14/12/2025
Q: Coming back to sleep. Do you dream?
NM : Of course.
Q : What are your dreams?
NM : Echoes of the waking state.
Q : And your deep sleep?
NM : The brain consciousness is suspended.
Q : Are you then unconscious?
NM : Unconscious of my surroundings, yes.
Q : Not quite unconscious?
NM : I remain aware that I am unconscious.
Q : You use the words 'aware' and 'conscious'. Are they not the same?
NM: Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something. Consciousness is partial and changeful, awareness is total, changeless, calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.
Q: How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?
NM: Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognised as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.
NM, PAGE 29, 'I AM THAT'
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