To Deep Sleep, the Quiet Return

Beneath the veil of restless thought,
Where dreams persist, yet truth is not,
There lies a realm beyond the stream,
No shadowed tale, no fleeting dream.

Here, the self dissolves away,
No night, no dawn, no break of day.
The threads of “I” unweave, unwind,
No tethered past, no future blind.

In stillness vast, the oneness calls,
A silent home where no voice falls.
No pebble’s ache, no aching name,
No separateness to fan love’s flame.

Yet love is felt—an endless whole,
Not carved by flesh, nor shaped by soul.
It flows, unseen, within this space,
Unmeasured time, unbounded grace.

And when you wake from sleep’s embrace,
The world returns, its weary face.
But softer now, its edges blurred,
Reality’s weight no longer heard.

For deep within, the echo stays,
A glimpse of home through waking haze.
Not escape, but a gift anew,
The oneness whispers: I am you.

Author: John Rector

John Rector is a Charleston-based entrepreneur, author, and AI strategist. He co-founded E2open, the supply-chain software company acquired for $2.1 billion in 2025, and in 2026 opened Charleston AI, a 3,000-square-foot lab that helps people and organizations understand and use artificial intelligence. He is the creator of The Reality Equation — a lecture series, book, and curriculum exploring attention, prediction, and how reality is experienced — and the author of more than two dozen books. He writes and speaks widely on artificial intelligence, attention, and the future of human work.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from John Rector

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading