1. In the waking state we are aware of our physical body, our
mind and intellect.
2. The moment we go to the dream state we are
not aware of the physical body.
3. In deep sleep state we are not aware
of the mind and intellect or the physical body.
This third state of our existence is a sort of "Nothingness"
or "Blankness". This is where all our impressions or our
tendencies (vasanas) are
hidden or stored. It is the store house of our memories and impressions we
have in life. In other words it is the seed-house of our hidden
tendencies.
This
deep sleep state is important because the hidden impressions from
this state get expressed as events in dream state and as desires in
our waking state. Any thing we desire in our waking state is because
of the hidden tendencies in this deep sleep state. we will discuss
this separately later.
If our core personality of impressions and
tendencies are hidden in the deep sleep state of "nothingness", is
that then our real nature? So we do wake up only to express
those tendencies?. Vedanta, the ultimate knowledge of Indian ancient
science tells us that all these three states do not have independent
existence but depend on something else, called Unconditioned
Consciousness.
what is this Unconditioned Consciousness?
Please read in the next page.
Important note to avoid mis-understanding
1. In the waking state we are aware of our physical body, our
mind and intellect. There is no confusion with this statement.
2. The moment we go to the dream state we are
not aware of the physical body. Now here it means that the moment we
are in the subtle body, which is mind and intellect, we are unaware
of the body. We experience this state most of the time, when we are
in deep thoughts or intellectually thinking of some thing. In these
states we forget that we are traveling in a train or a bus or even
driving a car. Being totally caught up in the mind without being
aware of the physical body is akin to the dream state.
3. In deep sleep state we are not aware
of the mind and intellect or the physical body. In awareness state
or being in the causal body we understand that we are not the
body-mind-intellect complex we imagine to be. We are the Pure
Unconditioned Consciousness.
