The Reality Beyond Spacetime and Your True Role In It

Have you ever wondered how space and time themselves emerged? That is the point where the universe begins.

And science does a beautiful job of explaining what happens after the Big Bang, a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. But that keeps us tantalizingly far from Reality itself.

The fundamental Reality in which even space and time can emerge.

So, today I'm going to share an insight which is really around the same question. What is the fundamental basis of everything? But this Insight comes from a very different angle to science.

It is just as satisfying though, at least in this mind. To arrive at this insight is as if you have understood the cause of the Big Bang. The causeless cause that is present even before the chain of cause and effect begins.

So after setting that very high bar, let's proceed.

Try to recall a dream that you've had recently. You need not remember the contents of the dream; it may be vague. The point is, whatever your dream was, there was a space in which the dream took place. And events took place in the dream.

So you noticed change, there was the passing of time. So the dream emerged in a bubble of space and time. Let's call it dream space.

So, if you ignore the contents of the dream and just consider the space, the space had three dimensions just like regular space.

You maybe moved around in that space, there was a sense of depth. So, if you take that space and compare it to the space that you observed as you woke up, what is the difference?

We're just focusing on the space itself, not the contents. What differentiates what we might call real space; physical space, from dream space?

So, if you're a scientist you wake up, you observe the space around you, you can do experiments to define what this space is. But all you're really doing is measuring. Length, breadth, height. These are the dimensions. Three dimensions.

That is quite clear. And that's it. Those are the attributes of space. Three dimensions.

So there's nothing there to differentiate the dream space from the waking space.

It's all just space.

So it's not quite right to think that there are two kinds of space, if they have exactly the same attributes.

But the dream space, you might say, existed in what you would call your mind. It didn't exist in the same sense that this physical space seems to exist, where you're sharing it with other people you know.

But recall that in the dream, while you were in it, you thought you were an object in the space; in the dream space. But as you woke up, you knew that was a dream character. What was in the space was all part of the dream.

So that entire space, that bubble of dream space, appeared in a subjective reality.

A reality that existed prior to the space.

And this is demonstrating that space is always subjective. It's not just relative, it is subjective. And if we can't find any way to differentiate between dream space and physical space, this applies to all of space.

All of space is subjective; dependent on the observer.

But this observer doesn't refer to a human character inside the space. You see, even in the dream you thought you were in the space observing it, but that was not true. The character in the space, all the objects in it, and the space itself, was what was being observed.

But from what standpoint was that space being observed?

That prior condition in which space emerges, that is the true point of observation.

Now, if you ask the mind what was it in which this dream space emerged, it'll probably draw a blank. Because at that point there's no space, no time, and no experience.

There's nothing at all in terms of what the mind might speak about.

So, what we're driving towards here is not an intellectual understanding, or anything to do with the mind that appears later on. What I'm trying to bring to the fore is a kind of understanding you already have at some level.

You know that for there to be a dream, there must first be consciousness; the possibility of experience.

So what makes the dream bubble possible, what makes the emergence of space and time possible, is the ground of subjective experience itself. The very basis of experience.

And that doesn't belong to any character inside space. It doesn't belong to any character or entity at all.

Because prior to the emergence of space and time, all there is, is just the ground state of Reality. Where even space and time can emerge out of nothing.

You know that consciousness is undeniably real. It is an aspect of Reality.

And dreams prove that consciousness can give rise to bubbles of space and time. So, if you have found this one aspect of reality that can give birth to space and time, do you need to find some other aspect?

You don't. This is it.

However, this won't make much sense as long as you assume that there must be a character dreaming for there to be a dream. That there must be a self, or a mind, or some kind of God dreaming, for this universe to exist.

That is not what I'm trying to communicate.

What I'm saying is that consciousness does not belong to any entity.

Even if you imagine a God, the greatest God, the God depends on consciousness being there first. For any mind to exist, consciousness must be there first.

So consciousness is never owned, never possessed. It is just an aspect; the ground state of Reality.

But maybe I'm using the wrong word here. This wouldn't work for you. Call it what you may.

Awareness.

Sentience.

Emptiness.

Or just Reality.

Whatever we call it, you know it is there before the dream emerges.

And to call it, "it" is actually quite wrong. Because you are at no distance to Reality. You know it is you that is conscious. That is also a fact.

And if you bring together these two facts, which initially may seem contradictory, on the one hand I'm saying that only Reality is conscious, and on the other you find that it is undeniable that you are conscious, you will see that these are not in fact contradictory statements.

It means that beyond the facade of this character in space, this person you think you are, what you actually are is the very Heart of Reality.

Right now it may seem that you're only observing this one mind, this one body. But that is what dreams feel like.

In the dream, you're only aware of that one particular dream. But just as you've had many dreams in this one life, you can think of them happening sequentially, why do you think it's not possible for them to appear in parallel?

These bubbles of space and time existing in parallel. They're all subjective.

Each experience is dependent on some underlying process. And you may want to think of it in terms of brain activity. It is the brain activity that is being experienced, whether you are dreaming or awake.

So what is experiencing the activity and how?

It is the same Reality in which the activity is taking place, in which the subjective bubbles of space and time are emerging and being known; being experienced.

The observer is never within the subjective space. The space is what is being observed.

And the true Observer forever lies beyond the domain of space and time.

That is what You are, once you let go of the idea of being this individual dream character.

So there's this bubble of space and time where this universe has emerged. And then there are these parallel bubbles of space and time where these lives are being experienced. There is the main dream, and the dreams within that dream.

But your true identity remains the same throughout. As the Reality that knows all these dreams, and lives all lives.