OM - WAKING, DREAM, & DEEP SLEEP
By meditating on the "M" (dissolution) of AUM you have the opportunity to go back to "A" (creation/projection) -- a new life -- but you also have the opportunity for samadhi, to become like a hailstone falling into the ocean.

Here we are, abiding in the "U" (preservation) of AUM.  Our birth has happened and death is yet to come.  But why should you accord reality to this?  When the past is a dream, and the future is an imagination, why should you imagine the present to be real?  The present is also a phase of time.  Consciousness is beyond the three phases of time.

The waking state is fastened to the atomic particle.  The dream state is fastened to pranic and thought particles.  The deep sleep state is not fastened to any particle...and you awake very refreshed from it!  But the Ever-awake One is something "completely other," where all particles, even the subtlemost, have dissolved - like sugar granules into hot liquid.

Renunciation is actually deification, like connecting objects, beings, and worlds, to the subtlemost - Anoraniyan.  In the waking state people believe in separation.  In the dream state divisions begin to break down.  They go away completely in deep sleep.  Samadhi, beyond these three states, is our true nature.

Time and space are more of an issue in the waking state.  Things move slowly here.  Space, external space and circumstances, seems more real to us.  The dream state doesn't have any solid dimension.  Time is as if nonexistent there, as fleeting as a wisp of thought.

The process of mentation gives rise to bodies and worlds.  All things are contained in the Word, from which they all get drawn into manifestation.  As long as mind functions, one is constantly  experiencing manifestation and nonmanifestation.

If one's consciousness is allocated only to the physical in space and time, one suffers a type of "dementia."  But dimension is different.  This means the lokas, or subtle realms existing within the mind.  There are five of these, and they, too, all exist in you.

If one learns to maintain the same awareness in waking, dreaming, deep sleep, samadhi, etc, then at the time of death one simply sees the rise and fall of forms.  That is all.  The Self only stands by as witness.  So why do you fear death?  Simulate it in sleep and meditation and become both aware of and acclimatized to your very own Consciousness.

Your mind is not the brain; it is actually a vast collection of worlds stretching back within your individual self to the Ultimate Self.  Lord Brahma ("Creator"/Cosmic Mind) is the last form you will see.  Notice the Om sign written on his hand of benediction, and enter the formless state in ecstasy.

The whole point of all this is that you are God embodied and you are enjoying the world through these three states: waking, dream and dreamless sleep.  You must inspect and ask, "Where is that light of consciousness coming from in my dream state?  Where is it originating from in my deep sleep state?  Why did I shut it down or out when I awoke?  Why do I tend to always limit my field of awareness in this life?"  In this way expand your mind's awareness and get free again.

In deep sleep you are like a fetus in a womb -- completely connected into the Cosmic Mother.