Reason based on the true self proves that the waking is unreal. The waking experience [mind] has no existence independent of the consciousness, which perceives it. Mere perception and practical utility cannot prove the reality of the waking experience. For even in dreams there's perception and practical utility – food in a dream can quench the hunger in a dream as much as real food can quench real thirst. The waking experience is on par with the dream experience and both are real within their own order. But from the ultimate standpoint both are unreal.
Cognition does not prove the reality of the object, for the object exists as an object only to the knowing subject. So the distinction between the subject and object is made within the field of consciousness itself.
The waking experience is unreal because it doesn't exist always - for in deep sleep we've no consciousness of it. It is also unreal because the relations which constitute it - space, time and causality - are themselves impossible conceptions and hence unreal. It is also unreal because it consists of objects and whatever is presented as an object is unreal.
