types of dreams- a day-dream happens when we are awake, and dream happens when we are sleep.
When you become aware that a thief has broken into your house, fear makes you wake up. Or imagine you have lost your way home, you are alone at night and there are no streetlights.
The heart starts beating faster, and you can clearly hear the sound of each beat of the heart. Until that moment, you are not aware that you have a heart.
At these moments are you really awake? The three states of consciousness are the awakened state, the dream state and the state of deep sleep.
Only when one distinguishes between these states can one experience the fourth state. We should understand this next sutra clearly.
In life, we are not aware of the differences between the
three states of consciousness, waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Everything looks the same in the dark.
Advaitins, or non-dualists, and Dvaitins, or dualists, each give their own view. Advaitins say that everything is one and the same, and Dvaitins reply that yes, everything looks the same in the dark.
Only in light can you distinguish differences. We need to understand this science of difference. Right now, you are seated on the floor, listening to me.
Are you aware of the difference between your body and the floor? Experience it right this moment. Are you experiencing the contact of your body with the floor?
Do you notice the difference? Similarly, do you feel the difference between your body and the clothes you are wearing?
Become aware of it now. Do you feel the shirt making contact with your skin? Only then you will know that the shirt and body are actually different.
While engaged in different
activities, observe the difference between mind and intellect, mind and breath, breath and body, body and ground and so on.
Try to become aware of the difference between the states of waking, dreaming and sleep. This is the science of differentiation. We will know if we are asleep, dreaming or awake once we understand this science.
