Question and answer from satsang with Nome

[Guest guest]

Dear Group,

 

A dialog from the same satsang with Nome, December 8, 2002

 

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Another Q.: How can I use deep sleep in my inquiry and

discrimination?

 

N.: What is your experience of deep, dreamless sleep?

 

Q.: It is blank. The mind appears to be inactive. I have no

experience that I can recall. I know that I slept and that I feel

well. Because there is nothing cognitive in deep sleep, this makes it

difficult for the mind to grab hold of the state to help me

discriminate.

 

N.: Your own statement contains what you need. Deep sleep is a state

in which there is no cognition, no thought and no sense perception.

It is a blank, as far as the mind is concerned. There is no mental

activity in it. You enjoy it. That means that you exist and are happy

in that state. What more do you need to know?

 

The Maharshi points to deep sleep in consideration of the inquiry

into your nature to show you that whatever exists in deep sleep is

existing the same now. Anything else that is different from what was

in that state is merely new additions. Being newly added, they will

also be subtracted. What appears disappears. What is created is

destroyed.

 

Q.: Anything added to that state is temporary. When I awaken, first

the "I" thought is added, and then comes the body and the rest of the

world.

 

N.: When you were without those you were quite happy.

 

Q.: Yes, it certainly seems that way.

 

N.: And, you existed.

 

Q.: It certainly seems that way.

 

N.: And you know that, so there was Consciousness, but not

necessarily relative awareness of anything, because there was no

thought, not even a memory. So, you know from your own experience

that Being-Consciousness-Bliss is without the "I," the mind, the

body, and the world.

 

If, in the waking state you find yourself misidentified with any of

the content of the waking state, it is like being misidentified with

the content of a dream. Discern what is actually your Existence and

what is not. That which is actually your Existence, your real nature,

must always be so without a moment's interruption. If something is

interrupted, comes and goes, even to the least degree, it is not you,

and it is not yours. Comprehending this, you become supremely

detached from everything, and you not longer misidentify. When

ignorance is gone, Knowledge alone shines by itself.

 

Q.: My confusion is with misidentification with thought and

cognition. When discriminating, I am busy with the intellect and

using it to compare and contrast my changing apparent existence with

the constancy that I have learned is the true Existence. In deep

sleep, the intellect is turned off, so it has nothing to which to

hold.

 

N.: The difficulty is only apparent. Who knows the intellect?

 

Q.: I do.

 

N.: Inquire, and you will see that there is no second knowing

principle, such as the intellect. Thought does not know itself, and

one thought does not know another thought. Thoughts are not self-

luminous. You know them.

 

For the aspirant, discrimination may seem to start at the level of

the intellect, as the inquiry becomes deeper, it is off the mental

level. The intellect has no capacity to know of its own. There is

only one knower. It is pure Consciousness. With misidentification, it

appears as the mind or intellect. In meditation, it is known as the

Witness of the mind and intellect. If known as it is in itself, it is

pure, unalloyed, homogeneous Consciousness, without any division

whatsoever. That knows, and That alone can know. There is no second

one who can know. Therefore, discern what is truly your Existence, or

what is truly Consciousness.

 

Persevere. You will find something in you that does not pass through

the three states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. You will find

that which is neither the content of the waking and the dream states

nor the blank, or emptiness, of deep sleep. None of those states are

permanent. To know yourself, seek that which is permanent. The

intellect is not eternal, and, indeed, you enjoy a good break from it

when you fall asleep. It does not last forever. Regard only that

which is eternal as your Self. If even your intellect devotes all its

efforts to that, its form will be dissolved.

 

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Not two,

Richard