Lucy Cornelssen, Hunting the I, Investigation #2

February 14, 2005

"Turiya is only another name for the Self. The three states appear as fleeting phenomena on it and sink into it alone. Aware of the waking, dreams and deep sleep states, we remain unaware of our Self. Nevertheless the Self is here and now, it is the only Reality." (Talks, 553) Somebody asked: "Relatively speaking, is not the sleep state nearer to Pure Consciousness than the waking state?"Ramana MaharshiYes, in this sense: When passing from sleep to waking the "I"- thought must start; the mind comes into play; thoughts arise; then the functions of the body come into operation; all these together make us say that we are awake. The absence of all this evolution is the characteristic of sleep and therefore it is nearer to Pure Consciousness than the waking state." But one should not therefore desire to be always in sleep. In the first place it is impossible, for it will necessarily alternate with the other states. Secondly, it cannot be the state of bliss in which the jnani is, for his state is permanent and not alternating. Moreover, the sleep state is not recognised to be one of awareness by people; but the stage is always aware. Thus the sleep state differs from the state in which the sage is established."Still more, the sleep state is free from thoughts and their impression to the individual. It cannot be altered by one's will because effort is impossible in that condition. Although nearer to pure consciousness, it is not fit for efforts to realize the Self.""The incentive to realise can arise only in the waking state and efforts can be also be made only when one is awake. We learn that the thoughts in the waking state form the obstacle to gaining the stillness of sleep; stilness is the aim of the seeker. Even a single effort to still at least a single thought even for a trice goes a long way to reach the state of quiescence. Effort is required and it is possible in the waking state only. There is the effort here; there is awareness also; the thoughts are stilled; so there is the peace of sleep gained. That is the state of the jnani. It is neither sleep nor waking but intermediate between the two. There is the awareness of the waking state and the stillness of sleep. It is called jagratsushupti. Call it wakeful sleep or sleeping waking...it is not the same as sleep or waking separately. It is the state of perfect awareness and of perfect stillness combined." (Talks, 609)

To reach turiya we have first to scrutinize the three states. In the waking state there is perceiving, thinking, discriminating, and choosing, liking and disliking, desire and fear, memory and anticipating, all of them moving round a perceiving centre 'I' and caused seemingly by outside objects. In dream we experience almost the same without outer promptings, the whole picture, causes and effects, created by our imagination. In deep sleep there is nothing; at least we do not rememberanything. But Idendity is not wiped out, otherwise a Johnson who went to sleep might awake as a Benson.How can we bring this Idendity from deep sleep up into the waking state? How can deep Silence survive in turbulent noise?We have to use our control of that biologically acting mechanism, the brain. We do it more or less automatically during the waking state.Think of your own room or office. While moving around you 'see' the furniture, because you have to avoid stumbling over it, but you do not see it consciously; the act of perceiving is cut short after the initial stage.There is music coming out of the radio or transistor. Usually it is similar to the aforesaid while you have to do some work; you hear it, but not consciously; you cut short the act of listening after the first stage.

Somebody might tell you something. You not only hear it but you are listening attentively to grasp the meaning. If you are not interested, you register the news to your memory ... or not... and go on with your task. You have perceived the event, but it has not made an impression on you, has not altered your quiet state of consciousness. You cut it short after the second stage.This attitude of aloofness, of detachment, has to be kept and practised as often as possible throughout the day.Because the moment you are perceiving something and re-acting on it, being interested or emotionally involved, positively or negatively, you have covered up the silent, neutral, pure, witnissing 'I' by the reactive aggressive, personal 'I'.According the sadhana of hunting the 'I' includes the practice of attention to our own perceiving, with the purpose of cutting it short just before the stage of reacting sets in. In practising this kind of detachment the seeker will soon get a state of pure awareness, which is no longer 'perceiving'.To 'perceiving' in the customary meaning of the term belongs 'grasping', i.e., reacting; it has an object and is an act within time and space. Pure awareness has no object and is beyond time andspace. It is the highest wakefulness without all the other characteristics of the waking state.This is one means to carry over the absolute Silence of deep sleep into the absolute, the pure awareness of the waking state. Sri Ramana Maharshi named it the sleepless sleep, the wakeful sleep or sleepwaking.

~ chapter Investigation completed ~

taken from: Hunting the "I" by Lucy Cornelssen