In Deep Sleep

 Therefore the state of being is permanent and the body and the world are not.  They are fleeting phenomena passing on the screen of being-consciousness which is eternal and stationary.

Ramana Maharshi, (Location 511)

Huh?  What does that mean, crazy lady? And how can such a presumption be made?

Hmm? Well I guess we can start by saying that the body...this form of muscle, bone  and sinew, water and blood, organs and cells  does not last forever, right? 120 years tops but on average around 80 + years if life circumstance does not intervene.  As much as we hate to think about it,  we know that bodies die. Every minute cells in your body are dying...like right now...through a process called apoptosis, numerous cells are dying off and are being replaced with new cells.  The body you had when you were fifteen is no more...it has been completely replaced by a new body of new cells. Eventually, though  the cells will keep dying, we will stop replacing them and the body, this form we are in, will cease to exist. We know that the bodies of  others have died or will die. Our own bodies will someday succumb to this inevitability and go back into the soil, water and earth from which they came. Therefore we cannot deny that the body is impermanent. Bodies come and bodies go, right?  They have a start date and a discontinue date. They are transitory. 

But the world?

Yes, the world too is constantly being born and dying.  What we see and understand to be so permanent is actually just phenomena passing before us. That phenomena is constantly changing, arising and dissolving, being born and passing away...flickering on and off  like the images on a video screen. One day it is sunny, the next it is raining.  One day it is Autumn, the next day it is winter. One day life circumstances are calm and easy, the next  day they are stormy and chaotic. One day this is happening, the next day that is happening. All are just images on a screen. 

Being-consciousness, the state of being,  is simply the screen on which it all is being played. The state of being is who you are. You are. The body and the world are not because they no longer exist once  the lights go out. 

Huh?

You, who you really are, are not the characters that come and go on the screen....not the bodies that are born or die...and  you are not perturbed by the ever changing world and all its  moving phenomena. You are the screen on which it appears to happen. Like the screen in a movie theatre, once the movie is over and the lights go out, you are still there because you are what is real and impermanent beneath the changing scenery.  You, as consciousness,  are eternal. You are there when the movie is flickering over you and you are there when it isn't.  You are the background for it all to happen. You don't go away

You don't Go Away In Sleep, "me" does.

There are three states of  consciousness right? There is the deep sleep state where we are aware of nothing; the dream state where we are aware of the flickering images of  dreams but not what is going on in the body or outside world as we sleep; and then there is the waking state...where we are aware of body, and the world and are still observing many flickering images.  When we are awake we say we are so aware of 'reality'. When we wake up in the morning after sleeping, we may remember and recall our dream state which seemed so real at the time we were dreaming but in the morning we are so aware of its unreality. 

Can you recall your deep sleep state, though?  No... we say we were"unconscious" or  "not aware" during that phase but how do you know you were unaware?  Who was unaware? The body and ego- mind were unaware...that which we call "me" was unaware...and as long as we identify with that we believe we were unconscious during sleep.  But something other than body and mind was there, aware that you were unaware. You must admit that you are the same being  who falls asleep at night,  as you are  when you wake up. Therefore you must be the same being in deep sleep where there is no so called "awareness".  Right? You...you were still there during deep sleep even though there was no phenomena to observe.  You didn't cease to exist just because there was no awareness of body and phenomena, did you?  

Of course not! Something remains when body and mind are silenced and still. This little me that is so identified with body ceased to exist but not you. Who you are is that consciousness that observes the flickering of dreams in the sleeping state, that observes the flickering of phenomena in the waking state and that which observes the nothingness of deep sleep (where the ideas of who we are cannot go).  You are the awareness, the being consciousness on which it all plays out. So all that flickering stuff  which includes the body and mind  is temporary and transitory. That is not who you are. You are that awareness that is always there...eternal and stationary. 

 There is no body, no little  self  and no world in deep sleep because all of that is just fleeting phenomena...but you , as being-conscious, as pure awareness,  are always there because you are what is real!

All is well.

Ramana Maharishi. Edited by David Godman (n.d.) Be As You Are: The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi. Kindle Edition