Right Here, Right Now by John Wheeler

Author:John Wheeler [Wheeler, John]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Non-Duality Press
Published: 2013-11-17T16:00:00+00:00

60

Awareness, Sleep and Suffering

Question: I heard your interview with Allin Taylor and wanted to ask you a question about sleep. If we are present awareness, as consciousness, then what happens to us during dreamless sleep? It seems to me that we are neither conscious nor aware during dreamless sleep. I appreciate being able to ask you this question.

John: We do not disappear in dreamless sleep. The mind is quiet. That is all. Your being and awareness remain. Otherwise, how do you wake up in the morning? This is more of a theoretical issue which sometimes comes up. The doubt is not of much practical consequence. You are undoubtedly alive and aware right now, and it is a matter of getting clear about what you are. That can be addressed here and now in the waking state.

The whole intent of the pointer is to highlight the fact that something in you remains constant throughout the passing of thoughts, feelings and perceptions. Whatever that is, is present here in the waking state, so you only need to be concerned with present experience. The whole issue boils down to the Question: What in you is present and aware of thoughts, perceptions, emotions and experiences? That is what you truly are. To get clear on that matter of your identity unravels the doubts and suffering that we experience.

Q: Thank you for responding to my question. I have read some of the writings on your web site. I, like you, have been studying this stuff for many years. When I did my own analysis of what I knew to be true, it appeared apparent that we are consciousness and that our awareness of our consciousness might be the highest state of normal consciousness.

John: I would suggest dropping the labels of 'consciousness' versus 'awareness' and 'higher' versus 'normal' states and so on. It is only just awareness. That aware-presence that you are, and which is knowing the mind, is what is being pointed to.

Q: I still tend to get sucked into my thinking and it feels as if I spend most of my time there. The way that I experience my life is probably way less painful then the average person, who thinks that everything that they think about is real, but I seem to be stuck in this place where I get it but keep getting caught in my thinking.

John: This is the rub. The roots of suffering need to be thoroughly unearthed. Otherwise, however clear the insights may be, we come back around to the residual doubts and suffering.

Q: That is where the question about dreaming comes up. To have an understanding and even the experience of awareness as reality does not seem real when it keeps slipping away. Why does it keep slipping away, and why are we not aware when we sleep if we are awareness? The fact that we are not aware when we sleep seems to point to the fact that awareness must be a function of the body and not an independent something that is us.

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