THE STAGES OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND VEDANTA

THE ANCIENTS ABOUT MEDITATION

 

Ancient books have left us a real treasure to read, think, practice. The Vedanta science explained the stages of consciousness for many hundreds of years before we began to meditate and practice Yoga.

Vijnana Bhairava Tantra is an old text on the knowledge of mind and spirit. It teaches 112 different meditation techniques that are referred to as dharana or concentration. Osho described these techniques very simply, but also extensively in The Book of Secrets.

The way of living and loving, breathing, thinking and acting in the way of Tantra science, leads (can lead) to the ultimate state of consciousness. That ultimate, last state of consciousness can only be reached with a well-prepared heart, body and focus of mind. Unfortunately, this very noble state cannot be reached by shortcuts. The ultimate state of consciousness is not a story or a comment. It is really the last state of consciousness.

A short note: the lines of this complete book-web site speak of stairs. If you put effort and love into reading and decoding, you’ll find plenty of answers and inspiration in between the lines.

Stages of Consciousness

 

According to Vedanta the stages of consciousness are:

1. deep sleep

2. dreaming (REM phase)

3. waking state, which are all the common states for each mind

4. opening of the soul, a soul consciousnes, or when a person in his quietest testimony becomes an observer guided not by thought but by intuition. This stage is a deep state of pure sincerity towards oneself, and thus towards everything and everyone.

5. cosmic, universal consciousness, or when a person recognizes that his soul pervades all states and all forms of his existence and everything else. In this state, man is immune to stress and his quiet and peaceful tranquility is the true food for all people and the whole environment.

6. divine consciousness, or witnessing the reflexion of the Divine.

7. unified consciousness (merging the individual with the universal soul in full harmony with the laws of nature).

 

How you experience the world depends on the state of your consciousness.

 

This is how Yoga, which is the practice of Tantra, takes us through the three basic stages of consciousness, the waking state (jagrat), the dreaming state (swapna) and the sleeping state (sushupti) to the fourth state of turiya  which, according to Patanjali’s Yoga, is the end and a new beginning.

Meditation in Sankhya Philosophy

 

Sankhya is one of the six classical schools of Indian philosophy or vision (darshanas). It defines meditation as a tool that unites two principles.

Yoga Sutra is a text based on Sankhya philosophy.

Yoga Sutra 3.2:

„Meditation is the continuous and unbroken flow of perception (thought, idea, belief) in the direction of the object of concentration.“

Katha Upanishad deals with the study of all possible mysteries.

Verse 2.3.10:

„When the five senses cease and are at rest, and the mind rests with them, and the higher mind ceases from its workings, that is the highest state, say thinkers“

Bhagavad Gita 6.5:

„A man should uplift himself by his own self, so let him not weaken this self. For this self is the friend of oneself, and this self is the enemy of oneself.“

(Translations by Swami Swarupananda)

There are no shortcuts in life and that a human being cannot realize himself with an unrefined heart. That is, he must firstly refine his habits, convictions and change the direction of his egoism. How long the path of the heart tells the next verse. And where and how one should begin this path you can start reading from the page Becoming a Whole onwards.

Bhagavad Gita 6.3:

„For the man of meditation wishing to attain purification of heart leading to concentration, work is said to be the way: for him, when he has attained such (concentration), inaction is said to be the way.“

Bhagavad Gita 6.7-8:

„To the self-controlled and serene, the Supreme Self is, the object of constant, realization, in cold and heat, pleasure and pain, as well as in honor and dishonor.
Whose heart is filled with satisfaction by wisdom and realization, and is changeless, whose senses are conquered, and to whom a lump of earth, stone, and gold are the same: that Yogi is called steadfast.“

The man who rules his self-control is led by the Soul of the Universe.

This opportunity is given to every living human being upon his arrival on Earth and that same Soul is available to everyone.

But only when the little mind transcends its low nature and when it transforms into a spirit that rules self-control, this same Soul of the Cosmos can be experienced.

Yogi is a “mystical” person, that is, whom the ordinary world cannot understand even if it wishes to understand him. Yogi is steadfast in his self-control and the material world is of no importance to him.

Raja Yogis are exactly those kings. And this is why literary knowledge has no use for the Supreme Truth.

 

So much the Ancients knew about Meditation and so Vedanta knows the stages of consciousness.

stanja svesti vedanta stages of consciousness