The Knowledge In Deep Sleep And Dream State

There exist four states of consciousness that we can experience every day: waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and fourth. We can learn from deep sleep is that there is a state where you are totally free from your emotions and physical pain when you are asleep. We can learn from the dream state that although we experience imaginary people, places, and things, they are gone as soon as we wake up. The fourth state allows us to live in this freedom while awake and accomplishing all of our goals.

Transcript

Satsang Podcast with Sri,

The Knowledge in the Deep Sleep and Dream States Every night everyone lies in bed and at some point falls asleep.

Some people may sleep through the whole night,

Others may wake up during the night,

Some may have difficulty sleeping,

But for some time during the night everyone is in a deep sleep state.

Even if you try to stay up a whole night,

Maybe to meditate,

Maybe on a flight,

At some point sleep will take over and you'll fall asleep.

So we can see from this that sleep comes to the human being without any doership.

You can set up the situation so that you're lying in bed on your pillow and comfortable in order for sleep to come,

But you can't force yourself to sleep if sleep doesn't come.

This is a very interesting phenomena to begin to examine because the human being believes himself or herself to be the doer.

You wake up in the morning,

You take care of your body,

Clean it,

Feed it,

Get it ready for your day,

You go to your job,

You do what you need to do and the whole day you're a doer thinking that it's your doership that's getting these things done.

However,

Every night when you lay down to go to bed,

Sleep comes on its own.

Food digests on its own.

You can't force it to digest.

So most of the bodily functions that are needed for your health and well-being happen on their own.

You can only set up ideal circumstances or situations for them to happen.

So how much of your doership do you take responsibility for?

This is an important point that again you can learn from how deep sleep comes without your doership,

How digestion happens without your doership,

Which means that you're limited.

What your mind believes it can do,

It can create,

Is limited because these very important bodily functions for the life to maintain itself happen without your doership.

Now what else can be gained from the knowledge of deep sleep?

No matter what is going on in your life that day,

Whether it's joyous and you had a wonderful day,

Met with people that you love and had a great party or made a great accomplishment,

Finished an amazing project that you'd been working on,

Experienced deep love and union with someone,

Or if it was a terrible day and nothing went your way and you didn't feel well,

Some sickness came about,

Your treatments weren't working,

Your relationship is failing and you're fighting and arguing with the person that you love,

The family members aren't well,

You're fearful for your safety in a particular situation or the safety of your children or loved ones,

No matter what is going on,

Even severe physical pain in the body.

When you go to sleep,

And if deep sleep can come,

Because sometimes it's hard to come if these things are going on in your system,

But when it does come for that period that you're deeply asleep,

It's not there.

You're in a peaceful,

Free state.

So this is proof to every human being,

Every night,

That you are not just the waking state of consciousness where all the problems,

Mental,

Thinking about situations,

Fears,

Worries,

Anxieties,

Joys,

Successes,

Failures exist.

You are not just a waking state person,

You are also a deep sleep person,

And in deep sleep,

None of that is there.

So this is important to bring in because everyone,

Or most people,

Make the waking state as to who they are,

And not the deep sleep person as to who they are.

And yet,

Every night in deep sleep,

You have total peace,

Which you may be searching for or craving in the waking state.

It comes every night.

So we can learn from this experience that's there every night,

That the possibility is there to experience a state of consciousness where you're not the doer struggling to get things done,

Where you're not the mind ruminating over difficulties and problems and situations,

And at that point,

Your total peace.

So peace is your natural state,

Peace that you experience every night in deep sleep is a natural occurrence.

You are already that peace,

Or you couldn't experience it every night.

So now we analyze as to what's the difference between deep sleep and waking state.

Again,

Just like deep sleep happens,

Waking state happens on its own.

Even if you don't have an alarm clock,

At some point you will wake up.

Now for most people,

Because of the training,

They say,

I woke up.

This individual body and mind,

Person,

Personality woke up.

This is my life.

This is my waking state.

I am the doer,

And I have to go and do all these things to try to create the life that I think I want.

This is where the mistake happens,

Because immediately now you've forgotten your originality.

You've forgotten that source that you were in deep sleep where there were no troubles,

Problems,

Doership,

And yet the body was functioning.

You were breathing.

Your heart was beating.

Your food was digesting.

So now if we take this knowledge and bring it into the waking state,

When you wake up in the morning,

Rather than that immediate reaction that the mind will have,

I'm a mind.

I'm a person.

I'm a body.

This is my life.

These are my troubles.

These are my struggles.

Rather than taking all that on and becoming the doer,

You can remember,

And the mantra comes in very handy here,

Because the mind will go off into all those other thoughts,

And you can bring it immediately to Amaramham Madhuramham.

I am immortal.

I am blissful.

That being that I just was in deep sleep,

Where I was totally at peace,

Is who I am.

So now we're shifting our consciousness away from the vyutan vritti,

All the outward movement towards being a doer,

Being a human being,

Being a person,

To our own divinity,

Nirodha,

That calmness,

That evenness,

Samatha state that was alone in deep sleep.

And yet,

Now you're awake,

Because in deep sleep,

The body doesn't move to take care of itself in terms of feeding it,

Bathing it,

Clothing it,

And having a nice place to live.

So in the waking state,

All of those functions can happen to keep the temple of your consciousness called your body,

The machine or tool that you use to live what's called your life,

To keep it healthy,

Easy,

And happy.

But if you do it from a waking state perspective,

It'll be a rollercoaster ride,

Sometimes up,

Sometimes down,

Sometimes good,

Sometimes bad.

Instead,

If you do it from that deep sleep perspective,

Which is the perspective of the pure being,

Peaceful being that you are,

Which is really not your doership as a mind,

But residing in that true nature,

Amaramham madramham,

With that awareness,

I am immortal,

I am blissful,

The energy,

The movement of consciousness that moves into your mind and your thoughts will come from that source rather than from the waking state identification as a body,

Mind,

Individual.

Instead,

You will be residing with that source,

With that immortal,

Blissful,

Pure,

Free forever being that was totally apparent in deep sleep.

Because when you woke up from deep sleep,

You were aware that you slept and you were peaceful.

So now we allow the consciousness,

Which as soon as you wake up begins to divide and says I'm separate from that deep sleep person,

I'm now this person,

We allow that consciousness to know its purity and not to forget amaramham madramham,

Immortal,

Blissful,

Pure being,

I am.

Now it will look the same,

You'll still get out of bed,

Get up,

You'll still go to the washroom,

You'll still make your breakfast and take care of your family and your responsibilities,

But you'll be doing it all from the perspective of non-doer,

Meaning that you'll know that very consciousness that you are and you were in deep sleep is now moving this physical instrument in this play or movie or dream that you call life to have the utmost enjoyment,

Satisfaction and ease without the mental problems and worries and difficulties.

Because those only exist on the level of the mind.

And when you're moving from that purity,

From that realized vision,

You're not believing any rumination in the mind.

It's as if it's happening in someone else's mind,

As if it's another,

Other than you,

Because it's an instrument,

As if it's happening in your computer or in a movie.

And you are pure free forever.

You are that self,

Forever peaceful.

So now the practice to keep the attention on pure free forever,

Amaramham madramham,

Throughout the day begins.

Because that is who you are.

You are that already.

It's not that you have to become that.

You had the proof.

In deep sleep you were that.

So now you bring that deep sleep as if into the waking state,

Function to your utmost ability in your life,

But know who you are.

Not the ego,

Mind,

Intellect.

That's just the instrument of the pure self.

And like any instrument,

Sometimes it works effectively,

Sometimes it doesn't.

Sometimes the body works effectively,

Sometimes it doesn't.

But you can just take care of it the best you can to make it work as effectively as possible.

And to do this practice,

Again,

It's remembering,

Amaramham madramham,

Pure free forever I am,

And not believing the mind and all the thoughts which are illusory in the same way when you're in a dream and you wake up from the dream,

And although in the dream you were being chased by a tiger and your whole system was reacting,

A fear was going through your system and your heart was palpitating and all the stress reactions were happening in your body.

And then when you wake up from the dream,

The body still might have the effect of the dream in terms of the physiological responses to the stress.

But you weren't being chased by a tiger or a lion,

And you realize now it was just an illusion.

And then you go into your waking state.

Now if we apply this same knowledge to the waking state,

We can see that whatever is happening in the waking state,

If you're involved in it,

If you're identified with being this person in the waking state only,

And forget your deep sleep state,

Which brought in that knowledge we just talked about,

Then you're a victim to whatever thoughts,

Feelings,

Physical condition your system is in,

And you will suffer or you will enjoy.

But if you're knowing,

Just like you did in dream state,

That you can wake up from the dream,

And even though the body might be reacting with a physiological reaction,

Just like it did in the dream,

To a particular situation,

Somebody's nasty to you,

Or you're in a fight argument with somebody,

Or you're not getting your ego gratification fulfilled from success,

You fail at something,

The system will react in the same way that in the dream the system reacted.

And when you woke up from the dream,

You knew it was illusory.

In the same way,

When you wake up from the waking state,

Which means you wake up into that pure free forever meditative awareness,

Amaramham madhramham,

Which very much like deep sleep,

You come to know the peace,

The freedom,

The space that you are,

Which is not a victim of your mental thoughts and physiological reactions.

So in meditation,

When you close your eyes and watch that space and come to know that,

That's the fourth state of consciousness.

That state does not change throughout all the other states.

That state is always there.

And from that state,

That consciousness moves you,

So you're not the doer with your mind through your experiences thinking that it's you doing it.

You know that it's that space that's moving everything,

Just like the electric current goes through the outlet.

It's not the outlet that makes the electricity.

The electricity moves through the outlet into the appliance.

So we don't say the outlet ran your clock or your light.

It's the electricity.

In the same way,

It's that self moving through the mind,

Instrument of the mind and the body,

That's moving everything.

And then you take on individual doership to say,

I'm doing,

Just like the light says I'm a light,

In the same way you say,

I'm the doer creating my life.

But without that electricity,

The light couldn't shine.

Without that light of knowledge,

You couldn't do anything.

And that light of knowledge that was there in deep sleep that created that happening where everything was functioning perfectly,

The dream that moved you into a state of illusion,

Which you knew now as illusion.

And now in the waking state,

You can wake up from that and know that is all no different than a dream,

Just of longer duration.

And that continues because the pure being,

The pure self,

The pure consciousness that you are right now is not in any of those states.

It's free from all the states.

It's uninvolved with your body and your mind.

And now you realize that's not you.

You're not a body and a mind only.

You are consciousness pure.

You are space.

You are that one in deep sleep.

You are that one that didn't change in dream.

You are that one that doesn't change in waking state.

You alone are,

And that you alone is everywhere,

Moving everything.

And from this perspective now,

You are free.

You know you are,

Just like you were in deep sleep,

Peaceful right now,

Right here.

You don't have to find it anywhere outside.

You don't have to have any circumstances,

Although trying to make them the most conducive for you to be able to meditate,

To be able to practice this will be a great help.

But right now,

Right here,

You can close your eyes.

You can repeat a mantra,

Amaramham madiramham,

Amaramham madiramham.

You can watch your breathing going in,

Going out.

Watch it when it pauses and it's just pure peace.

And through this practice,

Again and again,

This will be your reality,

The fourth state of consciousness,

Highest awareness,

Self-realization.

And the life will continue as it does and move from that awareness.

And you will remain free regardless of what's happening outside because you'll know the freedom that you forever are,

That pure free forever,

Amaramham madiramham,

Amaramham madiramham,

Pure free forever,

Om shanti,

The peace that you forever are and is forever residing alone everywhere comes to be the knowledge of you.

Om shanti,

Om peace,

This peace is there with you always.