The Vedantic Tradition as expressed by Adi Shankara tells us that Pure Consciousness is the only reality, everything else is an experience in consciousness.\u00a0Pure Consciousness is that in which all experiences occur and out of which all experience is made.\u00a0 In every experience you are creating the world.\u00a0You are not in the world, the world is in you. There is only Pure Consciousness and its modified forms.<\/p>\n
The great Sufi poet Rumi wrote that, \u201cAwareness sleeps in minerals, it dreams in plants, it awakens in animals and it has the potential to become Self-aware in humans.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0He is telling us that everything in creation has some level of awareness or consciousness but only we, as humans, have the potential and the ability to become Self-aware.\u00a0 Your dogs or cats for example don\u2019t walk around asking themselves, \u201cWho am I?\u201d<\/p>\n In the Vedantic concept of creation or evolution, everything arises from Pure Consciousness or the non-dual Absolute, Brahman.\u00a0 From this emerges the universal soul, Atman.\u00a0 The Atman gives rise to the Jiva or individual soul, which carries the seeds of our memories from lifetime to lifetime and orchestrates our karma.\u00a0The memories and desires or karma that the Jiva brings into this incarnation create the ego, our individuality and sense of separation.\u00a0 This then creates the intellect, the mind, the senses, subtle and gross elements, the body and the manifestation of the material world.\u00a0 This process of evolution is an outward movement, whereas our spiritual journey is one of involution, the return back to the source.\u00a0As the Bhagavad Gita states, \u201cThe unmanifest appears as manifest and then returns to the unmanifest\u201d.\u00a0 <\/em>Pure Consciousness modifying then dissolving back into itself.\u00a0 The out breath and the in breath.<\/p>\n Everything in creation is evolving.\u00a0 No matter how it may sometimes appear, nothing goes backwards.\u00a0 The constricted, limited consciousness we have created for ourselves is gradually expanding. However, with the practice of meditation, we can accelerate the process.\u00a0 Meditation is a spiritual journey, the goal of which is to reawaken to our true state of Consciousness.<\/p>\n All experiences are Space-Time events.\u00a0 Everything you perceive with your senses has a location in space and an existence in time.\u00a0 However, the one who is having the experience, the real you, is beyond space and time.\u00a0 All the experiences are local (limited) but the one who is having the experience, the Soul, is non-local (beyond limitations).\u00a0 Experiences constantly change but the Experiencer is beyond the field of change.\u00a0 In a meditation practice such as Primordial Sound Meditation, we go to more and more refined levels of the thinking process until we slip into the space between thoughts, we step into the field of non-local, Pure Awareness.\u00a0 We bump into our Self, the Experiencer, the Soul.\u00a0Here there is awareness of nothing in particular but everything in general.<\/p>\n You are not your thoughts, your mind or your body.\u00a0 Your mind and body are the instrument that captures the non-local, unlimited Pure Consciousness and converts it into the localized, limited, space-time events of your everyday life. However, when the mind and body are filled with stress and fatigue, memories and desires, doubts and fears, these act to distort our picture of\u00a0 the True Reality.\u00a0 Meditation therefore is a process by which we purify the mind and body so that Pure Consciousness may flow fully in our lives.<\/p>\n The Vedantic Tradition describes seven different states of consciousness we will experience on our spiritual journey, each of which has its own biology, bodily activity, emotions, memories and perceptions.\u00a0 The three we all experience regularly during a 24 hour cycle are Waking, Dreaming and Deep sleep.\u00a0 Through our practice of meditation, we discover a fourth state called Transcendental Consciousness.\u00a0 Here we go beyond (transcend) the mind and slip into the silent spaces between our thoughts.\u00a0 With regular practice of meditation, we begin to integrate the state of Transcendental Consciousness along with our Waking, Dreaming and Deep Sleep states.\u00a0 This allows three other states of consciousness to unfold, Cosmic, Divine and Unity, which are referred to as higher states of consciousness.<\/p>\n In this article we\u2019ll focus on the first three states of consciousness, usually referred to as \u201cnormal\u201d consciousness.\u00a0 However, they are only considered \u201cnormal\u201d because they are what the majority of people experience on a regular basis.\u00a0 Our true normal state should be Unity Consciousness.<\/p>\n Waking State of Consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the most disturbed state of consciousness.\u00a0 It is the experience of an external physical reality, localized throughout the selection of our attention.\u00a0 Our senses experience things as solid and structured with defined rules, impermanence and decay.\u00a0 Our experiences are seen as space- time events, where linear time, logic and stress all exist.\u00a0 It is a waking dream where we dream of a future and a past and it only seems real because we are in it.\u00a0 We are spiritual beings having a human experience and our spiritual journey is to \u201cwake up\u201d from the waking state.<\/p>\n Dreaming State of Consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n Dreaming requires energy and unless we are very tired, every creature dreams.\u00a0However, the use of medications, drugs and alcohol will disrupt this cycle.<\/p>\n There are two phases of dream sleep, Light Sleep and REM (rapid eye movement).\u00a0Light Sleep begins with a short transition from waking into the regular Light Sleep, which consists of over half of our time asleep each night.\u00a0 We dream during Light Sleep but the dreams are not as intense as they are during REM sleep.\u00a0 During Light Sleep the body repairs muscles and tissues, stimulates growth and development, boosts immune function, and builds up energy for the next day.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as refreshing as deep sleep however, it also is necessary for proper brain functioning.<\/p>\n In REM sleep the mind energizes itself while the body is immobile.\u00a0 It\u2019s called REM sleep because the eyes dart in various directions. Breathing becomes shallower and irregular while the heart rate and blood pressure rise.\u00a0 Most dreaming takes place here revitalizing the brain to support sharp and alert daytime functioning.<\/p>\n Dreaming is where we create an internal world that seems real.\u00a0 Mental and emotional stresses are released and the mind is rejuvenated during this period.\u00a0 Space and time don\u2019t exist to the same extent that they did in the Waking State, it\u2019s not so localized or clearly defined.\u00a0 Dreaming is closer to the vibration of Being.\u00a0 Mental images and vague memories, which we have no control over, come and go.\u00a0 Our personality is reflected and the truth is revealed. If we have prophetic dreams, they are coming directly from \u201cSource\u201d.<\/p>\n Deep Sleep State of Consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n Here the body is rejuvenated with the release of the day\u2019s physical stress.\u00a0 Good sleep helps us avoid many illnesses and dementia.\u00a0 During Deep Sleep there is no thought, no subject-object split, no separation, everything is in potential. We go back to our non-local ground state. Thoughts have settled into Being, returning to their source.\u00a0 We are in touch with the Soul creating a feeling of peace and bliss when we wake.\u00a0 During Deep Sleep, consciousness is there and at a deep level we know we exist but there is no awareness of \u201cme\u201d.\u00a0 We go back to our Divine being so that when we wake, we re-create our universe but are not exactly the same person as before.<\/p>\n Deep Sleep is a similar experience to Transcendental Consciousness, when there is no thought activity.\u00a0 However, in Transcendental Consciousness we are still fully aware, so this State is referred to as restful alertness, whereas Deep Sleep is restful dullness.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In a normal eight hours of sleep, a person will typically spend five hours in Light Sleep, ninety minutes in REM and ninety minutes in Deep Sleep, although as people age, they tend to spend more time in Light Sleep.\u00a0 All are restorative.<\/p>\n From the Upanishads<\/strong><\/p>\n OM is the original primordial sound, created as the unmanifest Pure Consciousness, manifests into the conditioned consciousness we know as the world around us.\u00a0That first vibration of OM diversifies and unfolds into all the sounds and vibrations that make up the universe in which we live.\u00a0 In its original form, OM was AUM.<\/p>\n As the Mandukya Upanishad tells us \u201cA\u201d represents the Waking State of Consciousness, \u201cU\u201d represents the Dream State and \u201cM\u201d Deep Sleep.\u00a0 When we chant this original form Aaaaa – Uuuuu – Mmmm – Silence, we are, in essence, progressing through these states of consciousness, from the most constricted to less constricted until we end in the silent state of Transcendental Consciousness, the silent sound of OM returning to its source.<\/p>\n All the states of consciousness are actually non-local.\u00a0 Locality is an idea we impose on the Waking and Dreaming States.\u00a0Meditation is our path to step out of this self-imposed delusion. We can still enjoy the localization when we witness it from the perspective of our true non-local Self.<\/p>\n During meditation we reach or access the Cosmic Mind.\u00a0 When we die physically, the soul enters a Cosmic Deep Sleep.\u00a0 At some point, the soul has a Cosmic Dream, which we call human life.\u00a0 The soul repeats this cycle numerous times until it eventually wakes from its slumbers to reach the Cosmic Waking State, which is Enlightenment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Vedantic Tradition as expressed by Adi Shankara tells us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vedic-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2791,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2790\/revisions\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rogergabriel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}