The Enigma of Deep Sleep – 2
The alternate model that postulates an inactive mind that does not disappear but stays in a potent seed form during deep sleep says that ‘the true awareness which you are’ sees “ignorance” during deep sleep. Hence, the model posits something different from deep sleep, turIya, as the Awareness. So the Non-dual teachers that stick to this model prod us to abide as turIya, beyond the three states of awake, dream and deep sleep.
In order to understand turIya, let us consider the following example. Various objects like the rocks and trees are visible to us during the day time because of the sunlight. We can see the same objects under the moonlight during the nights. Whether it is daytime or night time, the actual light comes from the Sun only. The moon does not shine any light of her own; she reflects the sunlight. Thus, whether it is daytime or night, the illuminating power (and thus showing the objects to us) lies only with the Sun, though the Sun is not present all the twenty four hours. The Non-dualists who teach the turIya model suggest that like the Sun illuminating the wakeful world giving us a knowledge of the various objects during the day is also the illuminating agent in the night, turIya (the True Awareness) is the illuminating agent giving us the capacity to ‘know’ things during the three states of awake, dream and deep sleep. Figuratively, it is, therefore, described as the fourth, after the three states.
We must note, though, that turIya cannot strictly be called a state. By definition, a ‘state’ is a passing phase, which sort of comes and goes. But turIya is ever there illuminating all the three states – awake, dream and deep sleep. turIya never disappears and hence is eternally in the background like the Sun being in the background all the 24 hrs whether it is daylight or the moonlight.
The Non-dualists who do not see a need for a separate fourth entity called turIya, give us a different reasoning to explain how the deep sleep is in and by itself the true Awareness that we are without any other ‘ignorance’ being present there. They hold that because we assume ‘ignorance’ to be present in the deep sleep state, we are forced to invent a fourth entity, namely, turIya, as the true illuminating agency. Because advaita gives scope for no second ‘thing’ to be present in any form at any time, whatever all that exists has to be the One and the only thing. Hence, they argue that to propose ‘ignorance’ as a distinct entity is in itself speaks of ignorance! They provide us an excellent modern day metaphor to explain how deep sleep is our true Self.
The new metaphor goes like this:
Let’s take the example of a computer screen. In its initial position, there are no documents or images or other data on it. Only the bare screen is visible. Now let us say, a movie is played on the computer and there is a landscape that comes into view with distinct hills, valleys, water streams, plants and flowers etc. When we see these different items on the screen, we do not pay attention anymore to the presence of the screen, though screen is present in the background within, in between and around these various objects in the landscape.
If you examine carefully, even when you are noticing the hills, valleys etc., you are actually noticing the screen only. The screen is not absent where these objects are present. The screen itself is taking the appearance of a hill or a plant or a flower at that specific pixel position. The objects on the screen may be changing from place to place or from time to time on the screen, but the screen remains the same unalteringly forever as it is. If you imagine the screen to have sentiency (awareness), the screen is seeing itself anywhere and everywhere and it sees no object (a hill or tree or water) to be separate from itself. As far as the screen is concerned, there is only itself and nothing else, though it may take sometimes the appearance of one or the other object. There are different objects in existence only from the point of view of an object and not from the point of view of the screen.
The awake state is similar to the computer screen on which a landscape of multiple objects has manifested. The dream state is akin to the manifestation happening along the dimension of time in a placeless space. The deep sleep is just the presence of the screen without any objects – there is screen only and no other thing to see or to be seen. The Awareness knows and exists as Itself, there being nothing else to be known. There is no more an ‘object point of view’ during the deep sleep, comparable to a view being taken by the mind in the awake state. Mind acts like a separate object on the screen during the awake state, and hence it shows other objects to be in existence from its own perspective.
The computer screen metaphor we described above is a parsimonious model (if you are familiar with Occam’s razor). It is preferable because we eliminate the need of brining in two extra terms, ignorance and turIya. One may say that as per this model, turIya and Awareness as deep sleep are equivalents. Further, the turIya model gives the feeling as if ‘You’, as Awareness, pass through the three different worlds (awake, dream and deep sleep). The computer screen model shows that the three states are merely the modulations of one and the same ‘You’ as Awareness.
In the light of the above understanding, let us now revert to the aspect of “re-cognition” we discussed towards the end of the first part.
Recognition comes in two flavors. One is the recognition that all of us are familiar with in our daily living – like recognizing things we have learnt through our experience and stored in the memory. It could be simply our name or our more complex professional knowledge or expertise. But there is another type of re-cognition that all of us know but cannot define it. There are several such things in nature. We can recognize when we see them and know them immediately. But we find it extremely difficult to put in precise words what that is. For example, we can easily (at least for most of the time) recognize a living thing and differentiate it from a non-living thing. But can we define what ‘life’ itself is, if asked to? “Re-cognition” (pratyabhijna) is one of those things that we cannot verbalize. One reason for this inadequacy of the language could be that these issues are far far prior to the mind which invented the language as a medium of communication. Or they could belong to the realms which are beyond the mind’s capability to conceptualize. A full discussion of the reasons is not our concern here. So we shall resort to the technique of giving a “feel” of what re-cognition is through a story that is very commonly narrated.
Suppose a lion’s cub had gone astray soon after his birth and was cared for and brought up along with a flock of sheep. His habits and pattern of living closely followed that of the sheep and his cry also resembled the bleat of a sheep. He was in total oblivion about the life of a lion and never considered himself to be different from the other fellow creatures. As the cub grew up and began to wander all by himself, he chanced to hear the roar of a lion. Immediately something happens. He recognizes the roar and he begins to identify himself with the roar as though it is a ‘known’ thing. This is the re-cognition which we are talking about as the second type (i.e. other than the ‘recognition’ that comes from our stored knowledge). It is spontaneous and immediate. It is not an acquired or learned trait. It is intrinsic and natural to the cub. It is such a quality that the ‘quality’ itself is identical to what it is – like the ‘saltiness’ of salt or the ‘cowness’ of a cow.
Now that we know the two types of “re-cognition”, we have to examine very minutely which type of re-cognition we are referring to when we say that “I recognize to be the same person that wakes up from deep sleep as the one who went to sleep.” We have to also bear in mind who is this “I” that is making the statement.
(To Continue…)
