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The b ackground i s t hus ' sat-cit-ananda'. A s ' sat', i t i s t he background of all objects and objective acts. As 'cit', it is the background of all thoughts and ideas. As 'ananda', it is the background of all feelings and all values. But then, how can it be investigated, beneath the pictures that appear to cover it? A way is suggested in Shri Atmananda's eighth and ninth points for sadhana. The eighth point says: "In between two mentations and in deep sleep, I am shining in my own glory. Even the ego is not there." Here, the idea is to look carefully at the gaps in our picturing of the apparent world. There, in the gaps, when they are properly examined, the background may be found uncovered, shining by itself. In deep sleep, the gap is obvious, because it corresponds to a gap in physical time, seen from the waking state. But there is also a less obvious gap – which need not take any physical time, and which usually passes quite unnoticed. This is the gap that keeps taking place in the mind, whenever a perception, thought or feeling comes to end. At this point of time – just after each mentation disappears and just before the next appears – there is a timeless gap, in which the mind has returned to dissolution in its shining background. In that gap, as in deep sleep, the ego is dissolved and the real self is found 'shining in its own glory'. Taking note of that gap shows the background positively, as that true and positive reality of each object and each action that appears. What makes this prakriya so positive is that the gap can be seen to keep occurring all the time. It occurs before and after every m oment – a s e ach p resent m oment r ises f rom t he dissolution of what went before, and as this moment in its turn dissolves into a timeless shining out of which the next succeeding moment is then born. Thus, whatever may appear is shown to rise immediately from the shining background, which provides both knowing light and continuing support. And with the same immediacy, what rises 88