No consciousness in deep sleep

[Guest guest]

Now in deep sleep The I vanishes.. then who am I ? Who observes ? who makes the observation. If I say I got a deep sleep then it means that my sense of disassociation with the body and mind was complete ie for that moment I did not exist. Feeling refreshed and remembering the loss of ego during the 7-8 years we will exclaim that we have gotten deep sleep. This I after waking is different from the I in the sleeping state. The former being bundle of emotions and samsakaras whereas the latter being the Pure I. Its only when you are the Pure I in the waking state can you assert that I was present in the sleeping state.

Regds

Vinay

A person was giving evidence in a court case. He declaredthat at that particular time of the night he went to a part of thewood and confirmed that it was uninhabited - there was no one there.The judge stopped him and asked him to put it in writing.The man wrote it down on a piece of paper."Are you absolutely sure about this statement," asked the judge?"Yes," said the man."Do you confirm that you saw that there was no one there?"asked the judge again."Yes, said the man, I personally can vouch that I saw no one there", saidthe man."That cannot be right," said the judge. There was someonethere.... "You were there to record that there was no one there".Sometimes simple stories illustrate profound teachings.When we declare that we had a sound, dreamless sleepand were not conscious, we make the same mistake.We were there observing our sound, dreamless sleep.If we were not there, observing, we could not confirm thatwe had a sound dreamless sleep, like the man saying that there was no one there : )

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[Guest guest]

This is a very subtle point and often quite tough to comprehend or

explain. Only one who has experience of the Absolute can comment and

answer doubts well on this.

 

Ramana Maharishi gives a very good explanation of the consciousness

in the 3 states, viz Jagrut(awake), Swapna (dream), Shushupti (deep-

sleep).

 

In sleep, the mind goes into a state of lessened activity and falls

into a state of rest called the " Mano-Layam " . Even when one does

meditation for a while, one can feel thoughts subsiding and sometimes

even going to sleep.

 

However, it needs to be understood that there are 2 " I " s. The big " I "

is the Atma or the pure consciousness. The small " i " is the thought

that everyone has, which makes us think we are the body.

 

In sleep, when the mind goes into rest, the small " i " thought

vanishes and only the big " I " is the witness. That's why we can say

we had a good sleep or we had lot of dreams etc. when we wake up. In

sleep, the big " I " is always there, but the small " i " went into rest

and thoughts started flowing without control.

 

When waking up, the first thought is small " i " which identifies us

with the body making us forget that we are indeed the Atma or the

big " I " .

 

But the small " i " is just another thought and it is " jadam " while the

big " I " is the " chaitanyam " or pure-consiousness. It never gets

destroyed. It is forgotten because of the covering of the mind.

 

In Ramana's philosophy of self-inquiry(atma-vichaaram) the question

to be asked is " Who Am I " ? What he means is that, when each thought

arises we need to enquire as to whom this thought arose. The answer

would be " i " . But then the next question would be that who is

this " i " ? That would result in the thought going back to its root.

The answer for the question would be the big " I " .

 

By repeatedly enquiring and making thoughts go back to its root, one

can get rid of all thoughts and remain in pure consciousness. In that

state, there is no 3 things such as " seer " , " seen " and the act

of " seeing " . No subject, object, and action.

 

That's very easily said than done ofcourse!

 

-- Pradeep

 

> Now in deep sleep The I vanishes.. then who am I ? Who observes ?

who makes the observation. If I say I got a deep sleep then it means

that my sense of disassociation with the body and mind was complete

ie for that moment I did not exist. Feeling refreshed and remembering

the loss of ego during the 7-8 years we will exclaim that we have

gotten deep sleep. This I after waking is different from the I in the

sleeping state. The former being bundle of emotions and samsakaras

whereas the latter being the Pure I. Its only when you are the Pure I

in the waking state can you assert that I was present in the sleeping

state.

>

> Regds

>

> Vinay