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Parameshwar Maharaj
Submerging into Myself
Advaita in Practice
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11. The three states of mind
Q: Parameshwar, if the mind is only thoughts, why is it said to have three states? I do not understand this relationship.
P: The issue is in how words are used, it does not matter if you call them mind or consciousness. Here, to be understood, we will call the three states of Consciousness. Basic states of existence. Although it is a well-known subject, and on which much has been speculated, let's see what we can do to make it better understood.
The state of awareness of Vigil is this. We move, we perceive, we communicate, etc. Sleep with Dreams is when we sleep and dream, and Deep Sleep is when mental activity ceases.
It is evident that the inner work can not be done in the dream states, for the time being. But on this subject the interesting thing is: what happens to me when I sleep? The first thing that happens when you fall into sleep, an essential condition for this to happen, is the loss of the vigilic consciousness or identity, self-consciousness. We can understand that what we value most disappears in an instant giving way to states that science is still studying. In the dream with dreams there remains a slight trace of consciousness that testifies and lives passively to the character and to a dream scenario created by mental activity. Is that point of consciousness the same one that is in vigil? Obviously no, something is missing, it lacks "power" of consciousness, it lacks the habitual self that is replaced by a much more unreal me.
This does not interest us at all because we already know it. However, we can see that it is a gradual loss of the sense of individuality whose culmination is the deep Dream where there is no trace of knowledge of Yes. What is left then? The Tradition and its teachers say that the Being remains, a response caught by the hair, since the Being is conscious of Itself as Existence, and in the deep Sleep there is no trace of it; however, we wake up every day in a way. What is left? The Pure Lucidity, lacking any sense of Identity or Existence. Everything we value and take as real disappears with the temporary extinction of the mind or consciousness. The ego-ego, the "I Am", the BEING is extinguished with the mind, leaving only a state of Alert, Lucidity, together with a natural physical mechanism genetically engraved that allows us to wake up every day; Lucidity is the thread of Life that remains in deep sleep. Not losing Consciousness during the dream dream is not a "natural" act in our lives, but there was a time in our childhood when it did not occur, therefore it must be recovered. The Fourth State, according to the Tradition, must be recovered, and once done, the three states of consciousness do not exist. Of this issue the only thing that interests us is that on a practical level, however much we believe we know the Self, no matter how much we enter in silence and believe that we are made, the three states are the accusation and evident proof that we have not achieved anything. that we still have to travel.
While in the deep Sleep remains the Lucidity alone without a trace of Existence, because we would know that we continue to exist during this state, the perception of existing would not be lost, with the practice of Turya we began to break this natural circuit not losing the perception of Existence when the first snoopers are presented. In Turya we have lost the notion of Individuality, and the physical mechanism responds to that loss in the same way that we enter the dream. That is why the practicing ascetics could transmit to us what is known as jagrat sushupti or deep sleep-Awake, state where one is deeply asleep and at the same time deeply awake. It is precisely from here that one jumps to the Fifth State, but this is another issue.
Know that when you are in Turya you will have to counteract the natural mechanism of sleep resulting in jagrat sushupti. When nature detects the real loss of individuality, there is a tendency to sleep. If this mechanism is not given, it is that you have not disappeared as an entity. What I am presenting to you now is very, very simple and it is a flag that I put to you so you know when the time comes. For that I tell you all this, for when the moment presents itself, I do not do it to increase your level of intellectual knowledge. It will never arrive if NOW you do not put hands to the work.
Do you have more questions?
Q: Can you give a practical example?
P: When the natural tendency to sleep is overcome-at this point there is no entity or being-only the state of Lucidity remains. In the frontal part, which is usually dark in the waking state, a luminescence appears that changes shape, sometimes a kind of oval that changes colors is usually seen. This luminescence ends up adopting familiar, but changeable forms, and this is because the mind is absorbed, unlike the state of dream with natural dreaming, there the mind does form a stage. In this state of Consciousness, Lucidity remains the container of all this phenomenology; while in the natural state not in all dreams it can be perceived as that "passive witness". In this state of consciousness where Lucidity is fully present there is no trace of Being or Existence and it can not be said that it is witness to anything; However, everything happens in Her. This state with forms leads to a state without them, where Lucidity is equally present and where energetic phenomena usually occur. All these phenomena are caused by the same body. The senses are present but the impressions are as if they were distant and meaningless.
The dream dream is a true collapse in the Lucidity and a passing absorption of everything known. I repeat, there is no ego, neither I nor Ser, there is only the Lucidity that is the LIFE supporting the body. In the body, breathing obeys the states, both in natural and in conscious sleep.
Finally, I commented that the phenomenology that may appear, which can be varied, is lacking in importance. The only thing that matters is that lucidity is not lost.
Let's now turn to the practice of meditation. Hold on to the perception of Existence.