The three states- waking, dreaming, deep sleep

“I experience the physical world as sound, touch, form, taste and smell
The emotional world as desire, anger, love, compassion, etc.
The intellectual world as ideas, ideals, concepts, imagination…

“I also experience the absence of all of them. These experiences are divided into 3 staes of consciousness that we go through daily: waking, dream and deep sleep.”

~  Swami Tejomayananda commenting on the Tattva Bodha (The Awakening to Reality) By Adi Sankaracharya

Re: The three states

Meenakshi,

It is hard to make any comment on the simple, direct truth expressed in this efficient lines.  Yet, I will attempt to clarify by re-wording these in my own way …

[1]  Physical can be touched by some sense organ.

[2]  Emotions are expressed as energetic reactions.

[3]  Mind is ever busy with its thoughts and these have not substance in and of themselves but are the mold that manifests into our physical and emotional life.

For me, when I seek to experience that non-physical state of pure Being or core essence - I seek an awareness of something that is not any of the previous 3.  The witness or observer state of awareness.

I see also that it is possible to experience this state of non-physical Being in the 3 states of consicousness you note here - wakefulness, dreaming and sleep unconsciousness.

How'd I do, oh master / dear friend of mine?

Deb

Re: The three states

Deb; you know that I am no master; but also studying this with whoever may be reading!  The point that Adi Sankaracharya is making here; is of the “core essence” that you mention; that he calls Self –Atma, actually; that could also be called soul, true self  and how it is beyond body, emotion, mind; aware of their presence and also of their absence.


Taken by themselves, each is leading to the understanding of what Self is;  by going the route in this book of what it is not.

In a certain way, we are aware of this and language shows it as well. But sometimes we forget it as when we say “I am unwell”, when the body is at unease; or “I am angry” when the emotions are churning.

Perhaps a more real way of expressing this would be:

“The body is unwell/imbalanced though I AM balanced”; or “I feel anger and also am aware that I AM not anger…”
Tough with language; but I think we know internally what it means.

Re: The three states

Meenakshi, Deb, the answer is found in Mundak Upanishad, Third Mundak, Chapter 1.

Without complicating this post with the Sanskrit originals, I quote below the English translation (which only approximate the inner sense, so please use your sixth sense to understand the inner meaning) . If any further elaborations are needed, please let me know. I would, in utomost humility and reverence to the great seers try to to explain whatever I can within my own very limited personal experiences.

Re: The three states- waking, dream, deep sleep

1. The waking state [is] the state of experience where my entire personality is awake and fully functioning. I identify with all the three bodies –   gross, subtle, causal; and experience the world through them.
The waking state is therefore called complete or all-inclusive.

The waking world seems to be solid and real. Objects and events seem to have a cause-effect relationship. I therefore give the waking state a greater reality and importance. I form attachments to objects and beings and enjoy or suffer them.

2. The dream state. The dream world and the dreamer are created, sustained and ended by the mind. The dreamer can have an entirely different identity from the waker. Intellect has no role to play; there is no notion of doership; thus one is not punished or rewarded for what happens in the dream state.

The Self identifies here with the subtle and causal bodies; but not the gross body. The dream may seem unreal to the waker, but it seems very real to the dreamer. The dreamer can enjoy or suffer in it;[and some can learn how to direct what happens in the dream].

3. The deep sleep state is one where Self identifies only with the causal body. There is an absence of objects, emotions, thoughts. There is no doer or feeler. No sense of time, space or duality.

In the waking and dream states I know I exist, but I do not know my true nature. I take myself to be the gross and subtle bodies and the waking and dream worlds to be real. In the deep sleep state, I am ignorant of my true nature and also of the world. Except for the awareness that 'I exist', there is total ignorance.

In the waking and dream states, each of us differs. But in the deep sleep state, all experience bliss. It is homogenous, partless, complete. It refreshes, rejuvenates.

The three states come and go. Each negates the experience and reality of the other two. I am the witness of these states. I stand un-negated by them. I may act like a beggar in a play, but I do not become a beggar. Similarly, I am not the roles I take up of the dreamer, waker and deep sleeper.


~  Swami Tejomayananda commenting on the Tattva Bodha (The Awakening to Reality) By Adi Sankaracharya

 [slightly modified]