Which Reality?

Back to the Starcke Interview.  In the snippet below, Starcke mentions that during sleep, "consciousness"...as in egoic consciousness (carnal reasoning/adamic mindset...whatever you choose to call it) has been off guard.  I wonder if perhaps it is not more than that...if perhaps God communicates with our spirit as we sleep?  As our "flesh" saws logs...as we slumber...are we refreshed and revitalized more than on just a physical level?  Perhaps?

I find that for me the best time of the day to meditate is when I first wake up in the morning. It's like taking a psychic bath. I've taken on a degree of personal sense in the previous day, and my consciousness has been off guard during sleep, so my morning meditation is the time when I let go of the personal sense, get rid of it all, and open myself to the experience of the presence. This is when I am most likely to experience that inner "click" of realization.

I've seen the shadow side of this...the con rather than the pro.  Our consciousness may be off guard when we sleep...but when we wake...it can come swooping back in with a vengeance. During times when my life was in shambles, I have wakened in the morning (or the middle of the night) and within moments my worries and fears come flooding back.  Heavy, frightening, hopeless.  Ahhh-ha...the egoic mind has me in its clutches yet again. 

But I've also experienced the reverse.  The quiet, almost pristine time in the very early morning shortly after waking (after, perhaps, a sip or two of coffee) when His Presence fills the room and I am keenly aware that he is there...with me. 

But doesn't His Presence still fill the room (an us) on those mornings when we are drowning in a sea of vain imaginations? When we are lost in the throes of carnal angst? Is he any less with us?  Isn't he ALWAYS with us?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (Psalm 139:8 NIV)

Perhaps it's all a matter of perspective...