'Unconscious'?

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Someone recently pointed out to me that when the mind considers deep

sleep, it gets reflected back into its underlying depth, beneath all

changes and variations. But, as it approaches that depth, it is

confronted by the frustrating feeling of a profound void, which

seems completely 'unconscious'.

 

Why then do some advaitins pay so much attention to deep sleep? What

is there to be learned about consciousness, from a state that is

habitually assumed to be 'unconscious'?

 

Here, I often find it helpful to reflect on something that was said

by my teacher, Shri Atmananda. He said that this word 'unconscious'

is a bit of a misnomer. What's called 'unconscious' is in fact

'unconscious of objects'.

 

In deep sleep, and at the depth of mind, what's missing are the

changing objects of personal perception through body, sense and

mind. What's missing at that depth is not consciousness itself, but

only changing objects and the changing sensations, thoughts and

feelings which perceive and conceive them.

 

A state or a depth of mind that seems to be 'unconscious' is in fact

misleadingly conceived and described. To be less misleading, that

state or depth of mind should be more accurately described as

'unconscious of objects'. It is a state or a depth where no changing

perceptions, thoughts and feelings have produced any objects which

appear.

 

What is that state or depth we experience in deep sleep, where all

changing objects and appearances are absent? In their absence, that

state or depth of mind can only be pure consciousness, unmixed with

anything besides. But there, no changing mind appears; nor can there

be any perception, thought or feeling of a changing 'state' or an

underlying 'depth'.

 

To understand that 'consciousness', our questions have to keep on

turning back, into those assumptions from which they have arisen in

our minds. The questioning must be so thorough that a pure knowing

alone remains, unmixed with any of the changeable assumptions that

are ignorantly made by us, in our conceiving minds. Somehow the

questioning must turn so deeply back that changing mind returns to a

complete dissolution in its underlying depth, where true knowing

persists through all changes of appearance.

 

Best wishes,

 

Ananda

[Guest guest]

Somehow the

questioning must turn so deeply back that changing mind returns to a

complete dissolution in its underlying depth, where true knowing

persists through all changes of appearance.

 

I constantly question, when I've awakened from a deep sleep, what was

there to be aware of during sleep. So far, I've found nothing that I

was aware of during deep sleep. But being can't be discontinuous, can

it? " I " must have " existed " during deep sleep in order to say, in the

waking state, " I was asleep " . So, presumably, there is being in deep

sleep whether aware of anything or not. Sri Ramana Maharshi says that

the jnani is aware of the Self in all three states, waking, dreaming

and deep sleep.

 

Even our language, though, slips into dichotomy. Consciousness vs

unconsciousness, sleep vs waking. Those dichotomies simply can't

exist. There's no switch in " me " that turns off consciousness and

ushers in unconsciousness.

 

Something is there behind both, behind/among/with all the " pairs of

opposites "

 

So it gives me direction to think that the term unconscious is a

misnomer. Something is conscious. What we call unconscious should

maybe be changed to consciousness without object, as in deep sleep.

 

By the way, wanted to let all involved know how much I appreciate

this site. I'm going to order all the books by Krishna Menon soon.

From what I've read on Dennis' site he's " right up my ally. " Best

wishes, Steve.