Didi, I don’t yet have experiential recognition of nothingness while in deep sleep (it’s only a post-recognition that there was nothing). This experiential recognition makes me think the world is born to me. However, I’m hesitant to trust this insight because our interpretations are often deceptive; for instance, we see the sun move when it is actually the Earth that rotates. How do I filter truth from this all-pervasive illusion and know for sure that the insight I’m getting is the Truth, not another illusion?

Answer:

Let’s start with your analogy of the Earth rotating around the Sun. That is the perception of sight, which is limited to the body. The perceptions of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch operate only in a narrow domain.

The witnessing awareness field lies beyond the senses.

• • Nobody can refute that they have glimpses of being something beyond the body and senses.
  • Nobody can deny the occasional puzzlement that occurs while looking at the body, ‘Am I here or not?’

They probably label it as the mind. But they stop there and don’t inquire further. One must ask, ‘Who is the one who knows the mind?’ When one recognizes that which lies beyond, one transcends the illusions of the senses, body, as well as the mind. Then only does the actual SEEing begin. It is not like SEEing through the senses. It is a SEEing of that which lies beyond the senses.

You mentioned that you recognized the Nothingness of Deep Sleep. The mind cannot go there, hence it labels it as a post-recognition. Please ask yourself the question: Can any recognition be labelled as a ‘post-recognition’? 

• • If one enters a dark room and comes out to the front yard, then did the perception of darkness happen when one was in the dark room, or when one is in the sunlight?

The perception always happens in the moment. The vocalization and verbalization of the perception may happen later. There is a difference between the two. Realizing this difference is the product of investigation or inquiry. The truth is, perception happens in the moment. The illusion is that the perception happens after coming to the waking state. 

How does one filter the truth from illusion, repetitively and precisely?

The answer lies in the realization that the ‘I’ that is asking this question is itself an illusion. Who knows the ‘I’ that is asking the question? Take your attention there. That is the true witnessing stand. Only from there will you be able to see evidently that the truth is not the vocalization of the realization, but the realization itself.

One cannot think away the Illusion from the Reality. That is because the so-called thinker is part of the illusion itself. One must SEE. The Seer lies beyond thought. 

How does one transcend thought?

One cannot lay a condition that I will not get into the swimming pool before I learn how to swim. The swimming lesson happens when you get into the pool and stumble, fumble, become breathless, and come out with the lesson learnt on buoyancy. 

Hence, begin the inquiry to find the answer to the question, ‘Who am I?’ This must continue throughout the Waking day. Ask yourself:

• • Am I the body-mind labelled ‘John Doe’ or am I the ‘Witness of ‘John Doe’? 

When the ‘I’ shifts from the body-mind to the knower of the body-mind, the ‘I’ that was believed is now seen as a ‘conditioning’, a ‘belief’, a mere ‘illusion’. Soon, the recognition will seep into the Dream. 

• • There will be a realization that ‘I am not the dream character in the dream world. I am the one who is dreaming. This is a dream and not real.’

When the witnessing has seeped from the Waking to the Dream, it will slowly trickle to the end of the Dream, where the Dream collapses.

• • There will be a realization that there is nothing in deep sleep except the one knowing the nothingness.

When the 3 states are witnessed, it becomes obvious that the knower or the witness of the 3 worlds is prior to the 3 worlds.

• • Then the realization arises that the world is born to me; I am not born into a world. 

Don’t quit your inquiry until you arrive there! Allow the shift to happen. You owe it to yourself!