We are often asked to ponder over the three states of deep sleep, dreaming and waking up. Hopefully, the graphic will help in leading to a greater insight.
Waking up : Upon waking up, the person we normally imagine ourselves to be appears simultaneously to us along with the world. The root thought is 'I am the body', which leads to the rest of the world being recreated instantaneously. The mind attaches itself to this imagined person, duality is created and everything else in the world appears outside of the body. All latent desires and fears are recreated and continue cyclically until the imagined body dies.
However, this imagined body and the associated world appear and disappear each day. Irrespective of how much pain or pleasure one has gone through during the day, it all disappears when one goes to sleep.
Point to ponder : The person and the world must appear to someone, somebody, to whom ?
Dreaming : A dream person and a dream world appears, not unlike the waking world, there is a dream body that seems to experience the world. The concepts of time, space seem a bit warped, yet the duality is evident. One may see similar dreams periodically, yet they are all different.
Point to ponder : The dream, consisting of the dream person and the dream world, must appear to someone, to whom ?
Deep Sleep : There is no person, nor a world. The mind stays dormant. There are no appearances, yet I exist. It is peaceful, but we can't remember anything of it upon waking up. Memories are of the mind, the mind being dormant during deep sleep, we do not have any memory of this state upon waking up.
Point to ponder : I exist during deep sleep, without the mind or the body that I imagine to have, who am I ?
If we look at the graphic again, we can see that the persons and the associated worlds appear and disappear, while the one they appear to, remains. If there is reincarnation, it simply is another body and world that would appear and disappear. It is only by our attachment and attention to the thought of the body that we lend reality to an appearance. This also leads to believing that the world is apart from us, whereas in reality the body and the world are both appearances to our real Self.
Our thoughts, feelings, worries that we take to be ours are all dependent and related to the the appearance of the body and the world, they disappear when we sleep without a trace, only to come back the next morning.
Mind's attention and attachment is always outward, external. We can utilize the mind however, to focus the attention not on the appearances, but to That which they appear to. In doing so, we realize that we are really free of the imagined person and the world, that all the problems of the imagined body and person are not ours. We also realize that all action and effort is indeed that of the imagined person, the body, hence the advice of a Guru - Do nothing, but keep your attention on the Self, That to which all else appears to.
