The weirdest thing that seems to happen has never actually happened.

I seem to have woken up from the dream state and, as a result, I really do believe and feel that I am the waker, an individual with a life to lead.

Chalk this mistake up as the weirdest weirdness there possibly is.

After all, I believe that I fell asleep last night. I believe that I had a number of dreams last night. I believe that I woke up out of a dream. And I believe–when you ask me–that I slept well last night.

And yet, none of this ever happened.

I am not actually a pilgrim who “transmigrates”–over and over again-through the waking state, the dream state, and the state of deep sleep, only to wake up out of the dream state and into “my life.” It’s a story, yes, but not a true one.

The illusion that I am a self with a life to lead and that, of course, I am real is very strong indeed. It’s a seemingly convincing illusion–but only until it’s investigated.

Some lines of inquiry:

For how can it be that I am the waker, for instance, when “between” the dream and the waking state there is not yet an ego-I that has arisen? Undeniably, there is “a transition” from one state to the other that “takes place” without a dreaming I or a waking I. What is This, then?

Indeed, how can I be a transmigrating, continuously present individual when “the record” reveals absences, or holes, in “my” existence?

Moreover, it’s also clear that, during the waking state, the I-thought (e.g., “I am hungry” or “I am upset”) is just an appearance. Each I-thought is just an I-appearance. But an appearance of what?

Furthermore, it is the case that I know each I-appearance. I know “the thinker,” “the doer,” “the experiencer,” and on and on. Then how can I be that coming-and-going appearance?

Someday–in a manner of speaking–the understanding may dawn that I am not an individual with a life to lead. That there never has been such a one. That there’s never been a waking state character just as there’s never really been a real dream character.

What, then, has there always been?