Saturday, October 18, 2008

No one sleeps

Who sleeps?

The concept of sleep carries with it the inherent and persistent "I" thought.

"I slept."

The concept of sleep requires an "I" who sleeps, a "ME" that is a body-mind in which limited consciousness stops and starts, a "small self" which becomes unconscious while the world "outside" continues to exist.

There is an appearance of a waking state, an active consciousness, an identified mind where the True Self or Presence is mistaken for the body, a body lost and roaming in a world which appears separate.

This resolves at night as this state changes to a dream world, another seemingly "solid world" where the character is identified with, moves about, thinks, has pleasure and pain, desires and fears.

In the "deep sleep" state - no forms arise, no identifications are possible. Only the pure unidentified consciousness remains.

In reality these three states are only transitory, only flowing perceptions, conceptualized by the waking mind as an "I" who is awake, an "I" who slept, an "I" who was dreaming.

Your true essence, your timeless Beingness, the ever-present Self, was present and remained still and silent, watching without attachment, resistance or conditioning, throughout the changing appearance, throughout the "stages" conceptualized as waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

Something is present, always, to see the passing of the "I" who sleeps. Find out what knows the one who is awake, who dreams, who sleeps. Find out what is knowing the Mind which overflows with the concept of an "I" who is here, separate, awake, dreaming or sleeping.

Don't trust the beliefs of the mind - look within - something is witnessing the thoughts which color the appearance with identification, with an "I" who "sleeps".

Sleep is only a concept, a conceptualization of the appearance and disappearance of identified consciousness, an identification with a body and mind which appears and disappears. Pure Self is that to which these appearances come and go.

No one sleeps.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Goodness


Sergio

Josef said...

Hello Randall,

thank you for your great posts.

Now there is the wakeful state. There is being, the feeling of existence, without seperation, unless a appearing thougth is taken to be real. Ok, thats clear. Now there is being.

In an earlier post (19 July 2008)"Look nowehere other than that I AM" you wrote that nothing else is needed. When i read this earlier blog i immediately fall in this beingness without seperation.

As you now talk about deep sleep, there is confusion. Because in deep sleep, the feeling of existence is not there. But who should know, what is before being?

Furthermore "deep sleep" is a presently arising thougt now. If there would not be this thinking, about what remains in "deep sleep", there would be no problem and confusion now and i would exist anyway.

It is clear, that in deep sleep exists no body and no world. Something remains. And when i slept last night this something without any doubt must have remained. But it is not possible to experience that. And every experience would just be another thougt.

So what is this all about? There is frustration. Do i have to go before beingness? Or is nothing else needet than feeling of existence?

When there is being here, and appearing thoughts are not taken to be real, there is no problem.

But everytime, when the subject "deep sleep" appears on a blog or a book, there is confusion here.

Is being only another experience, which comes and goes? Then there must be something, who is aware of that, ok. But this awareness cannot be perceived. I never can realize this "it".

So where is the freedom and peace here? For me that is not freedom, it is frustration.

The only freedem "i" find is, when there is being, without taking any thougth about deep sleep serious.

Of cours there is also freedom in deep sleep. But what remains in deep sleep is never knowable, also i am this.

Where am i wrong?

Warm regards

josef

Randall Friend said...

Josef,

Forget about the deep sleep state and the confusion around it. It's not helpful to dwell on confusion, only to ask "who is confused".

You say "I immediately fall in this beingness without separation".

Who falls? Who is not in this beingness and then later falls in at the prompting of some blog post?

Who is this "Josef" character who is seeking the answer, having some insight but now confused?

Who is this "Josef" who needs to be liberated from the belief in separation?

Don't you see that the very core of separation is the belief in a "Josef" who can do any of this or needs this?

If there is no "Josef", then what is happening, right here and now? What is present NOW? Who is reading this? Who is sitting there? Who is wanting liberation? Who is having confusion?

Life is living itself - watching this mental exercise, watching the present moment evolve through "states" of waking, dreaming and deep sleep.

In reality, there is only one "state" - that Presence of Oneness which is looking at itself, right now, seeing thoughts and beliefs about Josef and Randall, seeing desires and fears and insights and confusions, seeing itself manifesting as "this and that".

And this "state" is here, right now, the ever-present "state" or container IN WHICH this appearance of Josef-World plays. No thought can create a reality that there is something different, something separate.

Thoughts about it are irrelevant. Find out what IS, here and now, in which thoughts come and go, in which these waking and sleeping states come and go, in which this idea of a "Josef" and "Randall" come and go.

Find out what remains, changeless and unconditioned, while the passing sensations are then mentally conceptualized into a "world seen by Josef".

love
randall

Anonymous said...

Once again I am left speechless~

Anonymous said...

I too am left speecheless and susannaless.