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This small incident triggered his memory of a childhood glimpse. One afternoon when Rup had come home from school, he had gone to his desk and studied his lessons. It had been a hot summer's day and it had been difficult for him not to doze off to sleep. He had noticed by the clock on the wall that it was four o'clock. Soon afterwards, he had put his head down and fallen asleep on the pages of his books.
When he had awakened, he had seen by the clock that one hour had already passed. He had felt more refreshed and ready to make more sense out of his lessons. But when he had picked up his book again, he had had the distinct sensation that he had already read it. Though his body had been in slumber, the witness within had been awake and had been going through the pages of the book. In that moment of picking up his book again, like a flash, he had recalled a series of mental images, succeeding one after another like a series of stills. In these images, he had pictured himself preparing this homework. He even had recalled the precise words on the pages.
At the time he had been momentarily puzzled, but he had not paid much attention to it. It had faded away quickly. But for a fleeting moment, he had been awakened to the fact that there was something in him beyond his mind and physical
senses.
Now as a seeker whose main focus was on getting to know all aspects of his inner world, he asked himself the questions he hadn't known how to ask as a child.
Who was sleeping? Who was reading? Who is now remembering? If I was asleep, how could I have continued to read? Is there more than one of me? Which me was watching the dream? Was it really a dream or was it knowledge dawning on the screen of my undisturbed and uncluttered mind?
*
The upayoga of sleep led Munishree into a study of dream and reality. He found that when his subconscious held onto resentment or fear, those particles in his mine would take a form and create a monster or an imaginary incident. These formations, he realized, were what most people call dreams or nightmares.
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