“There are three states of awareness that make up our human experience of consciousness.  Life is really so funny. We can go around the whole universe and explore but that which is closest to us we take it so much for granted.  We should spend a little time on the awareness issue and how it is really a miniaturized version of the universe itself and get to know ourselves. The three states of consciousness are the ‘awakened state’, the ‘dream state’, and the ‘deep sleep state’. I will expand on each…

Awakened state… You open your eyes in the morning. The five senses begin to function.  All around you, you see beautiful and not so beautiful things. You hear lovely sounds of birds chirping and not so lovely sounds. You touch things and people around you and feel pleasure or pain. You smell lovely foods and you taste them. The five senses help you gather the information of names and forms and your mind processes them as likable or not. And you desire. This desire turns into thoughts and action and attachment to possessions. This is your awakened world – .all senses are working the supercomputer called the mind. It retains, in its memory, everything you experience as good or bad.  You are capable of seeing yourself, too. How your body-mind functions.  Every time you say ‘I’, you are referring to that one witness who sees everything. If you look closely and observe, that ‘I’ is not the physical body or the mind.

Dream state.  In this state, you create a parallel universe without the use of the physical senses. The mind, however, is functional; you can, without depending on anything outside, create a world of your own, including your own body, and do all the things and more in your dream.  The dream world is very real to you as the dreamer. Here, too, there is an observer that observes the mind and it’s functioning. Obviously, you cannot be the mind because that, too, is in the realm of observation.  Fascinating things happen every night for rich or poor old or young sick or healthy; you are the Creator.

Deep Sleep or Causal State.  Here, all awareness stops.  Even the mind is in a deep state of silence.  You have no idea of the world outside or inside.  You are not aware of where you are. Yet, when you get up you say, ‘I slept deeply.’  How do you know? If you didn’t know you would not be able to say that.  Here, too, the witness observes.  It can observe what is and what is not. Open your eyes and once again you are back to the awakened world of things, forms and names outside…

There is one common witness: the real ‘I’, which is the observer of all these three states.  Check this out with awareness. The definition of ‘I’i will change. The first step is to be aware of this and to put a question mark on who you really are. This, the Vedas calls Atman or Brahman. One that is pure consciousness and an observer of everything but never the object of your experience. These levels of awareness give you a framework to look at your real Self. Don’t take my word for it. Check it out in your experience – only then can you take ownership of it.”