Thomas: Dear James, when I am in deep sleep, my mind is resolved in the causal body. Furthermore, in deep sleep Maya is not experienceable. Means this that Maya is only operating when the mind/intellect is present?
James: Deep sleep is Maya operating. You are neither aware that you are Thomas nor that you are the Self. You are the Self but you only experience the bliss “aspect” of the Self, not the knowledge “aspect.” When Isvara wakes you up you don’t wake up as the Self, you wake up as Thomas, which shows that Maya is operating in the waking state too.
It’s true that Maya is not experienciable (as an object), because the experiencing entity, Thomas, the person, isn’t there to experience it in deep sleep, not that he can experience it in the waking state either, because Maya is subtler than this experiencing/knowling instrument.
There is only one experiencer/knower, and that is the Self. Vedanta objectifies the apparent entity, Thomas, and shifts your identity to the Self. You need to keep practicing discrimination until the shift is permanent, meaning that you don’t go back and forth from one point of view to the other.
Maya is only experienceable as knowledge when the Self, which never slept, “wakes up” on hearing the teaching. It doesn’t exist as an experience from the Self’s point of view nor from the individual’s point of view for the reason mentioned above. From the individual’s point of view Maya just means that you think you are born and that you die and that what happens to your body-mind entity affects you. It doesn’t; you are only an unborn witnessing entity.
James: Pat yourself on the back for sticking with it, Mary. The Gita says, “In the world results come quickly,” which implies that changing the orientation of one’s mind takes time. Vedanta is not popular with the masses precisely because it doesn’t offer a quick fix. As my teacher used to say, “Hasten slowly.”
