Stages of Consciousness

Since consciousness is the basis of all reality, any shift in consciousness changes every aspect of our reality. Reality is created by consciousness differentiating into cognition, moods, emotions, perceptions, behaviour, speech, social interactions, environment, interaction with the forces of nature, and biology. As consciousness evolves, these different aspects of consciousness also change.

Although every spiritual tradition speaks of higher states of consciousness it is especially in Vedanta that we find such a structured map of these stages of development. The average person only experiences three states of consciousness in an entire lifetime. These are deep sleep, dreams, and waking state of consciousness. The brain functions measurably different in each of these states. Brain biology and brain waves show precise and different characteristics between sleep, dream, and waking states of consciousness.

1) Deep sleep: Deep sleep you also have a certain reality. If I scream at you, you will react. You have a degree of awareness, if your child is crying and you are the mother you will immediately respond. Spirit is in state of surveillance even in deep sleep and spirit creates a physiology for that moment.

2) Dreams: Repertoire of experience. Stories are being weaved by the Karmic software and when we are dreaming it is very real. No one can convince us that is was not real. It is only when we wake up we realize that it is not real and it was only a dream. The insight that is not a dream happens only when we wake up from the dream.

3) Vedanta says when you wake up from that dream you enter another dream that is what is called the waking state of consciousness. Presumably you are in that right now. You are in the waking state of consciousness you are participating in it without knowing that it is ephemeral or transitory. That is why you get caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria and the anxiety of the dream . You will remain in it until you wake up from it and get insight that aha! it was an amazing state.

Spiritual practice or sadhana begins the process by which an individual transforms his or her consciousness from these three common states of consciousness into " higher states" of consciousness.

You wake up from the “waking state” and when you have the first glimpse of the soul. Walt Whitman said I must not be awake as everything looks to me as it never did before. Else I am awake now and all that occurred before was just a dream. Gautam Buddha said “the lifestyle of ours is as transient as the autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movement of a dance a lifetime is like the flash of lightning in the sky rushing by like a torrent from the steep mountain. Now I am awake (meaning of the word Buddha), waking up from the insubstantial reality and glimpsing into the soul. You can glimpse into the soul. Example turn your attention to who is listening, there is a presence there and it is not your mind. The ever present witnessing awareness is the soul. As you peel the layers even in dreams and even in wakefulness, you see a body out there you can witness it. You can witness it now without experiencing death.

Through of any of the four primary yoga practices (the yogas of being, feeling, thinking, doing) the mind is led past its conditioned states to its pure unconditioned state. Beyond the first 3 states of consciousness are the following four states: Soul consciousness, Cosmic consciousness, Divine consciousness and Unity consciousness. As each state of consciousness unfolds within us, it opens us into a newer more expanded reality. Let's discuss each of these in turn:

1) Soul consciousness is the state we experience when our internal reference point shifts from body, mind, and ego, to the observer of body, mind, and ego. We experience and cultivate Soul consciousness when we meditate. This observer is referred to as the witnessing awareness. During meditation, a person begins to identify with this aspect of the Self which is beyond thinking and feeling, (the silent witness), and then he or she begins to feel more calm, centered and intuitive in daily life. As the authentic core of oneself solidifies, there is less emotional drama in their lives. Relationships are more loving and compassionate and one finds a deeper more caring relationship with the environment and nature. With the experience of the silent witness, the biology will also reflect greater balance and the activation of homeostatic mechanisms. Meditation has been shown to lead to the reduction of stress markers, slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, enhanced immune function, and orderly and precise self-repair mechanisms. Those who practice meditation are less prone to sickness.

2) Cosmic consciousness is the state when soul consciousness gets stabilized and the witnessing awareness is present all the time in waking, dreaming, and sleeping states. This state of consciousness is sometimes described in traditions as being both local and non-local simultaneously. The silent witness Self is unbounded, but the body and the conditioned mind is localized. In the Christian tradition the phrase "to be in the world and not of it," describes this flavor of Cosmic consciousness. In this state, even during deep sleep, the witnessing awareness is fully awake and there is the realization that one is not the mind/body, which is in the field of change, but rather an eternal spirit that transcends space and time. The most remarkable aspect of this state of consciousness is the knowledge of one's nature as timeless and therefore no fear of death. Although Cosmic consciousness is not the pinnacle of enlightenment, nevertheless it marks the critical transition from an identity bound to a conditioned life, to a life of freedom in self-knowledge.

3) Divine consciousness is the expansion of cosmic consciousness where the ever-present witnessing awareness is experienced not only in the silence of the Self, but also in the most abstract qualities of nature and the mind. Dormant potentials such as the awakening of the nonlocal senses (referred to in Sanskrit as tanmatras) begin to be experienced. As the individual mind starts to access these unused realms of the psyche, they will activate extraordinary spiritual abilities previously thought to be unattainable. These include experiences such as knowledge of past and future, clairvoyance, refined sense of taste, smell, sight, touch and hearing, control over bodily functions, heart rate, and autonomic functions. In other words, objects are experienced simultaneously on a gross sensory level and subtle more abstract level. Appreciation of life from this more refined perspective represents the real engagement of the heart and love as the engine of spiritual growth at this stage. By experiencing the patterns and deeper connections that underlie external diversity, we find our soul is stirred by a profound sense of beauty, awe, compassion, gratitude and love. The integrating power of these qualities brings together the polarized world of Cosmic consciousness which is divided between the Self and non-Self. In Divine Consciousness this harmonizing and synthesizing power is felt as the presence of Divinity in our heart. Wherever one goes one feels the presence of the Divine. The Vedic seers would say in Divine consciousness, God is not difficult to find, but impossible to avoid. At this stage, there is an even greater conviction of the immortality of existence, not only as nonlocal consciousness, but also in the knowledge that you are that enduring presence of divine love. Divine consciousness also brings a deeper experience of liberation, as the external sensory world is no longer seen as a kind of spiritual exile which the soul must endure, but rather the world is a manifestation of the beauty, and love of one's consciousness and therefore integral to one's spirituality.

4) Unity consciousness is also referred to as Brahman consciousness. It is a state of consciousness where the ever-present witness is not just recognized as the core Self of one's existence, it is now perceived as the primary reality of every experience. You, as the observer, are that pure consciousness. The process of observation is also that consciousness. And the object of observation is that same pure consciousness. The culmination of enlightenment is the knowledge that consciousness alone exists, that is all there is , was, or ever will be. That oneness, or unity, dominates awareness even as one engages in the same mundane details of life as before. One ceases to identify with an individual body-mind apparatus and sees the whole universe as one's physical body. Of course, there is a personal body and there is a material universe, experienced through the senses, but they are now cognized to be incorporated in that one single reality of consciousness.

Dormant potentials previously mentioned are now fully operative. There is the ability to heal and transform others and everything is experienced as miraculous. A flower is seen as a flower but is also experienced as rainbows and sunshine and earth and water and wind and air and the infinite void and the whole history of the universe swirling and transiently manifesting as the flower. In other worlds every object is seen as the total universe transiently manifesting as a particular object. And behind the scenes one can feel the presence of the same ever-present witnessing awareness that is now in both subject and object. Unity consciousness is the ultimate level of freedom from fear. It is characterized by an abiding sense of joy and peace. There is no "other" outside of oneself to be afraid of, and the constant dance of unity masquerading as diversity is seen as the blissful nature of life itself. All of creation is seen as the play of consciousness or leela.

This state of enlightenment is sometimes compared to the drop of water that is experiencing itself as the ocean, knowing that it was the ocean the whole time. You and God are now one because there is no you left any more. Sometimes when people try to conceptualize this by projecting their current sense of self into Unity consciousness they are afraid that in losing their old identity they will lose their existence, memories and individual perspective. But the enlightened person doesn't' see it that way. They understand that personal identity was an illusion to begin with. They realize that nothing real or valuable is ever lost on the path to enlightenment. They are experiencing their original identity but only now recognizing it in its completeness and its full glory. This state is of course described in the Vedantic tradition but is beautifully captured in the following verses from T.S. Elliot:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

This brief outline of higher states of consciousness is only intended to give a general sense of the unfolding of human potential. It is important to emphasize that spiritual development is not fundamentally an intellectual or a faith-driven enterprise. Enlightenment is not attained by reading and studying, nor by fervent belief in something outside yourself. The development of higher states of consciousness primarily comes down to regularly and systematically experiencing deeper values of the Self and then integrating that into one's daily life. The specific experiences an individual has on this journey, will necessarily vary, based on the spiritual tradition and practice one follows, but also based upon your own personal history and tendencies.

Reference: Deepak Chopra's texts

Summary of Vedanta - excerpt from Deepak Chopra's video

In this blog I would like to highlight the Vedantic perspective and provide a summary of the key Vedantic philosophies. Some of the material is from Deepak Chopra's video on God and Buddha.

Vedanta is the great wisdom tradition of India that goes back to at least 1500 BC. Authors are the great rishis who spent several eras of time thinking about various questions and developed sophisticated philosophies to explain the meaning of life.

During the 1st millennium of common era the people in the Indian subcontinent began to discard the simple teachings and stories of Gods and miraculous mythologies and the first level of God. Survival became easy and relatively more organized. Decided that the human being need not fear reality but was at a point where he was able to understand and question reality.

Veda means knowledge and Vedanta literally means the end of knowledge. Vedanta says that there are 5 reasons why human beings suffer, these are called Kleshas in Sanskrit.

1. Not knowing the true nature of reality.
   
2. Clinging to or grasping or holding to that which is ephemeral transitory or not real.
   
3. Aversion to, revulsion to, running away from, fear of that which is insubstantial transitory, ephemeral or not real.
   
4. Identification with a false and constricted and habitual self i.e. ego
   Fear of death.
   

All other causes of suffering can be somehow related to these five.

And all of these 5 causes of suffering are contained in the first one i.e. not knowing the true nature of reality.

The only cause of suffering is not knowing the true nature of reality.

Essence of Buddhism is the alleviation of suffering and not the abstractions of reincarnation. Buddhism is a practical religion and doesn’t delve into abstractions. Buddhism answers the question "What is the cause of human suffering and what is the way out of it ?"

The true nature of reality: The true nature of reality is Brahman. If you ask someone to describe it, he/she can’t. He/She would refer to it as “that”, or in Sanskrit “Thath”. Vedanta says I am that you are that and that is ... That is infinite, eternal, dynamic, ineffable, silent, infinite intelligence, infinite dynamism.

And this Brahman projects itself as the physical universe (including you and me) through the power of Maya. Maya technically means measurement, although translated sometimes referred to as illusion. Because you are trying to measure is the infinite. Through the measurement of infinite you give birth to the concept of time. Maya, meter, time, measurement, music, matter refer to the womb of creation.

The unbounded womb of creation which projects itself through the concept of Maya to the realm of space time and causation. It does so through the web of karma. Karma is the result of our past actions on an individual level, a collective level and also on a deeper more mythical level. The remnants of Karma, our past actions are like seeds in our consciousness. And these remnants of Karma constantly actualize into our consciousness into our subjective experience. They are just the seeds of the past experience. They are not memories themselves but they are virtual memories, just like you have virtual protons and virtual particles. They are not part of our brain, but are part of the software of our soul.

A person who wrote Reagan’s biography stated one incident, apparently Mr. Reagan came from a therapy session. Someone had left a toy white house. Mr. Reagan tried to clutch onto a toy white house. When asked he said “I don’t know what it is but I think it is something to do with me”.

In Sanskrit it is called Samskara, or potential memory or the remnant of Karma. We all have spiritual alzheimers. We have this faint memory that somewhere there is a soul here, we know it has something to do with me but we don’t know what it is. Bible states “ what good does it do a man to find the whole world but to lose one’s soul”.

Losing the soul we begin to have the experience of suffering.

The karmic software which is actualizing into our consciousness it appears as our thoughts, our own memories, desires, feelings and emotions. During the daytime, rational mind, it weaves stories around the Karmic software, it does so quite logically at least to the rational mind and we live out these stories we call them “everyday reality”. Same thing happens at night but the rational mind is asleep, so there is not a consistent logic to these stories at night and we call them dreams. Vedanta says the mechanics of the dream and the waking state of consciousness is the same.

One is being given a rationalization and other is not. It is just the karmic software that is appearing in your consciousness and is making stories out of them and you are living these stories out and you get so caught up in the melodrama and the hysteria of the stories that you forget who you are.

It is like going to a good movie and getting lost in the movie. The only way to come out of the tangled hierarchy, the seer loses itself in the scenery, the lover loses himself/herself in the beloved, the knower in knowledge and so forth. Never remembering that there is a timeless factor in the midst of the experience. All experience is time bound, a beginning a middle and an ending. In the midst of all this there is a timeless factor it is the experiencer. The Experiencer is the eye inside. Not the personal eye but the collective eye and the universal eye.

There are six stages of Awareness or consciousness. All of reality is a projection of which state of consciousness you are in. Depending on which state of consciousness you are in you project a certain state of reality. If I peel beneath the layers of my soul I will go beyond my constricted fabrication, the constricted self identity that I have and will realize who I really am. And this is the essence of Vedanta.

Vedanta says there are 4 ways to do it

1) Karma yoga: Be always reminding yourself that no matter what you are doing you are not doing it. It is God, God does everything and this is the machinery through which the divine intelligence is working. The essence of Karma yoga is to be established in being and perform action. Yogasth Gurukarma Karmaniyasth as Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita.
2) Through love or the experience of love. This is bhakti yoga or devotion. It is the simplest and the most enjoyable but it gets you to the same place. Love is the ultimate reality and the ultimate truth in the heart of creation. We are all the same being but in different disguises. Once we realize that it becomes impossible to hurt or be hurt. What the Buddha refers to as compassion is really the experiential knowledge of love as the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
3) Raja Yoga i.e. meditation and its allied disciplines. Different types of ways to dive between the gaps of our thoughts, or go beyond the secret passages and the dark alleys of our minds and find the part of ourselves that does not die.
4) Nyaana Yoga: Intellectual approach, razor’s edge i.e. to use the intellect to go beyond the intellect. That itself is a paradox but it is possible. To go beyond the rational mind.

That is the summary of Vedanta and all the 112 Upanishads talk about these few principles.

If one has gotten close to the event horizon which is called enlightenment then that experiential knowledge of immortality solves all suffering. Because you find out who you really are. As the Sufi poet Rumi said in one of his poems “By God when you see beauty you will be idol of yourself”.

Why I am a Hindu and not Christian

When I was a graduate student some years ago at a university known for its Theological school, I was faced with several attempts to convince me to convert to Christianity.

I have a deep respect for Christian traditions and customs and among the three western religions Christianity might be regarded as the most secular.

However I don't believe in conversion, neither did M.K. Gandhi who had studied the Bible.

In this post I would like to highlight the reasons that Theologians highlight when converting one to Christianity

The key beliefs of the Christian tradition are as follows

1. The sin of Adam and Eve applies to all of mankind since we are descendants of Adam and Eve.
2. Jesus Christ is the son of God. He performed miracles and he was resurrected after death. By following Jesus, i.e. through the process of baptism and communion, one can redeem him/her from the sin and join Jesus in heaven. Also this is the only path to heaven else one shall suffer a life in hell. These are the words of Christ himself.
3. Since he was innocent and did not commit any crime, by dying on the cross, He relieved all of mankind of this sin.
4. Several Christians have personal experiences in which they have seen Christ and have had life changing experiences.

Let me address each one of these one at a time

1. The sin of Adam and Eve applies to all of mankind since we are descendants of Adam and Eve.

As was stated in my blog on the Introduction to Western Religion, according to the three western religions God created the world about 5768 years ago according to the Jewish Calendar. (See note below) And God created Adam on the sixth day, and then created Eve using one of ribs and so forth.

Even if one does not believe in evolution, one can argue using multiple sources of evidence such as the fossils of the dinosaurs, carbon dating of plants and other animals that have been found to exist much before, sometimes even millions of years before this date. Hence for all practical purposes there was no Adam and Eve.

Secondly for Adam and Eve to grow to a population of 6 billion in 5768 years it seems like an enormous undertaking. According to one theologian the book of the Genesis is actually metaphorical and it doesn't translate to actual events.

In any case, if we say that Adam and Eve did not actuall exist and hence we can deduce that the original sin was never committed and hence we are not affected by it.



2. Jesus Christ is the son of God. He performed miracles and he was resurrected after death. By following Jesus one can redeem him/her from the sin and join Jesus in heaven. Also this is the only path to heaven else one shall suffer a life in hell. These are the words of Christ himself.

It maybe true that Jesus was a historical figure. One cannot confirm the fact that he performed miracles also whether he was actually resurrected.

Coupled with the fact that this occurred over 2000 years ago in a time when the Egyptians and the Greeks would use the laws of physics to perform "miracles" to attract followers to the temples. It is possible that these can be overstated and one cannot use spoken word as evidence.

Even if I were to accept that Jesus actually did perform these miraculous acts, here is a counter argument to that.

In India towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was an individual who is worshipped by the name of Sai Baba. Baba performed several miracles and there is a lot of stories regarding these. Considering that Baba's stories are far more recent than of Jesus which was over 2000 years ago, one can say that maybe Jesus wasn't the only one.
Also there is substantially more historical evidence on the existence of Sai Baba such as actual photographs.

Also here I haven't stated other historical miraculous stories that have been told in India. There are also individuals such as the Buddha who offered a totally different path where the ultimate purpose is not Heaven but the freedom from birth and death.

Although Jesus maybe a path to Heaven if that is one's purpose in life, that is not the only path that is available. If Jesus said "follow me" as the only path to Heaven, Baba said "there is only one God. It doesn't matter how you worship Him."

Hence to say that the path of Jesus is the only path is not be true. This might something that the Church invented to instill a fear of God and make people follow their ideals.

3. Since he was innocent and did not commit any crime, by dying on the cross, He relieved all of mankind of this sin.

OK Jesus may have been innocent and didn't deserve to die on the cross. But a lot of people in the Roman times were crucified on the cross. Some of them may have been innocent. Were they all "Sons of God". ?

4. Several Christians have personal experiences in which they have seen Christ and have had life changing experiences.

There are also similar stories in India on how people's lives were changed when they visited Sai Baba temple in Shirdi for example. Each person has their own personal experiences and one cannot use these as a basis for converting others to his/her faith.



Finally what about the sins one commits in his own life.

Shouldn't each person be responsible for his/her own actions and is aptly rewarded or punished based on his/her actions and not based on the actions of his/her ancestors (Adam, Eve or who ever) or faith or religion ?

I personally believe is that all religions have good and bad. Each religion has evolved to address the issues of the particular culture and the people. One shouldn't use religion as a basis to discriminate other people nor should one feel the need to convert others without understanding the other person's point of view.

Note: (Unlike its civil counterpart, Judaism's calendar starts with a far more universalistic perspective from the birth of mankind. Jews are now in the eighth century of the sixth millennium (the year 2007 will correspond to the years 5767-5768). The Jewish calendar doesn't start from the time the Jews became a nation, but rather from the creation of the world.