Science has recognized 3 states of existence; Waking State, Dream State, Deep Sleep, out of which the 1st two states include thoughts and the third, is thought free. The Dream State is not given any significance and at best is treated as a nuisance which we have to live with. I shall try to prove that on the contrary, it has enormous significance and is the only clue we have as to what the world really is.
It is very important at the outset to recognize the difference between imagination and the dream state. In imagination, you are still aware of the physical body and as such can visualize anything you want. But in the dream state you are not aware of the physical body (in fact that is what distinguishes the Dream Sate from the waking state). Please see that you cannot have a dream unless you, yourself are a part of the dream.
This has an enormous significance. It can only mean that the dream is produced via the dream body and consequently until the dream body is projected first, the dream does not start. Please see again that in the dream everything that you see in the Waking State can be seen as in the Waking State (i.e happiness, sadness, pain, fear etc) with no difference. It is only when you come back to the Waking State that you say that you had a dream. Just to emphasize the point, the Waking State and the Dream State can never co-exist simultaneously.
This leads to the enormous and the only conclusion that the dream scene is a projection of the thoughts emanating from the dream body and it must follow that the waking world we see is only a projection of the thoughts emanating from the Waking State body. This means that contrary to the accepted fact, there is no such thing as a world existing independently apart from the one who sees it.
As an example, at this moment a thought of a book (I am writing on a book at this moment) comes and the five senses project an image of a book obeying the thoughts. I then say “I see a book in front of me”. To put it bluntly, there is no external independent entity of a book. This sequence is the reverse of what is generally accepted where signals from an external independent world is conveyed to the brain via the five senses.
O.K, so how is the movement of say a man walking produced on this basis? It is produced by a series of thoughts slightly different from each other emanating so fast that the brain is unable to distinguish them as separate thoughts and fuse them together giving the illusion of movement.
Please check how a motion picture is produced on the screen. If you examine the reel there are slightly different pictures of an action and when they are projected on to the screen very fast, the eye cannot distinguish them as separate pictures and the illusion of a movement is depicted on the screen. I hardly need to state the enormous implications of this reasoning. I request you to read what has been stated so far without any pre-conceived ideas and judge solely on the evidence and the reasoning I have stated.
But, of course, this is all theory and if one cannot confirm it experientially it will remain as another theory.
The only way to prove the above theory is to come to a state free from all thoughts. If the above theory is right, the world including your own body (your body is also a creation of thoughts and has no independent external existence) should vanish. This is precisely the state known as Sat- Chit- Ananda (being / conscious / bliss) where everything, including your own body has vanished and a state of Pure Consciousness remains which is the ultimate permanent state which sustains and underlies all creation.
Space does not permit me to explain the enormous implications of what I have stated above and in my full time meditation on Self Inquiry (Atma Vichara), I have confirmed experientially many things stated above and given the chance, I will try to explain those revelations in my next article in a spirit of sharing my experiences with you.
I shall conclude this article with an incident that took place in the life of Ramana Maharishi. Apparently, a foreign lady came to see the Maharishi in India. She said to the Maharishi “I am in India now”. Maharishi smiled and asked “Are you in India or is India in you?”!! Beautiful, isn’t it!!
Add new comment