Questioner: Greetings, Sundari, I hope all is well with you and Ramji! I’m emailing you to find out if there’s anything (featured articles or video) explaining the three states that spirit is in constantly: the waking, dream and deep sleep. I really want to understand these states. I heard that while I’m awake, I’m still in a dream state. Is this true?
Sundari: First of all, what do you mean by “spirit”? Do you mean soul, and if so, by soul do you mean the Self? The Self is one, a partless whole, but as jivatman it has three parts: original pure consciousness, plus the subtle body, or eternal Jiva (reflecting medium), plus the reflection, the non-eternal or “personal” jiva. There is only one eternal Jiva appearing as many apparently unique individuals, or non-eternal (personal) jivas. Although it seems like the personal jiva lives for a moment in time, in truth it is indestructible because the non-eternal jiva is awareness too and is always present, just not always appearing as a subtle body, or person. Isvara and the universal eternal Jiva are both eternal principles in awareness, which manifest whenever Maya manifests, which is also an eternal principle or power in awareness. Neither the eternal Jiva or non-eternal jiva is real with reference to awareness. By “real” we mean what is always present and unchanging (satya/awareness/the Self), and by “apparently real” we that which is not always present and always changing (mithya/the jiva, or individual).
Secondly, the Self or “soul” is never in any state. It is the knower of all states. The three states – waking, dream and deep sleep – apply to the jiva only. These are the only options for experience available to the jiva. As a jiva you are always in one of these three states. You say: “I heard that when I am awake, I am still in the dream state.” Who does the “I” refer to? Is it the reflection, the personal jiva, or is it jivatman, the impersonal Self? The whole point of the three-states teaching is to eliminate all non-essential variables so that you are left with only one non-negatable option, the Self.
The Three-States Teaching
The main import of the three-states teaching, also called the avastha-traya prakriya (a prakriya is a proof or method of inquiry employed by the scriptures to elucidate the Self), is an analysis of the three states of experience available to everyone, waking, dreaming and deep sleep. The main aim is to establish that the true nature of the Self by revealing through a logical process of inquiry the relationship between the jiva (the individual), Isvara (the creative power) and the Self, awareness. By removing all the inconstant negatable variables (or incidental attributes) of the jiva and the three states, we are left with the unassailable truth that the Self is all that remains. Only the Self is free of all attributes and states and is the one and only invariable constant. Awareness can never be negated but everything else can be. It is ever-present and unchanging, the non-experiencing witness of all the objects that appear in it, such as the jiva and the three states it exists in. The ability to discriminate awareness from experience at all times is called moksa, freedom from the illusion of duality.
Jiva manifests as three “little” jivas according to the state that it experiences:
1. As viswa, the waking-state entity. In this state its mind is totally extroverted. It is hypnotized by duality. It chases and consumes experiences. Viswa appears in two forms: (a) free of identification with objects (a jivanmukta) or (b) as a doer (karta) or “person” identified with objects (a samsari). Both a jivanmukta, a liberated person, and a samsari, a bound person, have a common identity as awareness
2. As taijasa, the “shining one,” awareness with a subtle body, illumining the dream state. In the dream state, the subtle body is turned inward facing the causal body, the vasanas, or the unconscious. The experiences the dreamer has are just experiences of the vasanas outpicturing. Jiva is not present in the dream state in the same way that it is present in the waking state. In the waking state, jiva identifies with the doer so the doer is not seen as an object. It is thought to be the subject. In the dream state there is also identification but the doer/ego can also appear as an object illumined by taijasa, awareness reflected on the subtle body. For instance, in the dream you can see the waker going about its business, walking, talking, eating, etc. The doer/ego is a dream doer/ego similar in some respects to viswa but with unique powers. These powers are inherent in the dream state and do not belong to taijasa although in normal dreams it identifies with them. The doer/ego and the events appearing in the dream are just waking state events that have become vasanas that outpicture as dream events.
The dream state has two aspects: waking dream and sleep dream. It is called the pratibasika state, the subjective state of reality. It is jiva’s creation (sristi). It is an individual jiva’s interpretation of reality. In the dream state (whether the jiva is awake or asleep) vasanas influence how reality is interpreted by the jiva. Isvara provides the raw material for the interpretation, but not the interpretation itself. Ultimately it is all Isvara, but to get to that understanding (which is tantamount to moksa) the jiva must understand its oneness with Isvara and its difference from Isvara so that it can be free of both itself and Isvara.
Lucid dreaming is a condition that sometimes happens in the dream state when jiva is one with awareness and the individual jiva is either absent or appears in the dream as an object. The light illumining the dream is pure awareness, reflecting on the subtle body. All life is a dream because the apparent reality is not real. Moksa is dismissing appearances as “not-Self” and fully embracing one’s identity as awareness, the knower of what appears and the constant or invariable factor in all three states.
3. As the sleeper, prajna, in the deep-sleep state. Prajna means “almost enlightened.” It is almost enlightened because it experiences the limitlessness and bliss of awareness but lacks knowledge of what it is experiencing because the intellect is not present in deep sleep. That is why the deep-sleep state is blissful. Consciousness identified with the causal body is called prajna, or consciousness operating as the jiva, experiencing the macrocosmic causal body, i.e. the deep-sleeper. Prajna refers to awareness experiencing its own nature or bliss, i.e. the absence of objects, because all vasanas are dormant in deep sleep, so there is no mental activity. The only objects present in deep sleep are ignorance and nothing, which are experienced and known through inference when the deep-sleeper wakes up. We use the three-states teaching to elucidate that the jiva is not real because it is not always present and it is always changing. The waker disappears and becomes a dreamer; the dreamer disappears and becomes a deep-sleeper; the deep-sleeper disappears and becomes a dreamer or waker, etc. The only constant is the knower of all three states: consciousness.
Dreamless sleep is known as the bliss sheath: ananda-maya-kosha. In moments where there seems to be no doer/experiencer, there must have been a witness who knows the joy/bliss. If not, how would the jiva,or deep-sleeper, know joy/bliss was there in the first place? How can the jiva say that it did not know anything while it was asleep unless awareness was there to witness the absence of knowledge? Therefore the deep-sleeper cannot be the lack of knowledge, or ignorance, the experiencing entity. Deep sleep is called experiential bliss because it ends as all experiences do. The bliss one is after if one is seeking moksa is the bliss of Self-knowledge, which never ends (anantum), because it is one’s true nature.
The deep-sleep state is defined as no mental activity. It is the same for everyone because the personal subconscious is subsumed into Isvara, the macrocosmic causal body, during deep sleep. The macrocosmic causal body, another name for Isvara, is also called the deep-sleep state. Deep sleep is the presence of tamoguna alone. Rajas and sattva are dormant. There is no sense of individuality (ahamkara, or ego) in this state, because the subtle body of the individual is not there to be conditioned. The ahamkara belongs to the subtle body, therefore the deep-sleeper is called “almost enlightened”; there is a subtle vritti, called prajna, in deep sleep that makes it the experience of bliss possible. The subtle body, the personal subconscious, seemingly belongs to the jiva and produces the jiva’s karma but actually originates from the macrocosmic causal body.
Although the nature of both the jiva and Isvara is awareness, both the jiva and Isvara are inconstant factors with reference to awareness. Jiva is inconstant because it changes from state to state and because Self-knowledge removes the notion that it is a limited entity, revealing its nature to be pure awareness. Isvara in the role of the Creator is inconstant because logic and scripture – which is just science – informs us that it disappears at the end of the Creation cycle; whatever is created will be destroyed.
You are only ever experiencing awareness regardless of what state the mind (subtle body) is in. Thus inference is a valid means of knowledge because even though you do not remember anything from deep sleep (because it is defined by the absence of objects, i.e. thoughts) you can infer that awareness was there witnessing the absence of thoughts in deep sleep. If it was not, the jiva would be dead.
Self-inquiry always involves discriminating between satya and mithya. Deep sleep is an object known to you, awareness – it is mithya. You never sleep, dream or wake, but are always present, never conditioning to anything. Moksa is understanding this, honouring the jiva for what it is (a construct), free of the doer and binding vasanas, and living as the Self, always.
If you want further reading on this all important topic, read the Mandukya Karika. It is available as a book and James has taught it many times. Videos are available online in the shop at the ShiningWorld website.
~ Love, Sundari