Deep sleep: Causality and consciousness

[Guest guest]

As aptly quoted in messages #37271 and #37272 (Sept 15), Ramana

Maharshi speaks of an apparent unconsciousness associated with deep

sleep.

 

" ... the sleep state is not recognized to be one of awareness by

people, but the sage is always aware. Thus the sleep state differs

from the state in which the sage is established. " [Talks with Sri

Ramana Maharshi, talk #609]

 

" It is true that there is bliss in deep sleep, but one is not aware

of it. One only knows about it afterwards when one wakes up and says

that one has slept well. " [Could not locate quite where the quote is

from. Would be grateful if Shri Hupa could specify.]

 

What is this sense of 'unconsciousness' associated with deep sleep?

As the Maharshi points out, what's missing in deep sleep is not

consciousness itself, but rather the objects that appear perceived

by body, sense and mind. When mind's attention turns to depth of

sleep, what's shown is no lack of consciousness itself. What's shown

instead by depth of sleep is an unconsciousness of objects.

Consciousness itself continues in deep sleep, where it is shown

unmixed with changing objects of perception, thought and feeling.

 

The seeming 'unconsciousness' of sleep is thus a pure consciousness

which stays common to all changing states, as their continuing

reality. As the Maharshi puts it:

 

" So there is a continuity in the sleep and the waking states. What

is that continuity? It is only the state of Pure Being. There is a

difference in the two states. What is that difference? The

incidents, namely, the body, the world and the objects appear in the

waking state but they disappear in sleep.... True, there is no

awareness of the body or of the world. But you must exist in your

sleep in order to say now: 'I was not aware in my sleep.' Who says

so now? It is the wakeful person. The sleeper cannot say so. That is

to say, the individual who is now identifying the Self with the body

says that such awareness did not exist in sleep. " [Talks with Sri

Ramana Maharshi, talk #609]

 

As consciousness continues thus identical with being, it is the one

causality from which all appearances arise, through all experiences

of any body, sense or mind. As the Maharshi goes on to say:

 

" It lies between sleep and waking; it is also the interval between

two successive thoughts. It is the source from which thoughts

spring; we see that when we wake up from sleep. In other words

thoughts have their origin in the stillness of sleep. The thoughts

make all the difference between the stillness of sleep and the

turmoil of waking. Go to the root of the thoughts and you reach the

stillness of sleep. But you reach it in the full vigour of search,

that is, with perfect awareness. [Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi,

talk #609]

 

But, as causality thus carries on from one appearance to another, it

must be hidden underneath all show of changing appearances that come

and go in anybody's mind. There, underneath each changing mind, all

cause and effect must carry on paradoxically. Each later effect --

resulting from a previous happening -- must carry on absorbed into

underlying consciousness, as a hidden seed of latent tendency.

 

Such latent tendencies are called 'samskaras' or 'vasanas'. As any

happening appears perceived or thought or felt, its appearance is

then taken into a subjective absorption at the depth of mind, where

consciousness continues. Each changing happening thus plants a seed

in the underlying ground of consciousness. The seed continues there

absorbed, its potency remaining hidden till it later on becomes

expressed, in some subsequently manifest effect.

 

Viewed from our changing minds, all their continued depth of

consciousness appears to be 'unconscious'. At that continued depth,

no object or event appears perceived or thought or felt; for each

perception, thought or feeling gets there utterly absorbed, as soon

as it is taken in. As consciousness continues underneath the mind,

all causal potencies continue there, in a way that must be 'hidden'

or 'unconscious' to our minds.

 

Our minds take their apparent perceptions, thoughts and feelings to

be 'knowing' or 'conscious'. Knowing is identified as consciousness

of objects that appear perceived and thought and felt, at the

changing surface of the mind. Underneath this changing surface, this

mind thinks then that it must be driven 'unconsciously', from an

unconscious depth of causality where knowing is not found.

 

Accordingly, our minds are forced to think, paradoxically, that

their own causality must be 'unconscious'. They have to think,

confusingly, that their appearances are driven from underneath, from

a hidden store of potencies that are essentially 'unconscious'.

 

It's therefore thought that when mind has subsided in deep sleep or

in the interval between succeeding thoughts, what carries on is an

underlying 'unconscious' where hidden tendencies have been stored up

from past conditioning.

 

But when this so-called 'unconscious' is more carefully examined, it

turns out that there's no such thing. No one ever has or ever can

experience anything that rightly may be called 'unconscious'. All

experience, of any kind, requires the presence of consciousness.

Whatever may be experienced is experienced in the presence of

knowing consciousness. And in that knowing presence, there can never

be an absence of knowing that the word 'unconscious' essentially

implies. This word 'unconscious' is a self-contradictory concoction,

made up misleadingly by mind. This word is inherently misleading,

and it cannot therefore rightly show any real thing.

 

Where mind turns its attention back to its own depth, or to the

depth of sleep or to the interval between successive thoughts, it's

never consciousness that gets thereby dissolved. It's only objects

that dissolve, along with the perceptions, thoughts and feelings

that make these objects appear.

 

What's actually found at the depth of mind, or in deep sleep or in

between successive thoughts is consciousness itself: unmixed with

any overlay of perceptions, thoughts and feelings that pretend to be

consciousness of objects. And when true consciousness is found, all

seeming overlay perceived or thought or felt turns out to express

its sole reality.

 

In the end, all of the world's causality is found to express pure

consciousness, just like the causality of any dream in mind. That's

what deep sleep is meant to show, in the 3 state prakriya.

 

In a passage from the Chandogya Upanishad, 8.3.2, the subtle

causality of world is described through the metaphor of an

agricultural field whose changing manifestations distract from a

shining treasure that is to be found.

 

 

tad yathApi hiraNya-nidhiM nihitam akShetraj~nA

upary upari sa~Ncaranto na vindeyur

 

[Those who do not rightly know

a field where golden treasure lies

keep passing over it, but may not find it.]

 

evam eve 'mAH sarvAH prajA

ahar ahar gacchantya etaM brahma-lokaM

 

[so also all these creatures entered here,

day after day, in this world

where all-completeness is both

shining goal and ever present ground.]

 

na vindanti anR^itena hi pratyUdhAH

 

[They do not discover it; for they

are kept distracted, by unreality.]

 

In this passage, the distracting 'unreality' of world is represented

by the changing contours, plants, flowers and fruits manifested by

the field. The shining treasure is the changeless reality of

underlying ground -- which is entirely complete, immediately

underfoot.

 

Each creature seen moving in the field is not a true knower of the

field, but only a changing manifestation of the field causality. The

only true knower of the field is the ground itself, invigorating and

supporting each creature and everything else that arises from it.

 

Ananda

[Guest guest]

Namaste Anandji,

 

Does this mean that In the deep sleep state, " the objects do exist " but

the sense of identification of the objects as objects is not sensed due very

state which it is in, as all the thoughts and perceptions are temporarily

perished?

 

Gopinath

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

advaitin , brahmaprajna <brahmaprajna

wrote:

>

> Namaste Anandji,

>

> Does this mean that In the deep sleep state, " the objects do

exist " but

> the sense of identification of the objects as objects is not sensed

due very

> state which it is in, as all the thoughts and perceptions are

temporarily

> perished?

>

> Gopinath

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " hupa_ramdas " <hupa_ram>

wrote:

 

advaitin , brahmaprajna <brahmaprajna@>

wrote:

>

> Namaste Anandji,

>

> Does this mean that In the deep sleep state, " the objects do

exist " but

> the sense of identification of the objects as objects is not sensed

due very

> state which it is in, as all the thoughts and perceptions are

temporarily

> perished?

>

> Gopinath

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Namaste Shri Gopinath,

 

You asked (message #37332 Sep 18):

 

" Does this mean that In the deep sleep state, 'the objects do exist'

but the sense of identification of the objects as objects is not

sensed due very state which it is in, as all the thoughts and

perceptions are temporarily perished? "

 

On waking from deep sleep, an objectless experience is replaced by

perceptions, thoughts and feelings that bring objects into

appearance. These objects appear when they are perceived or thought

or felt. But when a perception, thought or feeling ceases, its object

immediately disappears.

 

Objects are experienced thus as changing appearances, in waking world

and dreams. But knowing is experienced quite differently. As states

of waking, dream and deep sleep are known, they each require the

presence of a knowing that is found in each one of them.

 

Without that common knowing, no changing states could come and go.

That common knowing stays on present, underneath all changing states

of waking, dream or sleep. It is thus shown by all appearances and

disappearances, as their one reality.

 

It is the one reality of every waking or dream object that appears.

And it is just that same reality which is found present on its own,

when all these waking and dream appearances have disappeared, as in

deep sleep or in the interval between succeeding states of mind.

 

All the existence of each waking or dream object is that one reality,

whose knowing presence knows itself throughout all changing states.

All waking and dream objects express that one reality, as they arise

perceived or thought or felt into appearance. And, as each appearance

arises, its perception, thought and feeling takes it back into that

same reality, from where all further appearances must be expressed.

 

The deep sleep state has thus a causal aspect, in that it shows a

causal continuity which carries on from earlier to later states of

waking or dreaming mind. This causal continuity is covered by the

changing states that keep replacing one another in the course of time.

 

Causality thus seems to be 'unconscious', as it stays hidden

underneath our changing states of mind. Mind's changing stream of

replacing states gets thereby identified, quite wrongly, with

underlying consciousness.

 

Mind's changing states are mere appearances. They come and go before

the knowing light that is called 'consciousness'. That light

illuminates itself, be merely being what it is. And yet it is

confusingly identified with changing mind whose passing states have

to be known by its unchanging presence.

 

From this confusion, it appears misleadingly that inner mind in

course of time knows objects in external space, thus making up an

outside world. Such objects seem to exist outside the consciousness

from which they are known. But seen more truly, none of them exists

like this. Each of them expresses only consciousness, which is their

one reality.

 

The waking world of outward sense is made of objects thought

perceived in structured space. But when attention is turned back into

mind's dreams, it is there shown a world made up internally, of

changing thought in passing time.

 

Reflecting even further back, from changing thought to underlying

depth of mind in dreamless sleep, the mind completely disappears.

There consciousness is found alone, as self-illuminating light whose

very being is to know.

 

It is from there that all appearances arise. And it's back there that

they return. Just that is their continuing reality, found present in

all changing states.

 

Ananda

[Guest guest]

Thanks Anandaji and Hupaji for clarifying my doubt.