Reality - nonreality.

What we call reality isn't in actual fact real. When we talk about reality most people would be referring to physicality - something solid. But science and Advaita show that not to be the case. Any scientist will quickly confirm that apparently solid things have no solidity to them. When looked at closely they are seen to be made of molecules of atoms. Then the atoms that in times gone by were thought to be the base building blocks of the universe. Now they are known to be made up of sub-atomic particles. Even these are now known to be only packets of energy spinning around each other with spaces comparable to the space between the stars. The packets of energy sometimes function like particles and sometimes like waves, they can't be pinned down. Advaita has a simple tenet that says anything that appears and disappears is dependant on something else and therefore has no independant existence. In which case it's considered not real. A movie needs a screen. If there is no screen the movie is not formed. There may be lights shining into the night but the movie needs a screen to reflect the lights - to make it a movie. It must appear to, in or on something. An example would be the ocean, as a backdrop - it's (relatively) substantial. A wave, however, is only an appearance in or on it. It's just a pattern of energy that we call a wave. It's a concept we understand so we can communicate with one another and words are generated depending on our environment. Like the Eskimos who are reputed to have up to fourty words to describe snow. The wave is a pattern of energy and appears to exist. As a concept only though does it exist. The wave doesn't actually exist as a separate something that can be separated from the ocean. If you get a bucket and scoop out a wave and take it to someone telling them you have a wave in it it would sound non-sensicle. What you have in fact would be a bucket of water from the ocean and not a wave. The wave is the concept. The wave is what appears and then disappears and only water is left. So anything that appears and disappears has no independence and is therefore not real. The seeker, although often doesn't know it, is looking for something real, final, something that doesn't appear and disappear, the basis of everything, the back drop, the final word. What we're looking for is that which never appeared and will never disappear. Now, any object is, by it's very nature, limited and therefore can not be everywhere - unless it's everything. The search through the question 'who am I' reveals the fact that no matter what we find, either an object or concept to identify as 'me', is always looked at/seen by the viewer. We can never see the viewer. We can never get behind the viewer. That's the direction the seeker has to look in. Who or what am I - the viewer. It's no good thinking about it because that which thinks is only an object, an appearance itself. That which sees everything seemingly coming and going turns out to be awareness. Well that's the closest word I can find do describe it. So back behind all the layers of belief of who I have taken myself to be there is the I AM - pure awareness. It's actually a no-thing, obviously, or it would be an object and limited and could be observed by the viewer. Being a no-thing is the ultimate let-go by no-one. Awareness is the back drop and is independent and totally unaffected by anything that appears in it, like the movie screen. When awareness becomes aware of itself it's called self-realization then awareness ceases to identify exclusively with the objects and becomes aware of itself as the true source. Hence the term self-awareness. This is the point where awareness ceases to identify with the 'me' that has always taken centre stage. With this change of focus the suffering of the seeker stops. The 'I AM' that I am is found and the 'me' that I have always thought myself to be is seen to be non-existant, a mere appearance. No more seeking takes place and there is peace.