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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Sleep, Dreams and Self-realization

The world does not exist in sleep and forms a projection of your mind in the waking state. It is therefore an idea and nothing else.
- Ramana Maharshi


Every twenty-four hours we cycle through three basic states of consciousness. We experience the waking state primarily during the day and at night we experience the dream state and the state of deep dreamless sleep. It is generally assumed that we spend a third of our lives sleeping. Some people resent this thinking of all the wasted time when they could be doing something productive. Others of us wouldn’t mind a little extra time to sleep and dream. In any case, sleep and dreams are necessary for our physical and psychological health.

Sleep research differentiates these three states as waking, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and NREM sleep. REM sleep is associated with intensive dream activity. Although there are sometimes dreams in NREM sleep, it is generally a deeper state of rest in which there is sparse mental activity. As Jayne Gackenbach, Ph.D. writes in The Emerging Mind, “In brief, the function of REM sleep is information processing, and the function of NREM sleep is body maintenance.” Depth psychologists know that dreams reveal unconscious drives and motivations. While the ego dominates waking consciousness, it gives way to a deeper connection with the unconscious mind in dreams and sleep. In sleep states we are connected, not just with the personal unconscious but possibly with the transpersonal or collective unconscious as well.

There are of course other states of consciousness generally described as altered states. These include peak experiences, religious experiences, drug states and meditative states among others. Psychiatrist John E. Nelson, M.D., in Healing the Split, suggests that we can understand psychosis as an altered state of consciousness as well. There is perhaps a thin line between madness and mystical exaltation. A principal difference might be that while psychosis comes unbidden, perhaps as the result of extreme stress or of a genetic predisposition, mystical experiences generally come through the practice of disciplines designed to cultivate them, such as yoga. Of course, there also seems to be some overlap between mystical experience, psychosis and psychedelic or “entheogenic” drug experiences.

Yoga and Vedanta pose the question though, “Who is it that ultimately experiences the varied states of consciousness?” In other words we seek to find the basic substratum from which various states arise. In the Yoga Sutras this basic substratum is referred to as drashta, the “seer” or inner witness. The inner witness is the basic condition by which all states are states of “consciousness.” There is ultimately an aware being present and consistent throughout all changing states. In the Upanishads this inner being is referred to as atman, which is often translated as the “Self.” The Self or atman is our deeper authentic being rather than our ego-personalities which are primarily a feature of our waking state of consciousness.

Because it is other than the ego, this substratum of awareness is referred to as “not-self” in Buddhist terms. Through the doctrine of anatta, or not-self, Buddha took pains to remind us that we cannot associate this deeper awareness with our individual ego identities. It is an expansive, all inclusive awareness which cannot be identified as any limited construct, idea or concept. It is important to remember as we engage in the practice of yoga that while the ego itself is associated with the idea of “I, me and mine,” our deeper being is unconcerned with these limited attributes.

Yoga suggests that one way to experience our inner being is to enter consciously into dreams and deep sleep. The Mandukya Upanishad gives us a succinct overview of this approach. The Mandukya is one of twelve “major” Upanishads which are some of the earliest written texts of the Yoga tradition. They represent the teachings of the earliest masters of this mystical yoga; spiritual pioneers who explored consciousness to the point of Self-realization (or “not-self” realization.) One of my favorite English translations and commentaries is The Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran.

The central message of the Upanishads is that the atman, our inner being or awareness, is essentially inseparable from Brahman, the Universal Being or Consciousness. The Mandukya Upanishad tells us that it “lies beyond past, present and future.” Our innermost being is beyond space and time. It is eternal, immortal, omniscient and omnipresent. Our limited body-minds are the product of limited expression of this greater being. Long before Einstein theorized that space and time are actually aspects of a four-dimensional continuum, the sages of the Upanishads understood that space and time are actually limiting constructs or categories originating in a timeless, hyperspatial being of Consciousness. A potential new paradigm is currently arising from the discoveries of relativity and quantum mechanics which supports this ancient view. As physicist Peter Russell writes in From Science to God, “While the old meta-paradigm saw conscious as rising from space and time, the new meta-paradigm sees space and time rising from Consciousness.”

According to the Upanishad, sleep and dreams are essential to understanding how this process occurs. It occurs through the involvement or association of consciousness with the three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. In the waking state consciousness is turned outward, or perhaps more accurately “projected outward.” In the waking state we are aware of the world of the five senses and either unaware or only vaguely aware of our inner being. In the dreaming state we are aware of mental patterns composed of memory and desire. In deep sleep dreams and desires fade into a state of deep peace and inner unity. In deep sleep there is no desire, no hatred and no suffering. The only problem is that we are not aware! The Mandukya Upanishad tells us that if we could only become aware within the state of deep dreamless sleep it would, “open the door to abiding joy.”

Within and beyond these three states is the inner witness. It is experienced in and of itself as non-dual consciousness in a fourth state of consciousness, called turiya, which is known only to mystic-yogis. Turiya is actually comprised of a continuity of awareness through the three states and represents an awakening to the deeper Self present within and beyond them. As the Upanishad states per Easwaran’s translation:

                                  The fourth is the superconscious state called
                                  Turiya, neither inward nor outward,
                                  Beyond the senses and the intellect,
                                  In which there is none other than the Lord.
                                  He is the supreme goal of life.
                                  He is infinite peace and love. Realize him!

While we are normally preoccupied with the world of the waking state and therapists are often intrigued by dreams, Yoga tells us that it is actually in the deepest state of dreamless sleep that we discover the reality of our beings – if only we would awaken.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Developing the Inner Witness

Whatever thoughts that come to your mind, let them do so.
With closed eyes remain a witness of the various thoughts coming
into your mind and do not try to consciously control the thought process.
Do not be disturbed . . .

- Swami Satyananda Saraswati
http://www.yogavision.net/

In its deepest sense, yoga is a science of consciousness. Its aim is to help us develop our consciousness, raising it from the mundane to the sublime. Meditation is central to this process and is generally considered to be essential to spiritual evolution. Meditation, however, can take many forms. The practice of hatha yoga postures, for example, is a way of meditating if practiced with a present-centered, mindful awareness. Sacred dance, music, art, work, life in general . . . can all be forms of meditation. The key is the quality and intensity of awareness which we bring to each moment. Sitting meditation, of course, is very helpful for developing awareness.

When I first began studying yoga with Swami Niranjan, he emphasized this “inner” aspect of yoga practice. Whether meditating, practicing asanas and pranayama, cleaning, or even eating meals it was important to be present, to be aware and to watch the flow of thoughts continually going through our minds. This was very hard at first. Often, I just wanted to let go and go with the flow of thoughts, fantasies, memories, etc. instead of trying to be aware of them. We often prefer to go through life on auto-pilot while lost in thoughts, dreams or fantasies. It takes consistent practice to develop this inner witnessing awareness, often referred to as “the inner witness.”

There are basically two types of meditative discipline. One involves focused concentration whether on the breath, mantra, visualization or maybe a physical object like a candle flame. Concentration means intentionally shutting out distracting thoughts and is a way of making the mind calm and focused. The second type of meditation practice involves opening up awareness, accepting thoughts and feelings as they arise. The trick is to remain apart from them in some sense. As Swami Satyananda instructs us above, we don’t try to control the process but we don’t let it control us either. Both types of meditation are important. The first helps us to develop focused attention and intention. The second helps us to become aware of the subconscious processes going on within us. As Dr. Rishi Vivekananda writes in Practical Yoga Psychology, “Yoga helps us to develop the ‘witness position’ – the ability to stand back and get a new view of events, situations and even our own thought patterns. Then we can question the real truth of all of our valued opinions and decide if we should keep them or not.”

The inner witnessing awareness enables us to step outside of our egos. It is the first step in moving from ego-identification to awakening as an aspect of the universal consciousness. Deepak Chopra refers to the ego as the “local mind.” In The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, he writes, “The local mind is personal and individual to each of us. It holds our ego, the self-defined “I” that wanders through the world a slave to our conditioned habits. By its very nature the local mind separates us from the rest of creation. It puts up thick, artificial boundaries that many of us feel compelled to defend, even when this means cutting ourselves off from the deeper meanings and joyous connections that come from feeling part of the universal.” It may not seem like it at first, but the inner witness is actually the presence of the universal consciousness within us.

Chopra refers to this as the “nonlocal mind.” “Nonlocal mind, on the other hand, is pure soul or spirit, known as universal consciousness. Operating outside the boundaries of normal space and time, it is the great organizing and unifying force in the universe, infinite in scope and duration. By its nature, nonlocal mind connects all things because it is all things.” When we are fixated within our egos we can barely glimpse the possibilities of our nonlocal mind. As we continue to develop the witnessing quality of awareness we can gradually transcend the narrow confines of our ego-identities. I say “gradually", because many of us get frightened at the possible “loss of identity.” So it is best to take it step by step. However, our true nature, true self, is unbounded consciousness, eternally blissful and absolutely free.

Yoga allows us to enter into a series of higher developmental stages which transcend ego development as generally known to psychology. In The Eye of the Spirit, Ken Wilber writes about the possibility of “subject permanence,” a concept developed by Charles Alexander based on his research into the developmental stages of consciousness through meditation. Subject permanence is a higher developmental stage which can be compared to “object permanence,” as identified by Piaget. Just as object permanence represents an important stage of cognitive development in the infant, subject permanence represents an important stage of mature consciousness development. Writes Wilber:

“This ‘subject permanence’ is a constant state of witnessing carried unbroken through waking, dream, and deep sleep states, a constancy which . . . is prerequisite and mandatory to full realization of nondual Suchness (and a constancy which is unmistakable, self-referential, postrepresentational, nondual, self-validating, self-existing, and self-liberating.)”

Yoga, of course, begins where we are. It begins with a compassionate awareness and acceptance of the limited, neurotic, conditioned, alienated aspect of ourselves. The inner witness is necessarily non-judgmental, compassionate and often quite humorous. It is the not the cold detachment which is actually a defensive retreat from our more difficult thoughts and feelings. It is an awareness which can liberate us from our “mind-forged manacles,” to quote William Blake. It is the Divine Presence within us.